Snare for Birds

Can we be made to be experts of the colonial gaze through the production of new knowledge, through image-making and re-making? If these images have historically been used as evidence of Filipinos’ incapability of self-governance, what do they reveal about Filipinos today? What does it mean to be Filipinos—generations and continents removed—engaging the predecessors today?

Snare for Birds AAG © Ateneo Art Gallery

About the Project

Snare for Birds is the collaborative research art project of Kiri Dalena, Lizza May David, and Jaclyn Reyes, curated by Marika Constantino and Iris Ferrer. It inquires into the tangents of the country’s colonial past, archiving and its impacts on being Filipina. Distinct in their visual languages and methodologies, each artist negotiates their own and the current generation’s positions against an imperial past and present as women residing in the Philippines, Germany, and the United States. 
 
The project is seen neither as a conclusion nor culmination of the research; rather, it is perceived to be a preamble for more avenues of conversations to ensue. This exhibition takes a look at our collective history in order to deal with the present with hopes of forging a just and equitable future. The colonial past, though riddled with pain and adversity, requires persistent disruptions not only to dislocate power structures but to also re-define what is said to be truths.

About the Artists

  • Kiri Dalena

    Kiri Dalena is known for works that lay bare the social inequalities and injustices that continue to persist, particularly in the Philippines. Her involvement in the struggle to uphold human rights amidst state persecution is the foundation for her practice that underscores the relevance of protest and civil disobedience in contemporary society.
     

    Kiri Dalena © Kimberly Dela Cruz © Kimberly Dela Cruz

  • Lizza May David

    Lizza May David is a painter and multidisciplinary artist interested in gaps and silences in personal and collective archives and experiments with forms of activation through abstract painting. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg and at the University of the Arts Berlin and lives and works in Berlin.

    Lizza May David © Trinka Lat © Trinka Lat

  • Jaclyn Reyes

    Jaclyn Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, cultural organizer, and emerging scholar based in New York City. She received her BFA in Photography from Syracuse University and earned her master’s degree in Arts in Education from Harvard University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Welfare at The City University of New York Graduate Center.
     

    Jaclyn Reyes © Jaclyn Reyes © Jaclyn Reyes

About the Curators

  • Marika Constantino

    Marika Constantino is an artist-curator. In 2017, she was a Global Cultural Fellow of the Institute of International Cultural Relations at the University of Edinburgh and part of a cultural leadership program at the King’s College in London. In 2018, she was a New York Fellow for the Asian Cultural Council. In 2020, Constantino established KANTINA, a space for co-learning and co-creation in Roxas City, Capiz.

    Marika Constantino © Marika Constantino © Marika Constantino

  • Iris Ferrer

    Iris Ferrer is an independent cultural practitioner from Manila, Philippines.

    Iris Ferrer © Jimena Gauna © Jimena Gauna

Venues

This three part series, curated by Marika Constantino and Iris Ferrer, engages at the Ang Panublion Museum (Roxas City,Capiz), the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library (San Fernando, La Union) and Ateneo Art Gallery (Quezon City, Metro Manila) in succeeding iterations. Laying out in three spaces allows for wider reach and hopefully deeper understanding of the research at hand.

  • Ang Panublion Museum

    August 06 to 26, 2023
    Ang Panublion Museum, Legazpi Street, Roxas City, Capiz
    Monday to Sunday, 8am-5pm

  • Alfredo F. Tadiar Library

    September 01 to October 15, 2023
    1 F. Ortega Hwy, Tanqui, San Fernando, 2500 La Union
    Wednesday to Saturday, 12:30pm-5:30pm

  • Ateneo Art Gallery

    September 16, 2023 to February 17, 2024
    Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University
    Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City
    Monday to Sunday, 9am-5pm

Partners

This project is mounted with support from the Goethe-Institut Manila, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, co-presented with The Panublion Museum (Roxas City, Capiz), Alfredo F. Tadiar Library and Puón (San Fernando, La Union), and the Ateneo Art Gallery (Metro Manila).

  • Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung
  • Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
  • Ang Panublion Museum
  • Alfredo F. Tadiar Library
  • Puon
  • Ateneo Art Gallery

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