In old Filipinx mythology, the manananggal is a vampire-like creature capable of separating its torso from the lower half of its body. Often attributed to Spanish colonial attitudes towards Filipina women in power, the manananggal represents a woman detached from her reproductive organs—she must hide her lower half to protect herself from persecution and destruction.

Gericault De La Rose explores gender through this figure, blending mythology with art historical references and appropriated Catholic rituals in her durational performance In Between. The title conjures the liminal space between human and monster and—often met with that intrusive question, “what’s in between your legs?”—the fluidity of gender identity. Her performance highlights and honors the parts of her body that, to some, are a site of contention. Instead of hiding her body she showcases it in an act of transformation, recreation, and adoration.

Gericault De La Rose and Stephanie Syjuco, exhibiting artist and De La Rose’s mentor, will be in conversation before the performance discussing the connections between their practices. Inspired by Syjuco’s work on view in uncontained: categories always leak, they will address the concept of containment, notions of cultural authenticity, the body-as-vessel, and queer liberation.

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Gericault De La Rose is a queer trans Filipinx, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. While developing her studio art practice, she had the opportunity to work as a Co-curator of Philippine Objects at the Field Museum of Natural History where she organized a series of monthly events called Pamanang Pinoy using the objects within the collection as conduits for community discussion. Most recently in 2022, she received the San Francisco Foundation’s Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Award. De La Rose is currently an MFA candidate at UC Berkeley.

Stephanie Syjuco works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of racialized, exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship. Born in the Philippines, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has exhibited widely, including at The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. She is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and resides in Oakland, California.

This program is presented alongside the exhibition uncontained: categories always leak at the Wattis, on view April 28—May 13, 2023.