Be/Longing Babaylan transforms the Outer Space gallery as a safe space for queer bodies and identities to exist and be celebrated. Utilising a lens-based medium, Rhanjell Villanueva present visually powerful portraits centred around modern day Babaylans. Each portrait depicts a queer member of the community from the House of Alexander, utilising ancestral lineage and the power of storytelling to showcase their beauty as urban deities and spiritual beings navigating the contemporary world. Exhibition Text
Rhanjell Villanueva is an emerging Meanjin-based (Brisbane) Filipino artist whose practice critically analyses the traditional Filipino culture against the language and values of western societies. In his response to his upbringing, his practice traverses the multitude and intricacies of cultural identity by unravelling post-colonial patterns and cultural conflict. Primarily working with lens-based medium including moving image installations, Villanueva materialises deep transcultural knowledge and narratives rooted from oppression and the feeling of displacement.
While settler narratives have subsumed the prevalence of non-confirming and fluid gender identities in the pre-colonial Philippines, an abiding presence of queerness remains. In recontextualising these stories of Filipino queerness, Rhanjell celebrates our boundless capacity to transform and adapt. Artist Website – www.rhanjell-villanueva.com
Image: Rhanjell Villanueva / Neesha Hirama Mamea (she/her), Salani Falealili & Mulifanua, Western Samoa 2022 / digital print on paper / 900 x 1240mm / © Rhanjell Villanueva
