Confidently Beautiful, with a heart, 2017
single-channel video installation, wall-painting and computer cut adhesive vinyl, video, sound 8 minutes 9 seconds
Commissioned for Halò: Bayanihan Philippine Art Project, 1 July – 10 September 2017, curated by Katrina Cashman, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Review on Artlink: ‘Bayanihan Philippine Art’ Project by Anna O’Loughlin
Review on ArtsHub: ‘HALO: Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan with JD Reforma’ by Gina Fairley
In the main question round of the 2015 Miss Universe competition, the American host Steve Harvey posed to the contestant from the Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, this question: ‘Earlier this year there was a controversy in the Philippines about the United States reopening a military base in your country. Do you think the United States should have a military presence in your country?’
She responded, breathlessly, ‘I think that the US and the Philippines has always had a good relationship with each other. We were colonised by the Americans and we have their culture in our traditions even up to this day and I think that we’re very welcoming with the Americans and I don’t see any problem with that at all.’ Later, when asked to stake her claim to the crown, Wurtzbach declared, 'I want to show the world — the universe, rather — that I am confidently beautiful, with a heart': an eloquent and probably strategic appropriation of the Miss Universe Organisation’s motto, 'Confidently Beautiful’.
The final moments of the pageant became a globally televised spectacle, live from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. After announcing before a crowded auditorium that Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez was the winner, Steve Harvey reemerged, chastened, to confess a mistake: he had misread the results, and Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was Miss Universe 2015. Dethroned, de-crowned, and still clutching the largest bouquet on the stage, Gutiérrez wept amongst a crowd of consolers.
The Miss Universe Pageant functions here as a microcosm of international politics and relations, a cipher for addressing issues arising from the long-standing colonial relationship between the United States and the Philippines, and its continued military-industrial complexity. A Trump co-owned institution from 1996 – 2015, the pageant’s resonance is particularly ominous in the post-2016 election context. Wurtzbach’s enthusiastic opinion on the continued American military presence in the Philippines reveals the competition as a platform for Western democracy, as well as an instrument of American doctrine and diplomacy.
Commissioned by Mosman Art Gallery for the Bayanihan Philippine Art Project, Confidently beautiful, with a heart, 2017, distills and reframes these events. It explores the context of this formerly Trump-owned institute in the context of a very Trumpian reality. What did Miss Philippines's win signify for the country, the world, or the universe?
Photos: Zan Wimberley
Confidently Beautiful, with a heart, 2017
single-channel video installation, wall-painting and computer cut adhesive vinyl, video, sound 8 minutes 9 seconds
Commissioned for Halò: Bayanihan Philippine Art Project, 1 July – 10 September 2017, curated by Katrina Cashman, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Review on Artlink: ‘Bayanihan Philippine Art’ Project by Anna O’Loughlin
Review on ArtsHub: ‘HALO: Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan with JD Reforma’ by Gina Fairley
In the main question round of the 2015 Miss Universe competition, the American host Steve Harvey posed to the contestant from the Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, this question: ‘Earlier this year there was a controversy in the Philippines about the United States reopening a military base in your country. Do you think the United States should have a military presence in your country?’
She responded, breathlessly, ‘I think that the US and the Philippines has always had a good relationship with each other. We were colonised by the Americans and we have their culture in our traditions even up to this day and I think that we’re very welcoming with the Americans and I don’t see any problem with that at all.’ Later, when asked to stake her claim to the crown, Wurtzbach declared, 'I want to show the world — the universe, rather — that I am confidently beautiful, with a heart': an eloquent and probably strategic appropriation of the Miss Universe Organisation’s motto, 'Confidently Beautiful’.
The final moments of the pageant became a globally televised spectacle, live from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. After announcing before a crowded auditorium that Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez was the winner, Steve Harvey reemerged, chastened, to confess a mistake: he had misread the results, and Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was Miss Universe 2015. Dethroned, de-crowned, and still clutching the largest bouquet on the stage, Gutiérrez wept amongst a crowd of consolers.
The Miss Universe Pageant functions here as a microcosm of international politics and relations, a cipher for addressing issues arising from the long-standing colonial relationship between the United States and the Philippines, and its continued military-industrial complexity. A Trump co-owned institution from 1996 – 2015, the pageant’s resonance is particularly ominous in the post-2016 election context. Wurtzbach’s enthusiastic opinion on the continued American military presence in the Philippines reveals the competition as a platform for Western democracy, as well as an instrument of American doctrine and diplomacy.
Commissioned by Mosman Art Gallery for the Bayanihan Philippine Art Project, Confidently beautiful, with a heart, 2017, distills and reframes these events. It explores the context of this formerly Trump-owned institute in the context of a very Trumpian reality. What did Miss Philippines's win signify for the country, the world, or the universe?
Photos: Zan Wimberley
