BARIL. LALAKI. BUHAY. KAMATAYAN. GUN. MAN. LIFE. DEATH.
During his residency at Marginal Utility, Neill Catangay utilized the gallery space to experiment with creating video narratives on dwelling in his thoughts during isolation. From this creative wandering, he has begun analyzing teachings from his youth and interpreting the effect they have had on his identity as a Filipino American raised on Guam. More specifically in this work, Catangay draws on his first memories of interactions with guns - remembering them as toys, then video games, and finally learning how to fire a real gun for the first time. Baril. Lalaki. Buhay. Kamatayan. questions a naïve understanding of a highly influential and violent foundation. The installation incorporates sculpture, ready-made objects, video and spoken word to analyze and question the relationship between guns, violence, and performative masculinity in popular culture as well as how these relationships reflect the ways in which colonialism and imperialism is taught and perceived. The video collages clips of war-themed video games, footage of animals being shot, and the audio of Catangay’s voice speaking in his native Filipino language – Tagalog. As an adult, Catangay is verbally using his novice understanding of the Filipino language to mentally investigate how these ideas about guns, masculinity and power are constructed in naïve stages of life. Just as a child can hold a gun but not truly understand it; the artist records himself learning to speak his native language as an adult; like an infant learning for the first time unable to fully grasp its meaning.
The concreted objects in this installation are a tactile reminder of the foundations that are built around learned associations and behaviors. Playing on common phrases such as “these facts are concrete” or “this idea is solid,” the concreted toy guns and objects are made to look like something that’s buried, cracked, old, ancient, archaic – the aesthetic of an absurd, yet present, foundation.