MISS ANTHROPY, 2020
single-channel 8K video, sound, 5 minutes
Concept and Direction: JD Reforma
Visual Effects: Tristan Jalleh
Production Consultant: Zan Wimberley
Cinematography: Gotaro Uematsu, Motel Picture Company
Original Music: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
Costume: Megan Hanson
Production Assistant: Kieran Bryant
Makeup Artistry: Annabelle Reforma
Hair Stylist: Haruka Sato
Commissioned for HI-VIS, 1 February – 15 March 2020, curated by Luke Letourneau, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney
Review on Runway Journal: ‘Love is the Message’, by Claire Cao
MISS ANTHROPY is a video-portrait of the artist as landscape, which combines and queers references across popular culture, music and fashion, with imagery influenced by real-time environmental events that occurred in both the artists’ home state of NSW, Australia and his ancestral homeland, the Philippines.
In MISS ANTHROPY, multiple social, cultural and environmental concerns converge. The costume worn by the artist is an interpretation of the ‘lava gown’, a formal dress worn by Miss Philippines 2018 Catriona Gray when she won and was crowned Miss Universe 2018. The original dress, by Filipino designer Mak Tumang, was inspired by the 2018 eruption of Mount Mayon, near Albay – the hometown province of Gray’s mother. As recently as January this year, Taal Volcano, another Philippine volcano located 65km south of Manila, began erupting after 43 years of dormancy. Natural events such as the Mayon and Taal eruptions contrast against the 2020 state of emergency in Australia, where anthropogenic climate catastrophe and drought facilitated an early and devastating fire season.
Utilising symbols and signifiers from across these references and events – a pageant sash bearing the plea to “Let It Reign”, a P2 mask, real imagery and textures of Mount Mayon – the artist uses his body to create a bridge between the two worlds that cradle his identity, worlds on fire. Working with collaborators from art, design, music, fashion, and within his own family, he has composed an image that reflects on the strength and resilience, as well as the fragility and vulnerability, of nature and its inhabitants. Cradling a volcano between their outstretched legs, MISS ANTHROPY embodies the paradox of fire – a force of both destruction and renewal, death and rebirth, it is a portrait rendered in both misanthropy and hope.
