Bilad – exposed under the sun / exposed for all to see – Dinah Gaston
Bilad – exposed under the sun / exposed for all to see – Dinah Gaston
My work is dedicated to my mother Antonina Prado Gaston and my cousin Barbara Ann Pamatian who both passed away in 2022. This installation explores the history and the communicative properties of traditional Indigenous Filipino and Muslim textiles, hand dyed and woven pieces as well as the performative and integrative properties of vintage dish clothes, jay cloths, scrubs, Tim Horton and Macdonald bags, and other materials. Entitled BILAD, this work examines what it means to expose a Filipino presence. It means exposed under the sun or exposed for all to see in the open.
The idea was to recreate objects, garments and woven textiles as symbols for the Filipino workers who come to Canada as immigrants who already held established degrees back home. They then became domestic workers, labourers, worked at fast food establishments and as medical support staff. There are approximately 957,000 Filipinos now in Canada, four out of five of those are immigrants.
These creations spotlight those families who now occupy a majority of our population here in Canada, my mother, my father and my family being very much a part of this immigration story. I hope this project will expose their sacrifice and selflessness.
*Deep appreciation goes out to Mary-Anne Mctrowe, Annie Martin and Katie Bruce for their unconditional support and believing in me.
Dinah Gaston is a queer diaspora Filipino/mestiza maker dedicated to the self-exploration around her mixed race and othering identity. Based on the traditional territory of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7, her focus is around memory, immigration, and displacement.
Dinah’s work reflects on fragmented childhood memories of immigrating from the Philippines to Canada in the late 60s and then living on Indigenous reservations in Western Canada. She did not see a true reflection of herself growing up, feeling like an outsider within the two communities around her. Gaston’s work reflects upon notions of family, history, nationality, location, real and imagined memories. Gaston’s work looks at ancestral inheritance, identity and the mythological. Gaston has also endured discrimination, feelings of isolation and invisibility.
Her artistic journey has been like wading through a silent storm of POC and gender identity to see what is on the other inside. The process is slowly embracing intersectionality through painting and textile exploration; quilting ideas, fragments, mark making, dissection, mending, and elasticizing borders.
Gaston’s practice as of late has been a deep dive into the history and the communicative properties of traditional Indigenous Filipino and Muslim textiles of her ancestors. And she is committed to engaging with the warp and weft of how she and her community have integrated within the fabric of Canada. Where exactly has she come from, how did she get here and where is she going now that there is a more prominent presence in Canada.
Date:April 5th, 2025 - May 30th, 2025
Location:Casa - Main Gallery
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