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, & cast metal sculpture. the collective work explores the ambiguities and intersections of colonial violence, heritage, & spirituality through the polysemous lenses of immigration, diaspora, & exodus.
my overall practice is a lifelong exercise in anti-imperial contradiction; simultaneously infiltrating & reclaiming forms of expression stereotypically exclusive to the settler class, while memorializing the loss, celebrating the survival, & participating in the future of the space left by centuries of imperial rule.
as an interdisciplinary artist i work primarily in poetry, performance, oil painting & cast metal sculpture. my diverse body of work uses poetic gestures & languages across disciplines and materials. by way of heavily repeated lyrical actions, polysemous symbols, & synesthetic expressions i explore the aesthetic interactions between various oppositionals within conceptual spectra: of large and small gestures, the ritual & the secular, intentional & incidental, etc.
i'm conceptually fascinated by the notion of the artist serving the role of a prophet, provoking reflection & discussion of the spectacular, the mundane, & the perpetually fleeting through highly intentional actions. be it through subverting traditional narratives or through constructing my own, i investigate phenomenon, mythopoesis & the multi-storied nature of classical archetypes. in the work i utilize references & allusions to my own personal history, as well as to both popular culture & classical texts. through these inclusions i place my work within a larger conversation between the western canon & my own experience as a colonized body. in this way i take my own part in the borderless traditions of creation & 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 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
