James Lawrence Ardena | Love Empire

Like a child sitting on a swing I am tired and I am dizzy.

I can’t seem to remember quite why I chose the title.

It, like many other things, just seemed to fit. Fall into place.

Love. As that’s how I was introduced to art. Through a rag tag group of folks who in time and space ignited something.

Isangmahal is a Seattle-based arts kollective. Conceived to cultivate the minds of society through progressive and conscious art. The vision of the kollective included understanding that we shall not remain complacent by any means, which signifies the tasks at hand which encompass: Creating and maintaining avenues for our voices to express and analyze the problematics of life we all live.

To locate and create propaganda revealing the linkages which connect and bind us all. Especially meant for the eyes of our children, in order to initiate critical analysis of our being.

And to propagate love, the sole beginning of life and the basis of all revolutions.

Breaking past imposed barriers of marginalization and transcending colonized mind states, we hope to carry on our history of resistance and struggle towards a self revolution.

I could finally finish my degree with a thesis on that mission statement alone. But let’s not. It was with isangmahal that I found my voice and my path through life as a young adult reflecting on our recent history of childhood. As with good rereadings, with time and space come new lessons. As a spoken word poet in isangmahal, I collaborated with other artists and became interested and nurtured by my own visual artistic aesthetic and visual development.

It does help provide a context/perspective in which to look at each piece, so I offer it as a possibility when looking at the body of work here. It would and does then speak a bit more toward the political and cultural critiques at play. Specifically in this space.

This exhibit culminates the first decade of my work.

Concomitant is my healing process, that which sustained me through some very rough periods of tough personal growth and realizations which we each move through upon our various paths.

I am and forever will be a momma’s boy.

She was the go to.

Just as I was settling in to attend UCLA she was diagnosed. This very much shifted my attention from academics and the direction of work. Of this time period is the untitled Triptych (2000). It was very much a harbinger of the next several years of work, which I have very little if any photo documentation of. Mostly done in what has become known as the Icon Series, consisting of wood-backed work in the 6” x 6” format. And very much envisioned to be displayed in groupings as if panes of windows. They were and still are almost always created as triptychs.

With my mother's passing in 2002, I created the Heart of the Son series. The first, which is on display, was commissioned and is on loan courtesy of Dr. Rick Bonus of the University of Washington.

As well as showing a range of wall-hung and mini installation pieces, I envisioned to magnify that experience with a larger install. This time rather than gazing in, I hoped to give the experience, a chance for the viewer to imagine themselves in the often murky and surreal scapes of the subjects in my work, as well as a visual backdrop in which they can define a shot and be within the sights of another’s scope.

For me this show is for my family. An intentional experience to remember from childhood and in the recognition, reflection and acknowledgement of love, grief, loss, growth, and to transgressing those barriers we each have.

In loving memory of my mom, momo and grandmama.

Originally produced for a show I guest curated at Columbia City gallery called "sarili cycle: a dialog of love." The show was a dialog of active community artists in various stages of their artistic careers and their articulations of love and art.

The title is taken from the title of a short film by author and scholar Celine Parre単as. The meanings of the word would later haunt me as I became more involved in arts organizing through "isangmahal arts kollective." We would continuously be ribbed about the double meaning.

The image is from a travel book circa the turn of the 19th century. In this context the image was used to show off and classify the "Bontoc," an indigenous tribal group of the Philippines. I frequently return to this image because of the emotive facial expression. I recreate the installation here with more than one thousand individually cast resin hearts.

2008 resin, wood, soybeans, oil pastel, dye 6 x 4 x 3 feet

2009 resin, fabric, dye 24 x 18 x 1 inches

2009 resin, fabric, dye 24 x 18 x 1 inches

2007 resin, rice, dye pigment, metal 18 x 12 x 1 inches

The Heart of the Son series is dedicated to my mother, Kathleen Mary Arde単a, who passed away September 11, 2002. In her memory, I am creating a series of 59 compositions to honor her life.

Each work in the series incorporates the "ka" symbol, (a character from a pre-colonial writing system of the Philippine Islands).

During Philippine revolutionary times the "ka" was used to symbolize independence and was associated with the word "kalayaan," from the Tagalog, that roughly means freedom or liberation. The shape references "I," relating to the self, and the word mirrors my mother's initials, K.A. The "ka" appears in the upper half of each painting in the Heart of the Son series, while the lower half completes the emotional dreamscape with the image of a young boy riding a lone carabao through the world.

2008 resin, rice, pigment 24 x 18 x 3 inches

September 3 - October 31, 2009

2009 resin, rice, dye pigment, barbed wire, organic elements, shag carpeting, wood paneling

2008 resin, barbed wire, soybeans, burnt joss paper 48 x 16 x 4 inches

2006 resin, rice, cookie wrapper, metal, pigment dye 36 x 24 x 1 inches

Over ten years ago I had an idea.

I would make twelve. Just twelve.

Yup. What was I thinking? After all these years the resin has unfolded far too many ideas to create. Just the beginning. And this is the very first one. Only 3 were made before I found myself in the surrounds of the academic world to wrestle with where my heart was taking me.

I have always known that I would return to juxtapose this image with an actual pair of wings. Now, I work a bit with found objects or found incidents as I call them (times the resin elves tend to work while you're away). I try not to modify, and killing something right now is a bit too much. So, I was hoping to find something to work with.

Just last year on Alki Beach, whaddya know, I look down to the ideal most perfect pair of connected wings. Only. That's it, as is. I swear look around. Take the time. Notice. It fit perfectly with the new series I was developing and just before the exhibit opened I was able to secure from the family the ability to publicly show for the first time the origin of it all. It was a joy to see it again. And my great pleasure to show them together.

2009 resin, wire, rice, wings, dirt from the Philippines 13 x 10 x 3 inches

1999 resin, wood, paper, pulp, candy wrapper, rice, oil pastel (quotes from bell hooks) 18 x 36 x 1.5 inches

2000 pigment, barbed wire, organic materials in resin on wood panel 38 x 34 x 1 inches

EDUCATION University of California, L.A. - M.A., Asian American Studies, Expected 2009 University of Washington - B. S., Psychology, 1996 Self Taught Artist SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2009 “Love Empire,” ArtXchange Gallery, Seattle, WA 2008 “sarili cycle: a dialog of love” (Group Show), Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA

“sojourn: an imagined homeland,” Antioch University, Seattle, WA

“How The Soy Sauce was Bottled: Uncommon Stories from Common Objects” (Group Show),

Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA 2005 “The Philippine Gaze: Reimagining images of Empire,” University of California,

Santa Barbara, CA

EastWind Books, Los Angeles, CA 2004 Bumbershoot (Group Show), Represented by Bluebottle Art Gallery, Seattle Center,

Seattle, WA 2003 Snack Snack Café, Seattle, WA

Jerzy’s Coffee House, Redmond, WA

Ethnic Cultural Theater (Group Show), Seattle, WA

Scream, Seattle, WA

Open House (Group Show), Garde Rail Gallery, Seattle, WA

Slotin Folk Fest (Group Show), represented by Garde Rail Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2002 “Assemblage Unraveling: constructs of a filipino american aesthetic” (Group Show/

Installation), Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA

“Self(less): Identity in the Filipino American Family” (Group Show, Featured Artist),

Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA 2001 “Search to Involve Filipino Americans,” Los Angeles, CA 1999 Interdisciplinary Design Institute Gallery (Group Show, Featured Artist), Spokane, WA

“Mahal/Mahogany: untying tongues” (Group Show), M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle

Central Community College, Seattle, WA

Projekt Ikalat Muna www.ikalatmuna.com

Cover image: "Heart of the Son XVII" (detail) Artwork and Text: James Lawrence Ardeña Catalog Design: Islanda Khau, Gallery Designer Photography: Elijah Ardeña © 2009 ArtXchange Gallery No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent from ArtXchange.

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