Tina Villadolid

Degree: Social Practice Master of Fine Arts ‘23

Email: tinavgwu [dot] edu

Title: In the Presence of Savage Women

Material: Banana leaves, rice, muslin, aerosol spray paint, bamboo timber, “Manila” rope not made in Manila, the artist’s DIY Shaman ritual objects, poem written by the artist

PROJECT STATEMENT: 

In the Presence of Savage Women memorializes an exhibition Villadolid made in December 2022. This  staircase was the portal to Filipinabilia: Origins, Rituals, Artifacts, which populated the South Bridge, an area not currently accessible because of the ongoing renovation. The exhibition was a reclamation of space for the Filipina/o/x histories that are deeply intertwined with that of the United States, creating an entry point for unwinding legacies of colonial anti-indigenous narratives that keep these histories buried. In the Presence of Savage Women is a monument to the resistance of systemic erasure.

Biography

Tina Villadolid is a second-generation Filipina American New Yorker. She graduated from Amherst College in 1983 with a BA in Fine Arts, then moved to New England where she became a mom, was a small-scale pig farmer and fronted a rock band.

Moving to Santa Barbara, CA, the band had a hard landing. Villadolid transitioned into being the local art museum’s outreach teacher, bringing the museum into the neighborhoods guerrilla style. 23 years later, she was teaching the children of former students. This generational work with the marginalized population of a wealthy community threw into question her own life's relationships to predominantly white spaces and institutions.

Villadolid returned to school wanting to unlearn ideologies of systemic power hierarchies, knowing that real change must begin with her own practice. She is a Social Practice Master of Fine Arts candidate, ‘23, at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, George Washington University.