Properties, 2019
Various found and modified objects, clothing, and painted and constructed backdrops
Dimensions variable
Collection of the Artist
Singapore Biennale 2019 commission

Gary-Ross Pastrana’s works revolve around the notion of material: its constitution, wearing down and mutations. For SB2019, Pastrana explores these stages of transformations in a work that intersects with both theatre and the exhibition space. The play ‘Cleansed’ (1998) by Sarah Kane was staged and rehearsed in Manila in collaboration with a Philippine theatre ensemble. For SB2019, another group of Singapore performers will then activate objects that were created during the play’s germination in Manila. These objects will also migrate to an SB2019 exhibition space and here they are, in Pastrana’s words, “precisely as art objects; the props recast as proper sculpture,” only to be picked up again in another cycle of performances.

Gary-Ross Pastrana (b. 1977, Manila, the Philippines) obtained his BA in Painting from the University of the Philippines in 2000. He received the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists award in 2006. Selected exhibitions include: the New Museum Triennial (New York, 2012), Busan Biennale (2008), ‘Sydney Contemporary’ at Carriageworks (Australia, 2017), as well as solo shows at Silverlens Galleries (Manila, the Philippines, 2018) and Vargas Museum (Manila, the Philippines, 2014). In 2004, he co-founded the art space Future Prospects in Manila. He has also organised and curated shows for Silverlens Galleries (Manila and Singapore), g23 Gallery (Thailand) and the Kyoto Art Center (Japan). He lives and works in Manila, the Philippines.