Nova Gallery 2016: Asexual Adoration
“Every sign, linguistic or nonlinguistic, spoken or written (in the usual sense of this opposition), as a small or large unity, can be cited, put between quotation marks; thereby it can break with every given context, and engender infinitely new contexts in an absolutely non-saturable fashion. This does not suppose that the mark is valid outside its context, but on the contrary that there are only contexts without any center of absolute anchoring. This citationality, duplication, or duplicity, this iterability of the mark is not an accident or anomaly, but is that (normal/abnormal) without which a mark could no longer even have a so-called “normal” functioning. What would a mark be that one could not cite? And whose origin could not be lost on the way?”
- Jacques Derrida
“Sedona” 65 x 85 cm
Artist Statement:
Every word, despite having its own supposed concrete definition, always has the tendency to acquire an entirely new subliminal message that a singular person, or a whole public would willingly or unwillingly, impose upon it over time. With this particular knowledge in mind, when it comes to the limitations of the human language, the word I would like to primarily focus on during this exhibition, is that of “Nudity”.
Frustration, would I would use to describe whenever I witness a man or woman reduce the beauty of the human anatomy to that of the “male gaze”. The hypocritical, conservative attitude I have been an audience to within the Philippines, is one that I would like to offer a different perception to. If man and woman has already distorted the word Nudity to automatically make an explicit tie with the word Lust, then what I hope to achieve is to perhaps challenge the viewer, the appreciator, to deconstruct their interpretation of the word “Nude” and simply turn it into something to witness, behold, cherish, love, appreciate, and respect. To give them the realisation that the perversion they translate within their own minds from the image at hand is more self-inflicted rather than what is originally presented within my art.
“Cerce”
40 x 65 cm
Art has always been a medium used to communicate with oneself and/or a public, whether it be ones own personal emotions, political views, agendas, and more. Now this message, that “Nudity is not sexual”, has become mine to present to you. I’m hoping that be exemplifying the beauty of a woman’s bodies in particular is due to the fact that I am a woman myself, and through history have experienced numerous and countless times the feeling of being sexualized, judged, and objectified simply, from how much skin I decide to reveal, rather than having it being witnessed as something pleasing, something empowering, or even just something completely indifferent or nonchalant.
Perhaps with how humanity is evolving at such an alarming rate in this Age of Information, it should be time to look back and re-adjust our viewpoints and understanding of what was implemented and forced upon us by ancestors who could have never have dreamed of a world so liberal as it is now.
“Mohave”
79 x 65 cm
Innocence is not reserved for the young, but is accessible to whomever you decide to implement the grace of it too, and personally, there is nothing more raw, and innocent that the vulnerability of ones exposed flesh. After all, it was only after Adam and Eve clothed themselves did we realise something was wrong.
“Moselle” 65 x 79 cm
