Liturgical Heat at Wil Aballe Art Projects

Artists: Alex Gibson, Simon Grefiel, Maya Preyshon, Miguel Maravilla, Zoe Osborne

Exhibition title: Liturgical Heat

Venue: Wil Aballe Art Projects | WAAP, Vancouver, Canada

Date: July 9 – August 6, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Wil Aballe Art Projects | WAAP, Vancouver

A web of heat.
A home built of glass, refracting.
A body carved from coral.
A ritual of bright flora.

Liturgical Heat features works by Filipino artists Simon Grefiel (Vancouver)—in collaboration with Maya Preshyon—and Miguel Maravilla (Vancouver), and Barbadian artists Alex Gibson (Vancouver) and Zoe Osborne (Toronto); artists whose practices speak in tropical tongues.

In Canada, a region of the world dominated by cold rains and snow, this kind of art making feels like no small feat. On the surface we see a relationship of formal qualities these artists’ practices share—a sensorial language of heat, warm waters, tropical flora—a thread that connects regions like the Philippines and the West Indies. What lies beneath this is a web of subtext—an interconnectedness—between these regions.

In Vancouver’s industrial landscape backdropped by mountains and sky, is the BC Sugar Refining Company. Established in 1890, this refinery was situated on Canada’s West Coast as a convenient geographical site to extract raw sugar from both the Philippines and the Caribbean1.

An in between point.

To perform a liturgy is to express public worship, and the artists in Liturgical Heat provide a ritual to follow. An exploration of colonial, migratory, and climate themes are spoken within the works: Grefiel and Preshyon’s stained glass calls to mind religious occupation in the Philippines, and Maravilla’s sound reflects an undercurrent of activist energy that echoes throughout. Gibson’s drawings envision a rebirthed sense of the body and gender, while Osborne’s photo realistic renders challenge the visual currencies that accompany the West Indies. Together, the artists shed light on neocolonial issues that continue to influence and permeate tropical identities in their home countries and in Canada.

What Liturgical Heat offers is a thread that runs deep, a warmth that resonates with similarities shared between seemingly disparate and distant regions. A way of ritualizing and reclaiming heat.

A not-so-distant space.

-Text by Alex Gibson.

[1] City of Vancouver Archives.

Liturgical Heat, 2022, exhibition view, WAAP | Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver

Simon Grefiel & Maya Preshyon, 九. Judas misses when people cared, 2022 Glass, copper, lead, tin, kelp root, shells, stones, lave stone, cigarette butt, chain, dried branch, freshwater pearls, 21 x 12 x 4 in (53.3 x 30.5 x 10.2 cm)

Simon Grefiel, 九. Is it blue in Alaska?, 2022, Glass, silver, copper, lead, tin, coral, gifted photograph, 19 x 11.5 x 2 in (48.3 x 29.2 x 5.1 cm)

Alex Gibson, Fate’s garden (tourist hex), 2022, Ink on found paper, inkjet print, found object, hardware, 20 x 18 in (50.8 x 45.7 cm)

Simon Grefiel, 九. New Westminster possession ward, 2022, Glass, silver, copper, lead, tin, aeschynanthus longicaulis, sampaguita flower, found Pacific Coast stone, graphite on paper, 18 x 11.5 x 2 in (45.7 x 29.2 x 5.1 cm)

Simon Grefiel & Maya Preshyon, 九. Portrait of a banana tutelage, 2022, Glass, silver, copper, lead, tin, shells, amethyst, lava stone, tree bark, graphite on paper, Filipino pesos, aeschynanthus longicaulis, sampaguita flower, freshwater pearl, 21 x 13 x 2 in (53.3 x 33 x 5.1 cm)

Alex Gibson, A body worth weaving, 2022, Inkjet print, 10.5 x 8.5 in (26.7 x 21.6 cm), Framed

Simon Grefiel & Maya Preshyon, 九. Tamsi, isda, paniki, pusil (birds, fish, bats, guns), 2022 Glass, silver, copper, lead, tin, barnacle shell, freshwater pearls, braiding hair, aeschynanthus longicaulis, sea lanvender, fern, dried leaf, graphite on paper, 29 x 13 x 2 in (73.7 x 33 x 5.1 cm)

Zoe Osborne, Gran Gran, 2022, Inkjet print on fabric, 48 x 24 in (121.9 x 61 cm)

Simon Grefiel, 九. Our white room, 2022, Glass, silver, copper, lead, tin, found chain, dried flower, moisture remnants 18 x 9 x 2 in (45.7 x 22.9 x 5.1 cm)

Alex Gibson, Eileithyia’s rebirth and the amorphous sea egg, 2022, Ink on found paper, inkjet print, hardware, 26 x 18 in (66 x 45.7 cm)

Simon Grefiel, 九. Ward 2, 2021, Glass, copper, lead, tin, maple, philodendron 41 x 8 x 7 in (104.1 x 20.3 x 17.8 cm)

Zoe Osborne, My House in the Country, 2021, 30 sec animation looped, single channel, 1920 x 1080 pixels; NFT

Liturgical Heat, 2022, exhibition view, WAAP | Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver

Simon Grefiel & Maya Preshyon, Tagay table (detail), 2022, Wood, styrofoam, found shells, barnacle, clam, barnacle, freshwater pearls, glass, calcium carbonate, print, 30.5 x 40 x 22 in (77.5 x 101.6 x 55.9 cm)

Liturgical Heat, 2022, exhibition view, WAAP | Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver

Simon Grefiel & Maya Preshyon, Tagay table, 2022, Wood, styrofoam, found shells, barnacle, clam, barnacle, freshwater pearls, glass, calcium carbonate, print, 30.5 x 40 x 22 in (77.5 x 101.6 x 55.9 cm)

Miguel Maravilla, PANAWAGAN SA ISANG PUTING KAHON (Calling In A White Box), 2022, Audio; USB decorated with hardware; 15 minutes looped