Archivo 1984 Presents "The Past is a Foreign Country" by Jill Paz

Wazzup Pilipinas!

ARCHIVO 1984
The Past is a Foreign Country by Jill Paz


Pasillo 18
La Fuerza Compound (Gate 1)
2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City

Opening Reception: August 31, 2017 (5 pm)


Archivo 1984 proudly presents “The Past is a Foreign Country”, Jill Paz’s first solo exhibition in her home country, and also Archivo 1984’s inaugural exhibition in its new space which will open on August 31, 2015.

In this show, Paz focuses on images as object survivors of the past. The underlying theme of memory is re-interpreted by the artist as an exploration of renovation, embodied in her own experience of cultural loss. She explores this through homage paintings based on the work of her great grand-uncle, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo.

Among the largest works in the show are the 8-foot ‘Untitled (After Hidalgo, Libertatem)’ (2015), composed of cardboard panels etched with a phantasmic composition inspired by the artist’s ancestor and a personal childhood memory. In ‘Untitled (Balikayan Box, It’s a Journey Back that I’m Always Taking)’ (2015), Paz has fashioned an LBC box with photographic images of her family home. 

 

Though painterly in appearance, these compositions were actually burned into the substrata by a laser cutter, a device that can translate a digital image into an etching. With such an unorthodox process, imperfections are rendered into an otherwise perfect production. A large canvas titled ‘Flotsam and Jetsam’ (2016) continues the investigation with technological means. Paz’ composition renders a fragile depth—the softest imprecise outlines result in unexpected aesthetic balance. The works stem from the artist’s fascination with how images traverse our visual and material culture, and fall within a longstanding artistic reconsideration of the idea of painting.

The exhibition will run from 31 August - 20 September, 2017, Archivo 1984 is located at Pasillo 18 La Fuerza Compound (Gate 1), 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jill Paz was born in Manila, Philippines, in 1982 and emigrated to the United States with her family in 1983. She studied art history at the University of British Columbia and attended an independent studio residency at Parsons School of Design, before pursuing a Master’s degree at the Columbus College of Art and Design. In 2015, Paz exhibited at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. Last year, she had exhibitions at the Columbus Museum of Art and the Beeler Gallery in Columbus Ohio, as well as the Alte Feuerwache Loschwtiz in Dresden, Germany, where she was a visiting artist at Kunsthaus Raskolnikow and Geh8.