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Overview
2013
Acrylic, rubber, leather on canvas
Unique Work
Dimensions: 80cm (H) x 120cm (W) x 5cm (D) / 31.5" (H) x 47.2" (W) x 2" (D)
Note: Actual colours may vary due to photography & computer settings.
Artist Statement
This is part of the exhibition entitled RICOCHET. Working with the bullet (seen by many as evil) and the image of a woman (the vulnerable), a deluge of images and issues confront me as an individual and a member of the larger society. My research on women was invigorated during my visit to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. I could hear the whispers of untold stories of the Harem along its walls.
These instruments of death are products of the human creative spirit. Mechanized efficiency, technology: tools. These tools, objectively speaking, are no different to the tools with which I work. Leather in my work represents bare skin, the porous armor that delicately shelters us from the "evils" of the world and rubber is the epitome of elasticity. Together they emulate the resiliency of a woman. These ingredients all compliment my explorations of the identity, power and violence in a modern world.
Contemporary philosopher, Judith Butler’s concept on “corporeal vulnerability…that the human body is a social phenomenon, exposed to others and vulnerable by definition” – has provided a framework in my explorations. Is our body simply a delicate casing of a “precarious life?” Are we defined by what is around us? Do the weak incite the strong to prey? Is violence spurred by the precariousness of life?
My inquiry continues as a psychological process. I continue to examine our societal and human nature: the manifestation of opposing creative and destructive forces.
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Artist Profile
Born: 1965
Hometown: Manila
Based in: Manila and Boston
Josephine Turalba, based in Manila and Boston, is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice incorporates intersecting layers of different media: performance, sculpture, video, sound, photography. Her works explore issues of divide and convergence between the Global North and South, focusing on visceral approaches to the politics of violence and dynamics of infliction, trauma – depicting traces and spaces, where empathy translates into healing.
Her works are in the collections of Yuchengco Museum Manila; Metropolitan Museum of Manila; Omer M. Koc Collection, Istanbul & London; Francis J. Greenburger Collection, New York. They have been exhibited at the 2016 London Biennale, European Cultural Center in Venice, Italy (concurrent with the 56th Venice Biennale 2015) Hofburg Innsbruck, Austria 2015; Arter Space, Istanbul, Turkey 2014; VII Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art, Uzbekistan, 2013; Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin, Germany, 2012; M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2012; KIT Kunst-im-Tunnel Düsseldorf, Germany 2011; The 12th Cairo Biennale, Egypt 2010; and Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2007 and 2009.
She holds an MFA, New Media from Transart Institute NY and Donau Universität Krems Austria; is currently a faculty of the graduate program and has recently served as Dean at the School of Fine Arts and Design at the Philippine Women’s University.
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