Homecoming
The Bakery
Vancouver, BC, Canada
August 2018
EXHIBITION RUN:
AUGUST 24, 2018 - SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 by appointment. contact@elmoshouse.org
OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY AUGUST 24, 2018, 7PM - 10PM
1 Isang Bulaklak, 2018
Nancy de Mayo
paper, cellophane - on repurposed pink cooler
2 Elmo’s Rocks, 2017
Larissa Tiggelers
acrylic on watercolour paper
3 a. One Moment, 2017
coral (from Elmo’s collection) encrusted w/ borax crystals
Kuh Del Rosario
b. To Hold, 2017
fabric encased cement w/ borax crystals, silica, sand, paint
Kuh Del Rosario
c. (untitled) coral
from the collection of Elmo F. Del Rosario
4. Rock Soup, 2017
rocks (from Elmo’s collection) set on cement base
Kuh Del Rosario
5. (untitled) half of ceramic bowl, enscribed base
from the estate of Mr. & Mrs. Patrocinio Del Rosario
6. Garden Sample, 2018
leaves from Elmo’s garden on wire hanger
7. (untitled) skull of pig, 2017
saved from the roast pig served at Elmo’s 40th day death
anniversary
8. (untitled) book & mosquito coils
book from Elmo’s library; a weeks’ supply of coils
9. (untitled) deconstructed textile, weaved and dyed
textiles deconstrcuted from Elmo’s shirts, pigmented from natural dyes
10. (untitled) ceramic ashtray
Malboro box shaped ashtray from Elmo’s collection
11. We are not the Same, 2017
driftwood, foam, sand, paint
Kuh Del Rosario
12. Elmo’s House Artist Cookbook, 2017
hand made recipes on wire hanger
Tséma Igharas, Elizabeth McLean, Andrea Forist, Pamela Angeles, Marc Standing,
Kuh Del Rosario, Sara Reedman, Nancy de Mayo, Larissa Tiggelers
13. Penthouse I & II
select Penthouse issues, case-bound from Elmo’s library
14. Unique Batan, 2017
video installation featuring talent from Batan
Karilynn Ming Ho
15. 1992
rocks from Elmo’s collection on painted carpet
16. (untitled) coconut shell and leaf
remnants from Elmo’s property
17. (untitled) badges from various events in Batan
Worn while judging competitions in town hung from plastic hanger
18. Year of the Rooster, 2017
unfired clay, acrylic - artifact from performance piece
Tséma Igharas
19. Philippine Love Songs by Pilita Corrales
record album from Elmo’s Collection
20. (untitled) mosquito swatter
plastic swatter in the image of a male caricature.
21. (untited) hand made paper, 2018
shredded estate documents, pigmented from Bignay fruit
22. GAG
select dirty/green comics and jokes, case-bound from Elmo’s library
Homecoming is the return from a place been, back to a place called home. Though the act of coming home is an ordinary enough expedition, the distance, time lost, rebuilding what once was or of creating something altogether new, are the details that make this particular homecoming distinct.
This exhibition is composed of materials accumulated from the work and life at Elmo’s House Artist Residency, during its first year of operation.
Along with a selection of artworks by artists-in-residence, are objects borrowed from the personal collection of the projects’ namesake. Also on view are artworks by Kuh Del Rosario, completed in the last year. This collection of objects are significant in telling the story of Elmo’s house, as it evolved from a private dwelling to a public space dedicated for artists to conduct research and art. Objects were chosen for their sensorial qualities, as well as artworks made in response to the particularities of the house and community in which the residency is situated.
Homecoming also serves as a visual component to Elmo’s House Artist Residency’s first issue of its annual review, of the same name. Homecoming, the publication, is set to launch during the opening reception. In celebration of the residency’s inaugural year, the first issue reflects on the previous year through artist features, photo essays, guest contributors and interviews.
Kuh Del Rosario, (b. 1980 Manila, Philippines,) is a Vancouver-based painter and sculptor as well as the founder and Residence Director of Elmo’s House Artist Residency, a contemporary art project and studio/live space for local and international artists. Del Rosario graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2003. In addition to painting, she sculpts and performs.
Del Rosario’s sculptures are gentle artifacts, remnants of a civilization sepia-tinted by childhood. Pastel-toned geometric shapes recur; they blend a mimicry of natural formations, like nodules of hardened geodes, with the angles of common Western construction materials. Walimang Tang, (2013,) a two pillared sculpture featured on her site and constructed from foam, acrylics, latex, plastics, and wood, could be the front doorway of a large house or its cinnamon slopes could be sandstone cliffs worn to undulations by the natural elements. The pieces meld nature with human habitation. The colours could be a memory of the brilliance that occurs in flora or part of a building softened by time, wind, sun, and rain. Objects are fossilized with layers of paint, then encrusted with broken glass. She becomes the agent of time and it a medium she manipulates. Outside of the techniques, the repetitions, and back-and-forths: the focal points of her work are the implications and narratives she creates via her acts of controlled weathering.
Del Rosario left the Philippines for Calgary, Alberta at the age of eight and returned eight years later, at the age of 16. Her childhood memories of Manila are textural images: rooms, colours, and streets. Memory is malleable and upon her reimmersion, she found the Philippines a different place, but was struck by the beauty of everything, particularly the visible hand of the maker personalizing homes and other structures. The DIY nature of the neighbourhood she returned to resonated with her, by showing the personality and ingenuity of the person who shaped that wall or repaired that roof. The builders share an inherent relationship with their materials, especially the reincarnations of recycled materials, like a vehicle tire which anchors a roof to keep it from flying off with the wind.
This inspired Del Rosario, who began to recognize and work with the narratives that become inherent in materials through their repeated use. Gravitating towards construction supplies, she distorts the narrative by reflecting on the traditional use of the material and recontextualizing it while referencing its original purpose. She began with a mixture of construction and found materials, but has narrowed her scope to reusing materials from her own spaces that are tied to her personal experiences. The work in Homecoming features sculptures inspired by and interacting with artifacts discovered in her ancestral home, inherited from her late father, Elmo, after which the residency is named. In addition, Homecoming displays pieces and remnants from the first year of resident artists at Elmo’s House.
Elmo’s House has been in Del Rosario’s family for generations, with rooms, floors, or additional buildings added by family members over the years. It’s the tallest building in the town of Batan, (taller, even, than the municipal building across the street!) Located within the province of Aklan in the Philippines, it flanks the central plaza with other houses built by the founding families. Her grandfather bought the land from extended family and constructed a two-story house in the 1960s. Her father added another two stories after his parent’s passing. The House is at the heart of the quiet fishing village, a short distance to secluded beaches and lush mountains. A multi-level six bedroom home, it offers residing artists two 2,500 square feet open-air floors designated as communal working areas and studios.
When Elmo’s House opened its gates for the inaugural art show, Pag-unawa¸ her relatives and the townsfolk were curious, because the house had never before been opened to the public. The most recent residing artist, Ashleigh Bartlett, finished her two-week residency with a show. She taught enthusiastic local kids an impromptu art class. Inspired by the local interest in participating, Del Rosario lined up the next show with a Batan fiesta in December. The exhibition will feature zines: accessible and tactile art that can be held, distributed, shared, and self-made. When someone visits the gallery, Elmo’s House will offer a trade: take one a zine from the exhibition and replace it with one of their own. It engages the community and holds space for people to tell their stories.
She wants zines by hyphenated Filipinos - or Filipinos who made their home elsewhere, like Filipino-Canadians - so, the local people can read the stories of Filipinos from other countries. Shared stories create understanding; life outside the Philippines has its own hardships that people there don’t experience, like racism. In addition, the hyphenated zine artists will be able to connect with their mother country without being there.
Elmo, the namesake of Elmo’s House Artist Residency and Del Rosario’s father, worked as a judge in the province of Aklan. A well-regarded figure in the community, he worked in Kalibo, the capital of Aklan, at the Kalibo Municipal Trial court, which serves the whole of the province. Del Rosario and he lived in different countries for most of her life, but he emphasized that the house would be hers and always home to return to. Opportunity for time with her father was always brief and Del Rosario struggled to make the most of it. She sought to understand him and their past. He said, Kuh, just observe. I know you, because I observe you and because we’re blood. The different cultural dances of communication left her frustrated and too aware of grasping at time’s slippery tail as it surged forward.
With time comes perspective. Del Rosario began to understand herself as an observer, like her father. Artists and judges observe the world and filter truths. Judges and curators make decisions. After her father’s passing, Del Rosario sifted through the objects in the family home, that had been accumulated over his lifetime. Each object acquired and kept was a decision that offered an insight into the man he was. How do we continue to care for a loved one after they pass? What rituals do we create and maintain? Del Rosario selected from his extensive rock collection and built structures to hold them. The material remnants of her father are her only remaining access to know him. She taps familial memories she doesn’t understand and through the act of making the sculptures, recreates those memories with control and creates an understanding. It’s a collaboration that parallels father and daughter and builds mutual understanding while evolving the ancestral home as a place of family, value, and community.
By: Violetta Leigh
Acknowledgements:
The year before the residency started, was filled with a great deal of planning and campaigning for the benefit and promotion of Elmo’s House Artist Residency. A key strategy for generating funds was crowdsourcing. We received an overwhelming amount of support through this initiative. Friends, family and colleagues alike aided in our cause. The support raised was a tremendous gift that helped jump-start the residency. With the help of our patrons, Elmo’s House Artist Residency was able to begin on schedule.
Maribeth Laurente
Robert Turriff
Shapiro Family
Valerie Lamiel
Sanaz Afshar
Christina Ally
Raissa Alvero
Greer Attridge
Hana Balaban–Pommier
Ed Chan
Allison Collins
Tiffany Creyke
Charlotte Falk
Vinny Gib
Rene Gouin
Celia Hamilton
Lisa Tanner
Bradley Harms
Marc Hutchinson
Jonathan S. Igharas
Robert Mckenzie
Frances Mckenzie
Elizabeth McLean
Freddy Ouano
Miruna Palosanu
Sara Reedman
Elise Stella
Thrive Studios (Jamie Smith)
Kelly Ulmer
The Romero Family
The Angeles Family
2017 artists-in-residence:
Tsēma Igharas
Jonathan Igharas
Elizabeth McLean
Andrea Forist
Danielle Gotell
Andy Dixon
Marc Standing
Liz Kim
Bradley Harms
Sara Reedman
Larissa Tiggelers
Karilynn Ming Ho
The making and completion of Homecoming were made possible through the contribution, guidance and generous support of the following individuals:
Elliat Albrecht
Alex Quicho
Larissa Tiggelers
Sara Reedman
Joan Ang-Oay Laurente
Ryan Romero
Nancy de Mayo
Ethel Apuzen & Leticie Parco Sucgang
Dolly Angeles
The Bakery (Robert Turriff and Ahbyah Baker)
Elmo’s House Artist Residency, would also like to thank The Del Rosario Family, for their unfailing support. Most significant in his contributions, in life and after is Elmo F. Del Rosario, whom this project could not have done without.
