Manto N°5 – BATTLE AGAINST DESTINY – Moiraiʼs Fate Armour, 2021 mixed-media textiles sculpture with assorted attached elements; video, 10:05 min; audio, 46:28 min (Fernando Pessoa, Ode Marítima. Recited by the artist)
The sumptuous ceremonial garment in Manto N°5 represents the body facing God on Judgment Day. The elements composing the vestment reference a multiplicity of rituals and roles, genders and sexualities, creating a glamorous queered robe. The title invokes the Moirai of Greek mythology, the three goddesses who spin the threads of human destiny. Creating a symbolic shielding mantle, the artist attempts to resist and elude fate. Manto N°5 also references Brazilian artist Arthur Bispo do Rosárioʼs (1909-1989), Annunciation Garment, which he had made to wear on Judgment Day. Similarly assembled from found materials and objects, Manto N°5 stands in for the body, exposing mechanisms of power, bias, and suppression. Complex and layered, it both protects and liberates the body, freeing the self to perform its chosen identities. (Mona Filip)
2023 GOG (Galeries Ontario Galleries) Award for Exhibition of the Year, Budget under $20,000, Thematic - THE COUNTER/SELF Mona Filip, Curator & Exhibition Designer - Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 2023
𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘊𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙/𝘚𝘌𝘓𝘍, January 11–March 25, 2023, Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Mona Filip, Curator & Exhibition Designer. Artists: 2Fik, Helio Eudoro, Julius Poncelet Manapul, Meryl McMaster, Sasha Shevchenko, Adrian Stimson, Stacey Tyrell, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Jamie Griffiths.
