I've been gone a very long time being wrapped up in the final moments of my thesis and final year at OCAD with Grad-ex and in no time at all embarking on a month long family vacation to the Philippines! Ideally I would have wanted to blog in my downtime but it turns out there isn't a lot of down time and there isn't a lot of wifi here!
Currently still in the city of Manila, I'm typing away about a group show my friends and I (me,barely, because I am here so bless them) put on together almost a week ago in Toronto. It's sort of a behind-the-scenes or accompany show to our Grad-ex at OCAD, but this was coordinated without our school affiliation. The opening night took at 26 Augusta ave (home of 156 Studio Project Space) on May 22nd at 7pm. It consists of: Aliya Ghare, Caerina Abrenica, Elise Conlin, Janine Kwok, Jinke Wang, Molly Graham, Rohan Adel, Sabrina Tu, Shevon Lewis and myself!
We first got ear of a the space through a friend-of-a-friend type of connection and occurrence. As soon as things were tangible the gallery show started to manifest at the contribution and efforts of Wandy Cheng and Sabrina Tu (who are both dear to my heart!!). We thought it would be fun to do a following show, especially since thesis was so much work besides the final that people only get to usually see, and circled around a workspace and build-up. For someone who had to prepare for the show (bless Wandy for printing out my material I sent over from overseas) abroad, a show consisting of work we already have made it more fun and focus on how to make it homey and fun.
But that being said, the challenge for me was that llots of the things I wanted to show were in my little nook in Toronto. And I was always nervous that I wouldn't have wifi to send things over unless I booked it somewhere somehow from the province/rural area of the Philippines I was staying at during the time of show prep. While I couldn't be more hands-on or more in depth as I wanted to be, I think it worked out alright.
photo by Wandy Cheng
A big shout out again to Wandy and Sabrina, powerhouse queens of getting things done. Also thanks to "Mike" of 156 Studio Projects for the space. Valerie Poon took photos and the credit for them are all hers--her work can be found here. I'm looking forward to putting on more shows in general with amazing people!
I'm there in spirit, I hope someone photoshops me in or something