Davide Bugarin & Adam Castle
Sore Throat
June 13 – June 15, 2024, 12-6pm
Interactive Screening/Opening Reception: June 13, 6-8pm
Microscope is pleased to welcome the artist duo Davide Bugarin & Adam Castle, who are based in the UK, for the NY debut of their media installation “Sore Throat.” The work, which was completed in 2023, will be on view during gallery hours on June 13, 14, and 15th. An interactive screening event will take place between 6 and 7:15pm on Thursday June 13th, followed by a reception with the artists. Viewers may enter and exit at any time.
From Bugarin & Castle:
Sore Throat (2023) is an interactive film installation that explores how sound overheard through walls has impacted queer people and spaces in the Philippines, where the interpretation of sound is informed by monstrous mythology and the distortions of colonization and gentrification. In the film’s glowing midnight world, a character played by Davide Bugarin shapeshifts between matador, colonizer, emcee and young queer Filipino. Shot on location in Manila and in a constructed space, the 20-minute film blends cabaret and moving image with a newly developed interactive technology. As in live cabaret, the on-screen performer breaks the fourth wall and commands the audience to make noises, both adorative and animalistic. Theatrical backdrops, costuming and song fill this illusionistic world, where monstrosity lingers but cannot be pinned down.
Sore Throat (or Magang Lalamunan in Tagalog) draws upon historical and contemporary interpretations of sound heard through walls in the Philippines, and personal queer experiences. In rural Luzon, we witness a knock at the door. ‘Tao po!’, the traditional announcement (‘I am human’) is heard. It declares that the voice is not a monster’s. Filipino folklore has long been filled with Aswang, monstrous creatures who shape-shift into animals such as dogs, crocodiles and birds. As Spanish colonizers set upon the Philippines in the 16th century, they exploited pre-existing beliefs to propagate the notion that women and queer people were Aswang. At night, it can be hard to tell if the noises heard through the walls of homes are the calls of jungle animals or the cries of an Aswang. This tension permeates the film, as the thin theatrical walls struggle to contain either safety or sound.
As rejection and self-judgment swirl, the sole performer is plucked from rural Luzon to Manila, a city that has long been a destination for queer Filipinos. Areas such as Malate have come alive at night as queer districts, with karaoke bars bustling and streets becoming overflow social spaces. Yet the vested interests of new businesses and residents desire a more quiet and respectable neighborhood, and the sound of late-night performance reverberates against them.
At the entrance to the gallery is a capiz shell curtain — a vibrating entrance covering that has been rendered digitally and made static. Surrounding the film projection are four hanging banners, reminiscent of the wings of a theater. The imagery upon them is created from a photo taken by a dentist of the inside of the performer’s mouth. This human form has been constructed as space in architectural software before being transformed into millions of digital sequins. The audience finds themselves amongst this glittered throat as they experience voices passing through the fourth wall and physical walls, shaking certainties in a contested world.
“Davide Bugarin & Adam Castle: Sore Throat ” in on view Thursday June 13th through Saturday June 15th, 12-6pm daily.
Event: Thursday June 13th: Interactive Screening at 6pm, followed by Reception. For further information please contact the gallery at info@microscopegallery.com
Images: Details of film stills for Sore Throat (2023) by Davide Bugarin & Adam Castle, digital, color, sound, 19 minutes 28 seconds (time variable). Courtesy of the artists. Creative technologist: Studio Autonomic. Music created with Manila-based band Kalye Teresa. Sore Throat (2023) is funded by Creative Informatics and The National Lottery through Creative Scotland. The exhibition is supported by Newcastle University.
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Davide Bugarin & Adam Castle create moving image and installation works, with a focus on histories of performance and queerness, and utilize performance, music and theatrical devices. Solo exhibitions of their work include at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (UK); Kriittinen Gallery, Turku (Finland) and Pineapple Lab, Manila (Philippines). They are working on commissions for solo exhibitions with two arts organizations in the UK.
Davide Bugarin is an architectural designer and artist working in digital drawing, film, installation and performance. He has exhibited at the Malta Art Biennale 2024 and participated in the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2023 (Italy). He was on the New Architecture Writers 2023 program and has been published in The Architects’ Journal, KoozArch and Architectural Review. He received a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Dissertation Medal Commendation and Bronze Medal Nomination. He has won architectural prizes from the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects and FAT Architects, and worked for Foster + Partners and Mott Macdonald.
Adam Castle is an artist working in moving image and performance, and runs Pollyanna queer arts collective. He has been commissioned to create new work by Talbot Rice Gallery and BBC Scotland / LUX Scotland and has exhibited and screened works at galleries including Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany); Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson (USA), Threewalls, (USA); and Baltic (UK). He has curated for British Film Institute and Historic Environment Scotland. He won the Leadership Award at the Creative Edinburgh Awards in 2016 for founding Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival and Pollyanna where he performs in cabaret shows as his queer creature alter-ego Pollyfilla. Adam is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Newcastle University. More info at adamcastle.com
