Islands

2018
Video, Performance for the camera
16:26 min

My Filipina brown body is a site of disadvantage and resistance - vulnerable with its nakedness and brownness against overbearing whiteness. Islands reflects on my experiences of being sexualized, fetishized, and objectified. I consider the historical injustices Filipina bodies have experienced, especially in reference to Nerissa S. Balce’s “The Filipina’s Breast: Savagery, Docility, and the Erotics of the American Empire”. Emphasis is placed on the most valued parts the Filipina body - the breasts and hands. The milk symbolizes both the whiteness of Spanish and American colonial power over Filipinas’ bodies, as well as femininity and caregiving, as Filipinas suffer as “labouring bodies (domestic helpers and nurses) and as sexual bodies (entertainers and mail-order brides)”.

"With an elegant economy of visual vocabulary, Maria Patricia Abuel creates a poignant video work that positions the Filipina body as both the site of colonial abuse and cultural resistance. Re-appropriating the gaze as a performer who controls the camera, she confronts the viewer, exposing both vulnerability and strength. Using the sharp symbolism of naked brown skin framed by the whiteness of milk Maria Patricia creates a powerful image, eloquently addressing labour and sexual exploitation." - Mona Filip

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