BAYANI maria santa barbara genereaux is a filipinx interdisciplinary artist currently based in minnesota. their eclectic practice extends through various lyrical gestures into poetry, performance, painting, and cast metal sculpture. the collective work explores the ambiguities and intersections of colonial violence, heritage, and spirituality through the polysemous lenses of immigration, diaspora, and exodus.
As an interdisciplinary artist I work primarily in poetry, performance, oil painting and cast metal sculpture. My diverse body of work uses poetic gestures and languages across disciplines and materials. By way of heavily repeated lyrical actions, polysemous symbols, and synesthetic expressions I explore the aesthetic interactions between various oppositionals within conceptual spectra: of large and small gestures, the ritual and the secular, maniacal and controlled, etc.
Conceptually I'm fascinated by the notion of the artist serving the role of a prophet, provoking reflection and discussion of the spectacular, the mundane, and the perpetually fleeting through highly intentional actions. Be it through subverting traditional narratives or through constructing my own, I investigate phenomenon, mythopoesis and the multi-storied nature of classical archetypes. I utilize references and allusions to my own personal history throughout the work, as well as to both popular culture and classical texts. Through these inclusions I place my work within a larger conversation between the established popular western canon and my own experience as a colonized body. In this way I take my own part in the borderless traditions of creation and storytelling, while simultaneously exploring shared colonial narratives and structures from my own perspective as a first generation immigrant.
My work fills a specific niche of infiltrating & reclaiming narratives in the art world that present as cis-white-heternormative spaces, but in reality belong to generations of BIPOC, immigrant, & politically displaced or otherwise marginalized bodies. Certain rhythms & modalities of grandeur & spiritual self importance were historically made readily available to white artists at the expense of the “other” bodies that extracted, refined, built, & served the materials & spaces that were & still are enjoyed by the imperial class; my entire body of work is in service to forcing my way into that space, to hold open whatever doors I may find & wedge myself in, & to make way for more people like myself to participate.
resume, cv, and pdf copies of poetry are available upon request.
contact: ironbayani@gmail.com