Skin Scripts
Site specific installation at Project Row Houses, Houston
Part of the exhibition “eco, xiang, echo: meditations on african, andean, asian diaspora curated by William Cordova.
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A visual investigation of the history of the Baybayin (Alibata) Filipino script. It was almost lost during Spanish colonization but was found in Anthropological texts and revived by Filipino tatoo artists in the American diaspora.
Treating the row house as a "body," Minette "tatoos" the building in the traditional way, by tapping small black nails into it's surface to create dotted patterns with the text.
Alibata tatoos
Alibata tatoos
View of interior installation during exhition.
Interior wall painting of woman, kneeling before a lake of mirrored letters. Painting is done with tar and framed by sheer nude stocking material, arranged in a sail-like pattern (representing the Filipino nurses and foreign workers in diaspora).
View of installation in-progress
Partial view of interior installation. Script cut in mirrored plexiglass, arranged as a river flowing from the corner, throwing calligraphic reflections to the walls.
Minette gives a tour of the site of the installation at Project Row Houses, Houston.
Documentation of project by curator William Cordova