Patrick Cruz: Brown Gaze

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It’s impossible to turn away from Toronto-based artist Patrick Cruz’s show Titig Kayumanggi (Brown Gaze) on view at the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg until June 4. A stark contrast to the previous exhibition of American post-minimalist giant Fred Sandback, Cruz explores his vision of “maximalism” within the context of immigration and the realities within and around cultures. Viewers are bombarded with the loud and responsive movements of Cruz’s brush and lens in every inch of the gallery space.

The Tagalog title suggests this is the view of a gaze of colour – in both the literal and cultural context. Drawing heavily on his Filipino-Canadian culture, Cruz explores the torrent of visual culture – both Asian and North American – in his life. Even the gallery floor is carpeted with vivid overlapping canvases. We are pushed to feel this overwhelming palette of colours and marks. Ghosts of amorphic bodies are displayed against dripping black linguistic characters on the walls. Treated with the same colours and gestural application, they hint at the countless people who, like Cruz, have moved through different cultures.

Cruz doesn’t attempt to hide the methods or realities of the technology he uses. Cords powering four digital screens splay across stacks of cardboard boxes emblazoned with North American and Asian food logos. Images flip and slide into one another on the screens – crowds of people morph into street meat vendors, and scenes of nightclubs shift to pots of rice, while modes of transportation remain a consistent thread. The realities of immigrating to a new country while honouring and exploring the connections of home come through in these videos. Cruz is piecing it together for us, letting us see fragments and movements all at once.

In the hall beyond the gallery is another video work, “A Diary of Restraints and Instants.” Rooms within rooms contained within the frame of the screen offer a similar journey as the works in the main space. Cruz wants to bring us into his visual plane through banal details of the day.

Cruz’s work is a critical reflection of the experiences of immigrants across Canada. He brings us into his life with intention – nothing is static, everything is moving. Sometimes it is home.

Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art

460 Portage Ave, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0E8

204-942-1043

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