Kálon July 17, 2021
Cru Camara Denver Garza Alexandria Mesias Sam Domingo Jan Sunday Bel Weber Bryan Pollero Maricar Tolentino Regina Reyes Martin Yambao FAKE zine
Kálon:
More Than Skin-Deep Written by Alexandra Villaluz and Joana Rigor of Sulong! There is a profound sense of tranquility in feeling heard, in feeling seen. There is always a lot more to a person than what meets the eye, countless thoughts and emotions that run deeper than anyone could imagine. There are struggles that are not always seen, but do not need to be made obvious to be valid. In order to capture and express these sentiments, FAKE zine reached out to Sulong!, Cartellino, and Parcel Exhibitions last May to organize an exhibition as a fundraiser for Sulong! and the culminating event for FAKE zine’s first anniversary. Kalon: More Than Skin-Deep features eleven remarkable artists and their exceptional artworks, all gearing towards providing a voice for themselves and the unheard, and telling stories that need to be told. Cru Camara, Sam Domingo, Denver Garza, Alexandria Mesias, Bryan Pollero, Regina Reyes, Jan Sunday, Maricar Tolentino, Bel Weber, Martin Yambao, and FAKE zine portray emotions of grief, anguish, anger, power, and tenacity as a gesture of reclaiming stifled voices and narratives, empowering victim-survivors through their art.
Visit Cartellino.com Head on over to Cartellino's site if you'd like to purchase works featured in this Parcel Exhibition. There are also more works under Kálon featured on the site. The proceeds will be donated to Sulong! Philippines.
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You may also donate to the Survivors Solidarity Fund
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Sulong! Philippines is a non-profit and non-governmental youth organization that refers victim-survivors of sexual violence and harassment to free legal advice, psychological aid, and other services, and advocates for the eradication of gender-based violence and the emancipation of women and LGBTQ+ people in the Philippines and world. We want to keep serving our constituency for free, but this is only possible with your help as we ask to solicit solidarity funds, so that victim-survivors don’t have to pay for necessary services. Nobody should have to shy away from legal and psychological aid merely because they can’t afford it. This is the essence of our donations-based Survivors Solidarity Fund. The Survivors Solidarity Fund is how we keep our legal and psychosocial relief services free for victim-survivors of sexual violence. This donation-based fund finances our operations, helps us organize schools and communities, and compensates our volunteer legal and mental health professionals.
About the organizers: FAKE zine is a multi-disciplinary collaborative art zine project which aims to celebrate local independent creativity. Social media handles: FAKE zine : @thefakezine on IG/YT/TW/FB FAKE store: @thefakezine.shop (IG)
Sulong! Philippines is a youth- and volunteer-run organization that provides legal aid, psychosocial consultations, and other services to victim-survivors of sexual violence, free of charge. Requests for sessions are made through: bit.ly/SulongRequestForm. The sessions are paid for through Sulong’s fundraisers and through the Survivor’s Solidarity Fund: bit.ly/SurvivorsSolidarity Fund. Social media handles: FB: https://www.facebook.com/sulongphilippines IG: https://www.instagram.com/sulongphilippines/ TWT: https://twitter.com/sulong_ph
Parcel Exhibitions is a portable exhibition modality developed in response to the arts immobility caused by the pandemic lockdowns. It seeks to explore various approaches in creating connections and traversing the distances that separate artists and viewers, wherein the viewer is an activator of the exhibition. Social media handles: IG: @parcelexhibitions Website: https://parcelexhibitions.wixsite.com/parcelexhibitions FB: https://www.facebook.com/parcelexhibitions
Cartellino is a platform for emerging artists, art enthusiasts, and collectors, creating opportunities where these connections allow. Both art digest and shop, Cartellino aspires to be both a key supporter of the visual arts culture and its most reliable informant. In short: “a way in” to Asian contemporary art. Social media handles: FB: https://www.facebook.com/cartellino.art IG: @cartellino.art Website: https://cartellino.com/
1. FAKE zine @thefakezine Titled 25 x 7.7 x 16inches (tote) 12 inches (diameter of basahan) 10.2 inches (diameter of basahan) Textile 2021 Issue 00: Gangs of Manila (Basura Girls Cover) 148 x 210 millimeters 40-paged zine (Digital Print) 2020 2. Sulong! Philippines @sulongphilippines Still Here 148 x 210 millimeters Medium: 52-paged zine (Digital Print) 2021
3. Denver Garza @slowtear Someday 40 cm x 75 cm sequins, bells and glass beads on cotton and polyester fabric painted with heatset acrylic fabric painting medium 2021 4. Bryan Pollero @brynn_sp exposing a cursed field 55 x 78 in Thread on bed sheet 2021 5. Jan Sunday @jansunday_pq Godly Size variable Textile assemblage on ski mask 2021 6. Regina Reyes @_reyesregina Letters from the lost days (Bra and panty) Size variable Thread on fabric, steel pins, GI wire 2021
7. Maricar Tolentino @maricarp.t bawal kang pumasok dito 17 x 12.5 in embroidery on fabric 2021 8. Alexandria Mesias @winifxred Room #2 5 x 5 x 5 in (Assembled) 13 x 19 in (Unfolded, uncut) Print, foldable dollhouse 2021 9. Sam Domingo @samdmngo in my mind, i am clean and pure, but it’s been tiring 16 x 16 x 6 in (unfurled), 8 x 5.5 x 13 in (folded) Fiber net with fabric rags, wool and metal chain 2021 10. Bel Weber @wibblewebble Goodnight Mahal Size Variable Mixed media 2021 11. Martin Yambao @martinyambao Memories are the only evidence / 2017 6 x 7 x 2.6 in Video box 2021 12. Cru Camara @crucamara Fog 8 x 12 in Archival Print Edition: 1/5 2021 Hand Spring 8 x 12 in Archival Print Edition: 1/10 2017 Don't forget to tag @parcelexhibitions & @cartellino.art too!
Released in 2020, this is FAKE zine’s first-ever issue 00. It’s a zine which explores the diverse scenes of Manila through its four covers: Basura Girls, Idioterne Inc., A-team Femme and Black Beach Boys. It comes in three ways: B&W, Coloured, and Magazine. For the “Kalon” show we have the Basura Girls (Genre-and-gender bending art collective Isola Tong, Tyang Karyel and Jellyfishkisses) cover in Magazine.
Issue 00: Gangs of Manila (Basura Girls Cover) 148 x 210 millimeters 40-paged zine (Digital Print) 2020
Published by FAKE zine especially for this show “Kalon”, this zine by Sulong! is a collection of poems, letters, stories, drawings and other forms of creative and literary expression by survivors, for survivors of sexual assault.
Still Here 148 x 210 millimeters Medium: 52-paged zine (Digital Print) 2021
e n i z E K d A F itle T
Titled 25 x 7.7 x 16inches (tote) 12 inches (diameter of basahan) 10.2 inches (diameter of basahan) Textile 2021
One out of three sets, Titled consists of a reworked FAKE embroidered tote and upcycled rags of pieces originally named “Untitled” from a previous capsule collection released as a collaboration under FAKE zine. These pieces are a reclamation of a collection that brought us pain and despair, and prompted us to organize Kalón.
Denver Garza Someday
Someday; 40 cm x 75 cm sequins, bells and glass beads on cotton and polyester fabric painted with heat-set acrylic fabric painting medium 2021
The work explores guilt and shame that is held by someone, with the hope of one day losing its power through verbalization, processing those feelings with trust, love and empathy from someone able to do so.
Bryan Pollero
exposing a cursed field
My work is about childhood sexual abuse unbosomed through making a big-letter banner. Through making a banner, I am exposing a memory about being abused when I was a child. The banner is a used floral bed sheet embroidered with pink waxed thread. The bed sheet signifies being a witness of me idling, daydreaming, and fantasizing. It is also an object that is always present in sexual activities. To make the text of the banner, I used embroidery as it shows loops reflecting the memory that is on loop ever since I was five. Spending my time embroidering these letters was also a conversation with my childhood self, going through different directions shown through the gesture of sewing. Combining these elements, it forms a field-like appearance representing my mind as a landscape— a cursed field wishing to be dispelled.
exposing a cursed field 55 x 78 in Thread on bed sheet 2021
Jan Sunday Godly
Take this mask as an unmasking. A reveal.
In the effort of finding beauty, especially with myself, I found the grit and grime instead. "My abuser served the church during the years he was abusing me." For the longest time I thought of beauty as something Immaculate, pure and divine like the supreme female archetype in Christianity that is Mary. The question lingers. How can damaged goods, like myself, come close to the divine?
It happened by chance that I came upon framed Christian tapestries of Mary and other female saints on the racks beside the most random of kitschy party giveaways at a Chinese discount shop in Cubao. The jacquard was similar to the pillow cases and upholstery we had at our home. I recalled the moment when I was enjoying the domesticity of laundry that I saw the reverse side of the tapestry resembling film negatives but of threads. The tangled fibers and distorted colors became essential in conjuring the beauty of the image on the front. Take this mask as an unmasking. A reveal.
Godly Size variable Textile assemblage on ski mask 2021
Regina Reyes Letters from the lost days
Self-love entails all the difficult things. It entails choosing to protect and listen to yourself; it entails holding your own hand before anyone else’s.
I chose these pieces from my personal belongings that I use to wrap and dress myself with. These are universal pieces that anyone has, serving the same purpose they do for me. Undergarments, a daster dress, a scarf, and a pillowcase for sleeping. For me, these are some of the most basic pieces we own, yet we feel most vulnerable without them. I embroidered them with notes I’ve written to myself over the years that serve as reminders to my future self, as well as a quote from Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, sewn on a pillowcase that well, lives inside one’s room.
Letters from the lost days (Bra and panty) Size variable Thread on fabric, steel pins, GI wire 2021
Maricar Tolentino
bawal kang pumasok dito
My work depicts my room, a personal space that I have the power over who are allowed to enter. The scene consists of an untidy bed, myself dressing and undressing.
bawal kang pumasok dito 17 x 12.5 in embroidery on fabric 2021
Alexandria Mesias Room #2
This piece is a paper dollhouse room modelled after the bathroom of my childhood home. I am very particular about bathrooms, it is a safe space where I could wash myself clean, and be alone with myself and be at peace with my ghosts, but the piece also documents the repetitive, obsessive act of cleaning after a traumatic experience. The piece is an exploration of intimacy between inhabitant and space.
Room #2 5 x 5 x 5 in (Assembled) 13 x 19 in (Uncut, unfolded) Print, foldable dollhouse 2021
Sam Domingo in my mind, i am clean and pure, but it’s been tiring
This piece of mixed media describes the purging of memories that I did in my mind to cope with my undesirable past. Through an inevitable repression and forced suppression from others, I made myself believe that I am clean and pure even after the incident. Although beneficial for me at some point, this coping process had become heavier as I started to make sense of my past. Eventually, I learned how to reconcile with my memories that led me, as a woman, to accept that my dignity was always clean and never stained. I then blossomed, I believe, like a flower.
in my mind, i am clean and pure, but it’s been tiring 16 x 16 x 6 in (unfurled), 8 x 5.5 x 13 in (folded) Fiber net with fabric rags, wool and metal chain 2021
Bel Weber
Goodnight, Mahal
My piece is the unboxing of a name-less, design-less container and the assemblage of mixed, fragmented memories and feelings of and that come from being betrayed by someone loved and trusted with one’s most vulnerable state of sleep. These are represented by objects such as sheep toys, tiny hands, google eyes, stickers, and a photo with the subject removed; all of which are innocent in nature but hold conflicting ideas of hopefulness, ownership, and despair. There is no culmination or permanence but a sense of making do with the pieces. Arranging and rearranging.
You have in your hands, me pieces of my past, present, and hopes for the future. Place, arrange, and rearrange in any way that feels right for you. May it be done with care and gentle intention.
Martin Yambao Memories are the only evidence / 2017
Memories are the only evidence / 2017 is a work about current situation of how justice for sexual abuse works if there is no tangible evidence. We couldn't enunciate it through their language so we used ours. Art. A partial justice to raise awareness to encourage other victims to not be afraid of their perpetrators.
Memories are the only evidence / 2017 5 x 6 x 3.6 in Video screen inside a found keepsake box and storage bag with QR code and credits 2021
Cru Camara Hand Spring
Hand Spring 8 x 12 in Photographic Print on Luster Paper Edition: 1/10 2017
This portrait is about withdrawal and losing sight after trauma.
Fog
Fog 8 x 12 in Photographic Print on Luster Paper Edition: 1/5 2021
Thank you for participating in Kálon's Parcel Exhibition!