SARI SARI
A site specific installation conceived for the performance of Anito Gavina's Tagong Yaman at the Painted Bride Art Center, this work takes place at a former grocery store turned into a shoe store and now a community art space. This projection mapped installation draws inspiration from the Sari Sari, which in the Philippines is the corner store where daily essentials and packaged foods can be found. It is the Southeast Asian version of the bodega or convenience store. Familiar products have been scaled up to unreal proportions and are projected throughout the space. The package designs have been altered with messages of solidarity, strength and humor. Brand names have been replaced with jokes, protest signs, and familial wisdom– ultimately inviting the viewer to examine the ways that we interact with the agro-industrial complex. Tagong Yaman
Tagong Yaman is a choreographic and curatorial work by Anito Gavino, supported by MAPfund Grant 2020 and Painted Bride. The space itself simulated an anthropological museum gallery: altars of ancestors and unsung heroes were displayed, holiday lanterns made by Filipino community members hung on the storefront window, and collaged images of the Philippines printed in textiles were exhibited. This is a two-woman act that undertakes the journey of a Filipina mother asking, "How can a mother pass culture to a child growing up in America?" The duet interweaving dance, song, film, and poetry, performed by Gavino and her daughter, Malaya Ulan investigates the historical erasures of the Filipino consciousness due to colonization, indoctrination, and migration. Through comedy, dance theater, jazz, contemporary, and folk dance modalities, Anito recalled memories of childhood.... remembering joy, laughter, dancing, barkada (friendship), and tsismis (oral history but can also mean gossip).
