Chapter 36: Curatorial label for Marigold Santos

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Chapter 36, curatorial label for Mary Gold Santos. This chapter is the text written by curator Alice Mingy. Jim, it is two minutes long. Speaker 1 00:00:11 Alice writes, Mary Gold's thrive in the arid climates of Mary Gold Santo's desert landscape paintings, one of which appears in the background of her studio, depicted in the ink drawing shroud arid interior one. The scene also affords us a glimpse of the artist's take on the Aswan, a traditionally terrifying shapeshifting creature of Filipino folklore, multiple configurations of this powerful amorphous being, popul Santo's, drawings and ceramics. Her reimagine Aswan figures appear in numerous poses and positions. They're shrouds at time made of thick, dark masses, mystical woven textiles of braided voluminous hair, or exchanged for large brim veiled hats of different styles. The Aswan mythology arose from the Babylon pillars of society as shamans and healers in pre-colonial Philippines, whose meaning and purpose were inverted by the Spanish colonizers. Reconfigured again, Santo's. Asph figure is hybrid and state and status negotiating strata and longing becoming land. These are not uncommon preoccupations today during eras of migration and diaspora Asra. The blemishes are ink spots or perhaps stry or scars. All over their bodies are more than skin deep. They tell stories, the narratives that make a life legible to oneself and to others. A form of permanent body adornment. Tattooing was a prevalent culture. Practice passed down at all ethnic groups of the Philippine Islands before they were colonized in the 16th century. Super enlarged tattoo motifs of the artist design monumentalize this living art form as a cutaneous archive of ancestral knowledge that Filipinos are reviving today as a vibrant decolonial practice. Speaker 0 00:01:58 Please move to the next stop, turn, right and follow the path for four meters. Then turn right and continue for seven and a half meters. The drawing is on your left. This will be the last stop on the tour.