Passage
28 Sep - 29 Sep 2019
Pin Calacal
Pin Calacal | Passage
Xavier (xICA) Art Fest - Solo Presentation
28 – 29 September 2019
Passage is an elaboration of Gather, her recent solo exhibition at Tin-aw Art Gallery last April 2019. Gather was anchored on the phrase “to shed”; to shed oneself, sort of a side effect honed into a skill, a constant metamorphosis taught by the experience of constantly having to deal with a physical sickness – the waning and return of control over one’s own body. To flesh this out, Calacal used clothing and hair as metaphors. These serve as bridges to what the solo presentation is primarily about as well: home.
Pin Calacal continues to redefine home as something that is shed, an alternative to the definition of a home as a constant and enduring refuge, something to go back to. The home, of course, remains integral to the formation of one’s identity and even to family life.
Along with clothing and hair, she uses nests (specifically those of the common house sparrows),nest-building, and nesting as metaphors. The nest is an archetype for a home, but many peope do not seem to notice that nests are built every mating season, and sometimes even in multiples. Some nests are used, while some are not, which could be decoys. Some nests are feathered or embellished then discarded; they are just props for the birds’ elaborate courtship ritual. Empty yet used ones suggest different scenarios: a predator has caught its prey; the nestling has fallen out of its cradle; or, in a more positive note, the fledgling has finally flown off. Note, however, that though birds return to the same site, they do not use the same nest. They move on; they keep moving forward.
Impossible to avoid, Calacal also skims through issues within the realms of the domestic and feminine, of the experience of having flown the coop and having to continuously do so.
For the artist, it seems that the image of the home and body – and maybe even the self – constantly change, and maybe necessarily so. Putting together images of different discarded objects, found objects, clothing and other materials present her current environment and relatively new home, the possible variations seem endless.