Michael Arcega: Homing Pidgin
Connections Gallery
De Young Museum
San Francisco, CA
6 October 2007 - 20 January 2008

by Tonya Warner

The "ethnographic" object and its display within the Western museum can be the subject of much argument.   Should one emphasize its aesthetic qualities or its functional or cultural role?   Should one attempt to establish context?   These questions can serve as a starting point for examining Michael Arcega's body of work entitled "Homing Pidgin."  

The Filipino artist who now resides in the Bay Area has an interest in cultural hybridity, especially in interactions between South Asia and the imperialist West.   These exchanges were founded with colonial trade roots and continue with contemporary globalization (read: Americanization).   The title of the show is a play on words, mixing a sense of navigation, usually towards home, with a term that refers to the broken language that is created from the meeting of two separate cultures.

Arcega also seems to be inspired by the myriad uses of tribal clubs shown alongside one another in the museum - some were used in battle, some used in symbolic dance.   This led him to divide the bulk of his show between "war clubs" with battle ships perched delicately atop long carved pieces of wood and "dance clubs," where the club is topped with equally elaborate buildings.   The later is, of course, a pun on the multiple uses of the word "club"; some of these little dance clubs feature flashing lights and techno music pouring out of the little windows.   Arcega adds to this by making the slender base of each resemble western carved furniture legs - furthering his discourse on cultural hybridity.

Continuing along these lines, the exhibit also features Arcega's meticulously created "Spam/Maps" which are - you guessed it - maps made out of pieces of spam.   What this is mainly in reference to is the continued popularity of a food product that was introduced by the occupying US military in WWII throughout Asia and the South Pacific.   The maps are impressively detailed and speak to cultural assimilation.

In both forms, Arcega is able to point out both the hybrid sharing and miscommunications between multiple cultures and the West.   However, he does it in a way that seems to embrace both, all with a tongue in cheek.   The plays on words throughout this show keeps its dialogue more grounded in ideas of culture than heavy-handed politics.    One is able to revel not only in the implicit meanings behind these works but also in their carefully and skillfully crafted details.   Arcega has created works that are both springboards for discourse and miniature objects of wonder.

http://www.arcega.us/Home.html

http://www.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?exhibitionkey=793

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