This month of May, in honor of Labor month and Mental Health Awareness month, Imahica Art Gallery presents “A Memorial for Lola: An Expression of Self-Identity from Stitching Memories of Home,” by upcoming artist Basil Malicsi. Examining the labor and art of sewing as a meditative ritual that brings forth memories to memorialize loved ones, Malicsi utilizes the medium of retasos fabric scraps through his creation of hard and soft sculpture installations. This exhibition is also part of the artist’s MFA thesis requirement at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, College of Fine Arts.
Featuring 42 hand-stitched tapestries, Malicsi takes us into the meditative and spellbinding ritual of sewing by using vibrant colors of yarns and threads to piece together fabric scraps from his studio as a fashion designer. Each collage tapestry was made during the two-year period of the pandemic which helped the artist maintain a healthy mental state during the quarantine period of the pandemic.
Encouraging a dialogue between memorializing, meditation and identity, Malicsi creates a 10 feet high, 16 feet by 16 feet area installation in the form of a labyrinth to recall his childhood memories with his home that he shared with his grandmother through the meditative ritual of sewing. The monumental structure along with the objects inside the labyrinth stands as a way of honoring his late grandmother and as a symbolic gesture that memories are bigger than our physical, mental an spiritual psyche combined.
Inviting the viewer to understand, visualize, and feel every part of the space, the artist enables the work to be tactile by encouraging the viewer to walk around and touch each of the pieces.
“A Memorial for Lola,” runs from May 20 until June 4, 2022. The gallery is open to the public from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Mondays to Fridays, and on weekends and holidays by appointment. The exhibition is held at Imahica Art Gallery, 2A Lee Gardens, Wack-wack, Mandaluyong City. For inquiries, contact 0917 894 5646 or visit https://www.imahica.art.
