Opening on July 2nd, from 4:30pm-6pm, at La Centrale galerie Powerhouse

"perlas" 
translates to "pearl" in Tagalog, referencing the Philippines’ colonial nickname, “Pearl of the Orient”.

Rooted in Laruan’s personal migration, from growing up in the Philippines to immigrating to Canada at the age of ten, “perlas” emerges from an autobiographical point of departure to examine displacement, colonial history, and the complexities of memory. 

“perlas” considers and plays with the role of the artist in the diaspora as a cultural translator, especially within the context of so-called Canada, a nation often celebrated for its multiculturalism. Denim serves as the primary material due to its historical and symbolic ties to colonial trade, global labour, and the mythologies of “the West.” Denim also holds the shape of bodies, bearing the creases, wear, and traces of the bodies that live in it, thus, holding their memory.

Many of the objects are culturally recognizable within Filipino contexts, yet the artist's own encounter with them is shaped by colonial displacement. Negative photographic images resemble Philippine landscapes, yet were sourced in Spain; shells, ubiquitous in the archipelago, were gathered in Mexico; pearls, both real and artificial and central to Filipino socio-economic and cultural tradition, were found in Canada. These materials form a duplicitous aesthetic, drawing from disparate geographies across the former Spanish empire and the artist’s current environment. In this way, “perlas” questions the ethics of cultural exchange, translation, and the construction of borders. 

Laruan interrogates viewer expectations, especially how art, institutions, and artists are often tasked with educating or explaining culture. In questioning how meaning is constructed, “perlas”s embraces fracture and productive tension, offering no singular narrative but rather an invitation to unsettle and reimagine how we see the world. 

Installed in the window space, “perlas” benefits from the window as a site of inherent boundary, a surface both for looking in and looking out. Laruan welcomes the tension between cut-out denim and the lively backdrop of neighboring clothing shop displays, as well as the distance imposed by the glass, preventing viewers from approaching the material intimacy of the work. Like museum display glass that played a role in producing knowledge about “the other,” the window becomes a border itself—a threshold that intensifies questions of access, territoriality, and knowledge-making. 

Biography

Ramolen Laruan is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and educator based in Tkaronto/Toronto, ON. Laruan explores displacement, migration and politics of knowledge with questions relating to notions of truths, memory work and failure tactics. Although non-medium specific, her practice encompasses sculpture, collage, print, textile, installation, moving image and sound. Laruan has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Laruan has participated in residencies in Spain and Germany. Recent exhibitions include shows at grunt gallery, Xpace Cultural Centre, Latcham Art Centre, Zalucky Contemporary, and the project-space the plumb. Laruan holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queen’s University, and a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Western Ontario.