HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS: Photo, Audio, Video Collage & other eklats

Artist's statement

At one time or another, we have all been that flailing, gasping fish out of water. Extracted or transplanted from our comfort zone that has nourished and defined our existence.

Once outside it, we try to make the unfamiliar, familiar, make the unknown, known so we dont feel so lost or alone. And slowly, we again start to feel at home.

It is only when one is far away from things that we are used to that one truly discovers who we are and what we are made of.

"HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS" was conceptualized when I lived in Europe for four months. Like a turtle with its shell, I carry my home and my Pinoy-ness wherever my feet take me. I carry my sense of wonder and my sense of humor as I make sense of other cultures…

The art works are a virtual tapestry fashioned from patches of picture perfect Europe and my minds own creations and manipulations. It was my way of making these culturally historic places my own.

The collages are assembled with scissors and paste, without the aid of computers. A return to the basics, the audience is meant to see every cut edge and every line colored in. To show where reality ends and imagination begins.

Combining these images with original music, recorded sound, video, and found objects I collected in Europe the audience joins me on a journey that starts in an unfamiliar place, and chronicles the experience of falling in love, fitting in, living in and finally, coming home.

Artist's Profile

Born and raised in the Philippines, JJ-Christine Villamarin comes from a family of photographers. But wanting to be different, she tried to stay away from photography…

She dabbled in theater as a resident actor at the Metropolitan Theater, tried her hand at songwriting and joined KATHA (samahan ng mga kompositor), performed her own songs at artists' havens such as 70's Bistro and the legendary Club Dredd, made a short film at Mowelfund and joined Probe Productions as a video editor/cinematographer. Pursuing her passion for moving pictures, JJ-Christine moved on as an edit supervisor for I-Witness and other documentary projects. She also directed a documentary on the making of Isa Lorenzo's Filipinas exhibit and is currently directing the I-witness episodes of Howie Severino.

But taking photos was in her blood, she mounted her first photography exhibit entitled t.R.I.P. (to rest in peace). This exhibit is the product of four years and countless rolls of film exposed in various local and foreign places such as Cambodia, Vietnam and China. Her work is so much more than just travel mementos; they are a colorful testimony to her awakening and continuous growth as an artist.

Spurred on by the success of her first exhibit, JJ-Christine unveils her second solo exhibit, HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS. Fusing her passions in music, video and still pictures, her work documents her European immersion-being lost, finding her way, and finally coming home to a place she had first thought to be foreign. With her personal collages, hand-colored photos, and video installations accompanied with music she composed, one catches a glimpse of Europe through a wanderer's fresh eyes filled with an almost child-like wonder.