Exhibits,

Christina Hayes These are the days you will remember

Opening: Tuesday, 3 November 6-8pm Dates: 3-20 November 2009

A few years ago, starting a small business ‘A Portrait to Remember’, I had the idea to take people’s old family photos and enliven their memory of loved ones by painting them a ‘beautiful heirloom quality oil painting’. Fantastic business cards. But it didn’t work out.

The business, in fact was a sort of front. Compelled by my own photos of family past I travelled to the Philippines with my mother, to diligently scrawl down the stories of the lives of men and women mythologised by family lore.

The photos were gradually put aside to make way for imagery that appeared like visions; or a collation of visual imaginings, that I felt needed to be embodied. Friends and family were enlisted to pose, and my sister Esther Marie Hayes, a costume designer helped me dress them. The visual telling of these stories was enriched by the involvement of many people. They are deeply thanked.

Pandanggo Sa Ilaw (the Candle Dance) and Tinikling (the Bamboo Dance) will be performed live at the exhibition opening at Bus Projects. The dances, performed by The Filipino Silayan Dance Academy, require grace, balance and great poise to avoid injury (think rhythmically pounding Bamboo stalks and hot wax), and should not to be missed. And, like all good Barrio Fiestas, there will be plenty of beer and Lumpia (Filipino spring rolls).