Artist Statement

Reflecting on the theoretical work of Filipina/o scholars Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns (2013), Sarita See (2009), Martin Manalansan (2003), and Rolando Tolentino (2001), Aloha Tolentino adds drag performance to cultural responses toward the multiple colonization of communities from the Philippines. Aloha finds inspiration from transnational connections brought about by the movement of people and ideologies between the Philippines and its many diasporic ports. The artist stages queer Filipina/o bodies as instruments for Filipino American cultural critique while also conveying how pangagaya-a Tagalog word that can be loosely translated as mimicry-can build alliances between groups living in the margins.

Aloha Tolentino refuses the fixity of subjectivity. She also acknowledges the tensions internal to the unified Philippine national body narrative that conflates corporealities, labor, and care to serve as an ideological tool in sustaining a homogenous nation-building project. Her works-in-progress explore the artists emerging points and primal moments that informed his...