Void
2022 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
10:34 minutes (looped)
Joshua Serafin
Through the language of dance and choreography, Void by Joshua Serafin narrates the creation of a new God, the birth of a futuristic deity. Serafin’s research into the making of this dance video is centered around creation myth stories of pre-colonial animistic religions from the Philippines, which were suppressed by the Spanish imposition of Catholicism. Through movement, the materiality of his bodily presence on the screen, and the accompanying sci-fi soundtrack, this work proposes the foundation of a queer mythology; the nascent moment of a ‘queer spiritual force’ coming out of an apocalyptic era, perhaps our current one, that has arrived to refund a new kind of humanity. Void, this speculative new God, appears on earth to live in the mortal world to better understand what it means to be a god of a new time. In the words of the artist, the impetus for creating this work is to decolonize the self and to question heteronormative ideologies that were implemented in the Philippines and across the world by the west through religion. It takes as a starting point the Filipino pre-colonial identity which is fluid and doesn’t conform to binary representation, as is the case in many other pre-colonial societies. The main inspiration of this work is referencing spiritual backgrounds in Philippine society, and pre-colonial gender belief systems passed down through generational oral knowledge.
Joshua Serafin is trained in dance in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Brussels. Their works deal with questions about identity, transmigration, queer politics and representation, states of being, and ways of inhabiting the body. Their cosmology of works create new forms of rituals, and embodiment, based on queer ecologies. Serafin’s work as choreographer and dancer have been recently internationally acclaimed as they actively show and tour their work across the contemporary art scenes of Europe, and in festivals in East-Asia. Whether performing on stage, inside the museum, or through video and photography, Serafin’s artistic process is an intense sociological exorcism to Filipino identity; unpacking the historical violence of its feudal contemporary society and its dehumanising normality.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Wong Wai Yin
2021Drawn from the widely circulated images of protests around the world in support of women rights and racial equality, the phrase I can’t believe we are still protesting is both the title of Wong Wai Yin’s photographic series and a reference to similar messages seen on protest signages...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Singapore (30 July - 5 August 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Singapore July 30, 2018 How To Be Happy (again) by Ethos Books 5 Aug 2018 As part of Esplanade’s Spoken Word Sunday series, How To Be Happy (again) will start the series off this sunday! It will be an evening of rhyme and rhythm filled with words exploring happiness and the notion of a greater good...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Kimbell Art Museum acquires important cultural touchstone of Olmec art Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Museums & Heritage news Kimbell Art Museum acquires important cultural touchstone of Olmec art The jade statuette of an Olmec ruler holding a baby were-jaguar will be exhibited as the centrepiece of the Texas museum's ancient American collection Theo Belci 14 December 2023 Share Standing Figure Holding a Were-Jaguar Baby (around 900BC-300BC) Photo: Justin Kerr., courtesy of the Justin Kerr Maya archive, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired Standing Figure Holding a Were-Jaguar Baby (around 900BC-300BC), a jade statuette at the centre of Olmec civilisation studies since the mid-20th century...
© » TWOCOATSOFPAINT
Colin Brant’s communion with the inconstant – Two Coats of Paint Colin Brant, Lake Louise / Poppies, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 inches Contributed by Natasha Sweeten / You might consider the title of Colin Brant’s quietly inspiring exhibition “Mountains Like Rivers,” currently on view at Platform Project Space, an invitation to a world flipped on its end: what’s inherently solid becomes liquid, what’s up is now down...
© » KADIST
Things Entangling Edited by Che Kyongfa and Elodie Royer Designed by Toshimasa Kimura Published by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) and KADIST The publication is available in pdf — see links on the right side of this page Things Entangling was published on the occasion of the eponymous collective exhibition presented at MOT, Tokyo from June 9 to September 27, 2020, the culmination of a long-term curatorial collaboration between MOT and KADIST...
© » FLASH ART
Coco Fusco "Tomorrow, I will become an Island" KW Institute of Contemporary Art / Berlin | | Flash Art Flash Art uses cookies strictly necessary for the proper functioning of the website, for its legitimate interest to enhance your online experience and to enable or facilitate communication by electronic means...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Protests over Marcos-sponsored play; the Spaniard in Singapore films | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar The Star/Azhar Mahfof September 11, 2019 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
© » KADIST
Pratchaya Phinthong
2022Pratchaya Phinthong’s work has explored the mineral and karmic economies of Laos, a country that shares language, beliefs, and a long border with his own native region of Isaan (Northeast Thailand)...
© » GALERIE MAGAZINE
9 Must-See Artworks at Art Basel Miami Beach - Galerie Subscribe Art + Culture Interiors Style + Design Emerging Artists Discoveries Artist Guide More Creative Minds Life Imitates Art Real estate Events Video Galerie House of Art and Design Subscribe About Press Advertising Contact Us Follow Galerie Sign up to receive our newsletter Subscribe Art Basel Miami Beach...
© » KADIST
Laurent Montaron
2006This film refers directly and fictionally to one of the first media dramas: the burning of the Zeppelin aircraft LZ 129 Hindenburg as it landed in New York in 1937...
© » KADIST
Dread Scott
2022In conjunction with his first NFT sale of White Male Dread Scott made and circulated a poster titled Whites For Sale ...
© » KADIST
Lynn Hershman Leeson
2017Using the seminal 1958 film Vertigo as a launchpad, Lynn Hershman Leeson explores the blurred lines between fact and fantasy in VertiGhost , a film commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco...
© » KADIST
Tirdad Hashemi
2022This untitled painting by Tirdad Hasemi presents a space that can be thought of as both a prison cell and a house...
© » KADIST
Felipe Dulzaides
2006I Am Cuba— “Soy Cuba” in Spanish; “Ya Kuba” in Russian—is a Soviet/Cuban film produced in 1964 by director Mikhail Kalatozov at Mosfilm...