vMeme Contemporary Art Gallery invites everyone to Uneasy Peace, an online solo show by Eloisa May P. Hernandez, who marks her return to exhibition after a number of years. Consisting of 40 photographs of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus, where Hernandez lives and works, Uneasy Peace navigates the tension occasioned by the enduring silence and emptiness of familiar spaces—streets, school buildings, sites of public art—where people, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, once gathered as a matter of course and long to gather in again.
The show runs from 18 December 2020 to 24 January 2021, and may be accessed via the vMeme website (http://www.vmemecontemporary.com).
Certain photographs in the exhibition are to be reproduced in calendars and other merchandise. The proceeds from the sale of such merchandise will be donated to Art Mobile Relief Kitchen, a volunteer group of artists and cultural workers that endeavors to feed the hungry in times of distress.
Hernandez is Professor at the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman, where she teaches courses in art history, film studies, popular culture, and gender issues.
vMeme promotes contemporary Philippine art and various projects of artists-advocates.
Help the College of Arts and Letters and the CAL Student Council raise money for the KALingain ang Kapwa Fund. The fund will be used to assist CAL students, administrative staff and faculty severely affected by recent typhoons.
Popular Art And Culture in the Philippines in the Time Of Corona Deadline for Submissions: 31 January 2021
About the Anthology
The forthcoming anthology, Popular Art and Culture in the Philippines in the Time of Corona, seeks to sense, scan, and speculate on what people in the Philippines have been making, doing, using, listening to, watching, playing, liking, sharing, and remixing in connection with the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to: inquire into popular artistic and cultural values, forms, and practices; document shifts in their modes of production, dissemination, reception, and remediation; and articulate the place of popular art and culture amid the said crisis, which, in the country, encompasses the experience of one of the longest lockdowns in the world.
The editors look forward to papers that evince a range of disciplines and dispositions in the course of their engagements with instances of popular art and culture during the pandemic, including those that are produced outside of the Philippines but circulate within it. Of particular interest are essays in which popular phenomena are conceived as aesthetic maneuvers that are resistive to social conventions, cultural institutions, markets, or the state.
The anthology is envisioned to serve as a vital resource for various courses in the humanities and the social sciences.
Suggested Themes for Contributions
Contributions may revolve around, but are not limited to, the following:
The transformation of spaces, such as the development of work-from-home settings;
Home-based hobbies and routines, such as online shopping, cooking, baking, and plant care;
Active transportation, such as walking, cycling, and scootering;
Health-seeking and health-preserving norms, artifacts, and behaviors;
The face mask, the face shield, and other quarantine-related fashion and dress;
Memes, webcomics, vlogs, podcasts, and other digital media forms;
Video games, including genres, platforms, and player-generated content, such as game streams;
Social media and messaging apps, platforms, and norms, including hashtag activism and cancel culture;
Socially distanced and online gatherings, including political rallies and protests;
Influencers, content creators, micro-celebrities, and the notion of the public figure;
Watersheds in digital content, such as the rise of boys’ love and girls’ love series;
Cultural institutions, such as museums, galleries, concert halls, and theaters;
Media industries, such as film, television, and music; and
Manifestations of cross-cultural “waves”, such as those from Korea (hallyu), Thailand, and Japan.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be made by e-mail to Dr. Eloisa May P. Hernandez, Editor (ephernandez@up.edu.ph) and Mr. Jaime Oscar M. Salazar, Managing Editor (jaime_oscar.salazar@up.edu.ph) on or before 31 January 2021.
Authors warrant that their manuscripts are original, unpublished, and not under consideration for another publication.
Manuscripts are expected to abide by the following specifications:
File format: Microsoft Word;
Font face and size: Arial or Times New Roman, 12 points;
Formatting: Double-spaced and paginated;
Language: English or Filipino;
Word count: From between a minimum of 3,000 to a maximum of 6,000 words, including notes and references;
Citation style: Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition; and
Required accompaniment: 300-word abstract in English.
In addition, manuscripts in Filipino should follow the style recommendations of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino.
All manuscripts will go through a single-blind review by two leading art/media scholars in the country.
The anthology will be submitted to the University of the Philippines Press for consideration.
