Originally formed on Gadigal Country, Sydney by trans-disciplinary artists Justin Talplacido Shoulder and Bhenji Ra, Club Ate is a collaboration inspired by their shared Filipino heritage, immersion in Gadigal’s underground nightlife and queer communities, and an interest in the body as a tool for transformation.
Ex Nilalang, Episodes 1 – 4 — which means both ‘to create’ and ‘creature’ — is an ongoing series of video works conceived as an ‘archive of queer identities’. The work engages with a different Filipino mythological, ancestral or pop cultural being to reflect the lived experiences of the collaborators. Stories previously used by colonial forces to ‘other’ LGBTQIA+ communities are reconfigured to assert a more inclusive world view.
Image credit: Club Ate, Ex Nilalang (video still) 2017. Courtesy the artists and Art Gallery of New South Wales
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