MJ Flamiano

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Agimat is a community printmaking project at Sunshine Print Artspace (SPA) facilitated by An imprint led by MJ Flamiano, in collaboration with Saluhan, a Filipinx/o/a community collective based in Naarm/Melbourne and the Philippines. 

The word agimat in Tagalog can be considered a kind of protective talisman in Filipino folklore, or in English as a precious amulet or charm. Drawing on the comforting notion of agimat to protect oneself in times of need and uncertainty, MJ invites members of the Saluhan community to participate in up to 4 x paper screenprinting workshops and contribute towards the creation of a collective print archive and exhibition.

Read Agimat project info + Sign up to participate

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From Australia: An Accumulation is an imagining of Australian nationalism made through drawing, printmaking, community-engaged workshops, publications and exhibitions by Negative Press in collaboration with NETS.

I participated in a workshop at The University of Tasmania with Trent Walter in 2019 and created the poster walang hiya/no shame.

Photo: Negative Press

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Incinerator Art Award 2020, 28 August - 1 November, online exhibition at Incinerator Art Gallery. 

The Incinerator Art Award is Moonee Valley’s premier visual arts prize attracting artists from across Australia to respond to the Award’s call to action – art for social change.

This year 22 artists who explore diverse and topical themes surrounding social justice have been shortlisted for the Award.

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Stretched banners (unstretched histories) now showing online at IAA2020. 

This project was first exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 2018. The work explores the ‘political as personal’, recalling the social and cultural impacts of the Marcos dictatorship on my familial history and explores the complex ties between these events and the contemporary significance of the CCP.

Architect and scholar Professor Gerard Lico regards the CCP and other cultural institutions created under the Marcos regime as ‘allegories of [our] progress’ and ‘methods of illustrating and retaining state power under martial law’. Inspired by Lico’s rich and poetic theses, I have created an installation of 8 banners accompanied by a single-channel video work which grapple with the weight of these histories as a second-generation Filipino-Australian artist.

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IAA2020 Symposium: Government

Presented as a four-part series of conversations, ‘Government’ offers insights into the creative practices and ethical intersections of the Incinerator Art Award artists. Featuring: Azza Zein, The Bureau for the Organisation of Origins, Cyrus Tang, Desmond Mah, MJ Flamiano and Sha Sawari. 

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An imprint in her color, solo residency at Blindside artist-run-initiative between 29 April - 16 May.

He explained to me, as his friend had told him, “it’s the heart of the Philippines.”

An imprint in her color is a series of monotype, stencil and photographic screenprint works commemorating the unexplained and popular phenomena of the colour ‘aqua’, commonly found in the local architecture and family furniture of Filipino homes and neighbourhoods.

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2020, Untitled, an imprint in her color, 40 x 32cm, screenprint on copy paper.

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2020, Stencil types (aqua), 40 x 32cm, screenprint on copy paper.

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2020, Washed ashes, 40 x 32cm, screenprint on copy paper.

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2020, An obstruction, 32 x 40cm, screenprint on copy paper.

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2020, Install shot (aqua processes).

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The bone is the seed, a solo exhibition by MJ Flamiano at SEVENTH Gallery in Naarm/Melbourne.

Through listening to a Tagalog language learning podcast, I come to the realisation that the word 'butó', meaning ‘bone’ in English also has the secondary meaning of ‘seed’. It is through this innocuous discovery that I am reminded of the memory of my mum, a first-generation migrant from the Philippines, referring to the pit and the seed of the mango as the ‘bone’; a frequent error in her speech, which as a child, I would instinctively correct with irritation. By reflecting on the nuances of translation I reconsider my identity and relationship with the languages of Tagalog and English in a series of drawings and photographic prints, derived from the discarded husks of fruit, seeds, and childhood experience.

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2019, Guyabano seeds with mango, 52 x 39 cm, CMYK process screenprint on paper.

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2019, Prep, 52 x 39cm, CMYK screenprint on Somerset paper. 

Documentation by Aaron Christopher Rees.

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2019, Scratch, 52 x 39 cm, screenprint on paper.

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2019, The bone is the seed, installation view, SEVENTH Gallery, Melbourne.

2019, Like dilis, 52 x 39cm, two-colour screenprint on Somerset paper. 

2019, Prep, 52 x 39cm, CMYK screenprint on Somerset paper. 

2019, Guyabano seeds with mango, 52 x 39cm, CMYK screenprint on Somerset paper. 

2019, Scratch, 39 x 52cm, two-colour screenprint on Somerset paper. 

2019, Littlefish (wishbone), 52 x 39cm, two-colour screenprint on Somerset paper. 

Documentation by Aaron Christopher Rees.

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2019, Littlefish (wishbone), 52 x 39 cm, screenprint on paper.

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2019, Anting-anting (passionfruit), 32 x 40cm, CMYK process screenprint on paper (framed).

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An exhibition review by Olivia Koh.