bruha:chou
bruha:chou, a Tagalog:Cantonese word ratio, translates to “witch:clown” – a brown witch:clown ventures through the gallery, alien-izes and de-neutralizes whiteness, attempts to wear whiteness (with a simultaneous nod to painted Cantonese opera clown aesthetic), explores the puzzling white box that humans refer to as the Vancouver Art Gallery. bruha:chou responds, ponders, releases, and takes nothing for granted. Flailing, going through the motions, trying to understand, they put their knowing onto the place, and—confused albeit grounded—leave; it’s like it never happened.
Through a show curated and facilitated by Carmen Papalia, aly de la cruz yip was granted permission to film inside the gallery after-hours.The performance was neither advertised nor promoted as programming, yet patrons on private tours did witness parts of it, and non-verbal interactions also occur between the artist and gallery staff and workers.
This piece honours the artful labour of poor and working class people, especially racialized, queer and disabled people.
Bio
aly de la cruz yip (they, them) is a multi-disciplinary community-engaged artist and caregiver. They are a queer and disabled non-binary femme of mixed Filipinx and Chinese ancestry, a child of migrant and immigrant settlers, born and raised on the stolen and unceded lands of the sḵwx̱wú7mesh, sel̓íl̓witulh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm nations.
They strive to unlearn colonial violence (not only by freeing themselves from internalized racism, but by centering their unlearning of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, extending and embodying gratitude and repair) and learn how to move gently as a guest on these territories that nourish and sustain them and their family.
aly’s work explores gender chaos, chronic illness, diasporic feels, intergenerational trauma—all, thru: clown, film, sound, drawing, installation – always searching for places of resonance and resistance.