PARA SA TINUBUANG LUPA
KHIM MATA HIPOL
See it On Campus: Level 2
Visitor InfoAward Recipient
The Chick Rice Award for Excellence in Photography
Art graduates draw on their Asian heritage
Emily Carr University is holding its annual exhibition featuring work from 350 graduating students. Two graduates spoke to us about how their respective upbringings in the Philippines and Hong Kong played into their creative process.
Khim Mata Hipol
( For the Homeland )
Filipino-born Khim Hipol is an emerging interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded territories of the Squamish, TsleilWaututh, and Musqueam peoples, also known as North Vancouver. Hipol’s work is primarily focused on the lens-based medium and has expanded to printmaking, sculpture, and text. By investigating the impacts of colonialism and resulting Filipino migration, Hipol considers how identity and culture cross-pollinate between the Philippines and in Canada. His positionality between these two colonized and colonial structures is the motivation behind his practice, at once highlighting and complicating these systems.
A graduate of Certificate of Photography (2019), and Bachelor of Fine Arts Major with Photography and Minor in Art and Text (2023), both Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Hipol received the Audain Travel Award (2022) and was long-listed for the Lind Prize (2022). He has shared his works in group shows at Capture Photography Festival (Here and Now, 2023), The Center of Fine Arts Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA (2022), and Exposure Photography Festival, Calgary, Alberta (2022 and 2023).
ANAK NG LUPANG HINIRANG, 2021 – on going
Anak ng Lupang Hinirang (Child of the Chosen Land) is a series of photographic images that use the body and symbolic objects tied to Filipino national identity to capture a profound and intimate feeling of patriotism and nationalism. As a Filipino national who lives and works in Canada, I am aware of the heavy history of colonization here; this series explores the complicated history of colonization in the Philippines and the way in which this history has infiltrated our national identity. The Philippine flag, the panuelo, reflects the legacy of the Spanish Colonizers. The Crown symbolizes beauty pageants which come from the influence of the American colonizers, reinforcing Western beauty standards. These objects, integrated with the body, pay homage to Filipino national identity and employ the conventions of familiar tropes of this identity to rearticulate and question each icon and the histories it bears. The body performs together with the symbols subverting the object’s standard, patriotic reading. As a result, the images encourage viewers to question the subjects’ origin and the true meaning of the objects they hold.
Installation View, Here and Now, 2023, Capture Photography Festival, Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Installation View, Anak sa Luang Hinirang, 2023, The Lobby, Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art, North Vancouver, BC
Artist Khim Hipol invokes feelings of resistance and patriotism in Capture Photography Festival exhibition
Charlie Smith, Pancouver, 2023
Vancouver lens-based artist Khim Hipol says that he creates art to advance education.
He has a straightforward motivation. Hipol worries that too many children of Filipino immigrants don’t understand the national symbols of the Philippines or the country’s history of resistance.
So he set out to elevate awareness through his Anak ng Lupang Hinirang (Child of the Chosen Land) series. It shows parts of his body hidden by a flag, mango, Bible, crown, and soft broom known as a walis tambo.
The latter two images also appear in the free Here and Now exhibition in the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street). Curated by Emmy Lee Wall and Chelsea Yuill, it continues until April 28 as part of the Capture Photography Festival.
OH CANADA, 2022 – on going
Maple Leaf is part of the Oh Canada series is an extension of Anak ng Lupang Hinirang (Child of the Chosen Land), a series Khim Hipol began in 2021, in which he pairs his body with symbolic objects tied to Filipino national identity to explore his relationship to country and culture. In Oh Canadian?!, he extends this body of work to include objects related to his experience as a Filipino-born artist living and working in Canada and someone who recently acquired Canadian citizenship. He embodies this experience by draping himself—head covered, face obscured—with the Canadian flag, the ultimate symbol of national pride. By presenting the flag-draped rather than erect and obscuring this identity, Hipol subtly alluded to colonial Canadian History.
Maple Leaf has been paired with two works from Anak ng Lupang Hinirang (Child of the Chosen Land) to reflect and interweave Hipol’s layered cultural heritage. As a relatively recent immigrant to Canada, Hipol’s series reflects his experience grappling with the history of colonization in Canada and reconciling that with the complicated ways in which colonization in the Philippines has infiltrated national identity.
Installation View, Here and Now, 2023, Capture Photography Festival, Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Khim Hipol Wins 2022 Audain Travel Award
By Perrin Grauer
The artist and fourth-year student will use the prize to travel to the Philippines to research colonial history and decolonization in the country of his birth.
CARTS, 2022- on going
Installation View, The Show 2023, Emily Carr University of Arts + Design, Vancouver, BC
BASAHAN – on going
BASAhan is a series of objects that connotes the idea of labour and cleaning—picking up from personal experiences. Hipol’s maternal grandmother was a rag maker. She would buy fabric offcuts and tail-ends. These cutouts are sewn together to create circular cleaning rags or woven floor mats. This gesture of cleaning is also woven into Hipol’s family. His family has worked in the cleaning and service industry from the early days of their immigration until now. This same image of the ‘Filipino cleaners’ has been associated with Filipinos as a stereotype. Thus, presenting a problematic representation of Filipinos in Canada, collapsing Filipinos’ varied experiences and professions into small boxes.
Hipols history of making rags started with his grandmother, this manual labour of crafting provides income for their family. Basahan is commonly sold in the local markets for a cheap price, which associates with Filipinos as producers of cheap labour abroad. Hipol holds this object through the series as a discussion of Filipino representation. He brings these objects to the forefront to investigate basahan as a “low class/cheap labour.” Cleaning and cleaners are often taken for granted. However, here they are given visibility and ask for critical attention. The “BASAhan” is used in the dialogue of interaction, subjectivity and banality and how all this reflects in the real world.
Installation View, Artist in Residence Zebra Club 2023, Vancouver, BC
Installation View, Artist in Residence Zebra Club 2023, Vancouver, BC
Installation View, Iba’t ibang Kulay, Iisang Anino, 2022, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
Sa Alaala nila Lola, 2022- on going
Sa alaala Nila Lola (in memories of grandmothers)
An open wound often leaves great pain in a person. This series of images, “Sa Alaala nila Lola (in memories of grandmothers), is a series of photographic images that heal an open wound of losing loved ones. Through photographic medium–staging and recreation proving the photograph’s power as evidence of existence. Though it may have lost some senses, it still holds the memories that others can hold on to. Hipol revisits his memories of his grandmothers, one whom he grew up with and one whose distant away. He grounds himself on the soil where his grandmothers are now. The soil stands the ground of roots and growth, and this forms reconnection. So far from the geographical location, Hipol reconnects his memories through practices and gestures he had interacted with his grandmothers. For example, Hipol wears a floral dress like Grandmother Clarita and a shirt from her Grandmother Lourdes. He hopes to use these images to reflect on his relationship with his grandmothers and conceal the wound of not having a proper farewell to them before they passed away.
LOOKING AFTER: Photography as an Act of Care, 2023, Emily Carr University of Arts and Design, Vancouver BC
Mga Idyomang Pilipino
Portraiture becomes an outlet for self-expression. Our body becomes a canvass to portray particular identities, expressions, feelings and emotions. It becomes a powerful tool in representation and allows us to show the truth or myth. In the “Idioms” series, i have used portraiture to study the visualization of Filipino idioms. An expression is a phrase with a different meaning from the literal meaning of the words. And similar to the portraits, it is a different interpretation of who I am as i embody the idioms. Some of the images are performed in the literal sense, some hint what it is, and some just don’t. Some idiomatic expression has been used to cultivate behaviors, often used by children, and carries on. In my experience, idioms are significant to my upbringing. It helped me behave and be conscious of my actions. These staged photographs also depict how these words staged someone’s upbringing. Moreover, I wanted to interpret this literature and words to visual culture.
Installation View, Mga Idyomang Pilipino, 2021, Emily Carr University of Arts + Design
I am Here you are Here, 2019- on going
I intend to create a work with photography to speak about the land I live in. North Vancouver has been my home since we immigrated from the Philippines last 2015. “I am here; you are here, is a project that highlights my appreciation of the new land I am residing in. It also makes me look at this land’s history, story, and purpose. I have opened my eyes to appreciate her glorifying attributes—Her mountains that keep me safe, trees that clean the air I breathe, and water that flourishes me to grow. She has bestowed a place to arise, learn, create, and appreciate. North Vancouver is my new home; now I belong, where my roots will grow.
Even more, “I am here; you are here” showcases the beauty of North Vancouver, but it also upholds values and context that could be studied. Which also aims to acknowledge and deepen viewers’ understanding of the land they are walking on, running, and exploring. I hope this project will make them understand that this location is recreational and more so an area of story and history.
OTHER WORKS
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
I am here, You are Here
November 2021
I intend to create a work with photography to speak about the land I live in. North Vancouver has been my home since we immigrated from the Philippines last 2015. “I am here; you are here, is a project that highlights my appreciation of the new land I am residing in. It also makes me look at this land’s history, story, and purpose. I have opened my eyes to appreciate her glorifying attributes—Her mountains that keep me safe, trees that clean the air I breathe, and water that flourishes me to grow. She has bestowed a place to arise, learn, create, and appreciate. North Vancouver is my new home; now I belong, where my roots will grow.
Why Photography?
October 2022
Photography has been a way of self-expression and extension of oneself. This exhibition will explore one artist’s reason why they do photography. These emerging artists on the show use lens-based media to passionately voice their concerns, informing us, inspiring us, and broadening the context of history. This exhibition focused on students enrolled in Photography Major and asked them why photography. What does their relationship with photography?
Labing Dalawang Daster ni Lola
Iba’t Ibang Kulay, Iisang Anino
November 2022
Ibat-ibang Kulay, Iisang Anino, translates and burrows from the original words of Amy Fung “different shade of the same shadow.” It is an exhibition that focuses on Filipino Diaspora experiences. Through the mediums of Photography, Video, Printmaking, Ceramics, Drawing and graphic design–we will explore the different Filipino experiences of 4 Filipino artists trying to connect to their heritage and cultural roots. The artists in this show explore the Filipino context–whether it touches upon immigration experiences, the longing for their native land, family, or culture. Furthermore, the artists challenge the representation of Filipino Arts and Context amidst heavily westernized and eurocentric art courses. Showcasing different subjectivity and interpretation of Filipino lived experiences, the artists would like to share the cultures they grew up in before migrating.
WEAVING TWO IDENTITIES
