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PoMoArts 2020/2021 Ceramic Artist in Residence, Serisa Fitz-James developed a new body of work during an exceptionally challenging year. In their solo-exhibition, We Can Ask for More, Serisa’s sculptural ceramic works explore the multiplicities of their Filipinx Settler-Canadian culture and identity. The sculptures visualize familiar forms of comfort, connection and pay homage to their pre-colonial heritage.

Scroll down to view this digital gallery. Click on artwork images to see an enlarged or complete view of the piece.

PoMoArts Gallery is open daily for in-person visits and artwork is available for purchase over the phone or in person. See PoMoArts website for Gallery hours and our COVID 19 Safety Plan.

We Can Ask for More - panoramic view of gallery installation

Serisa Fitz-James

Ceramic Artist in Residence PoMoArts 2021/2022

https://pomoarts.ca/artists/fitz-james-serisa

Artist Statement

A focus of my art has been healing myself, and to make healing objects and situations for other people. Right now, a lot of my ceramic art explores my Identity as a half-Filipinx 2nd generation immigrant settler in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I like to make sculptures of identity objects. For me, that can be basketballs, cleaning supplies, plastic chairs, and beer bottles. The surfaces I paint are reminiscent of the architecture in the Philippines, and my personal history (graffiti, Band-Aids, stitching things together, reusing objects). I make work in a direct response to colonization of the Philippines with an urgency to preserve and discover our histories and to create solutions. With these Identity objects, I hope to ask questions as to why our history’s are preserved the way they are, what we consider precious and why, and why is it that we choose the objects we do to preserve - why are these the objects we have left? I hope that through these objects, I can create a new history to aim towards, as well as bring comfort to people from similar colonial backgrounds.

We Can Ask for More

During my time at Port Moody Arts Center, I've been able to take my time.

Ceramics takes a lot of time to make, you spend a lot of time sitting down, touching something, planning, and seeing it grow and change through multiple stages.

As I've spent my time here I too have been growing with my art. A main focus of my art at the beginning of this exhibition was Identity. My past works pulled from a lot of imagery from my neighborhood and my family in the Philippines, as it was a place where I felt loved, happy and at home. Over the last few years, I have found myself struggling to find that sense of love, family, and acceptance from others around me and from myself. During this residency I have created therapeutic works where I explore and find pride in providing, learning about my family, being away from my family, preserving their stories and the environments they used to live in, in a practice to understand life before colonization. I have also explored what being non binary/ gender non-conforming means to me - being loved, and loving myself while being fat, and disabled. There are a few pieces centered around immigration, and how hard my family, and my mom especially, has to work to send money back home to the Philippines. This year has been especially hard due to COVID-19, natural disasters, hospital bills, and the pain of not being able to see your loved ones for years because of poverty, capitalism, greed and corruption. This process, although sometimes exhausting, has given me a new sense of pride and worth in who I am and what I can do. I am proud and happy to share my love, findings and sculptures with my friends and family in August.

As an integral part of their work, Serisa committed time to unpack the intersectionality of their identity and understand life before colonization. Serisa’s therapeutic creative process explores their diasporic relationships with distant family, preserving their stories, the environment they use to live in, and what it means to be non-binary / gender non-conforming. Ceramics is an extension of Serisa’s self-care practice and it has given them a new sense of pride and worth in who they are and what they can accomplish.

Butterfly Boy detail images

We Can Ask for More - panoramic view of gallery installation

Serisa Fitz-James

Ceramic Artist in Residence - PoMoArts 2021/2022

Biography

Serisa Fitz-James is a Filipinx-Canadian artist who currently works and resides on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples - Squamish, Stó:lō, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations. In 2020 they graduated from Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a Bachelors in Visual Arts and a Minor in Social Practice and Community Engagement. Serisa is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores themes of identity, pre/post colonial histories of the Philippines, as well as Filipinx/Canadian relationships. They enjoy creating works to heal, uplift and bring people together through food, comedy, illustration, performance, animation, and ceramic sculpture.

See the exhibition

We Can Ask for More - panoramic view of gallery installation

We Can Ask for More is being presented as a live exhibition installed in the gallery and a digital exhibition for viewing online. Serisa Fitz-James' virtual Artist Talk streams to Facebook live on August 26, 2021 and the video will available to watch after. The gallery is open daily for in-person visits. See PoMoArts.ca for Gallery hours and our COVID 19 Safety Plan.

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