Stephanie Comilang: ‘Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to Me Paradise)’
Stephanie Comilang, Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to Me Paradise), 2016. Single-channel video, stereo sound, colour, 25 min 46 sec. All rights reserved by the artist
About the Work
Paraiso, an all-seeing drone spirit, is summoned every Sunday into the heart of Hong Kong where Filipina migrant workers gather to socialize. In the artist’s words: “The ghost or spirit in my film is called Paradise. She acts as an intermediary between the women and their place of origin. Often, when ghosts are portrayed in films, they try to find their way to the other side, and humans act as mediators to facilitate this passing. But in my film, it is the opposite. Paradise is the mediator who sends the women’s messages back home to their loved ones.” As the women claim the public space, Comilang’s sci-fi documentary considers social connections in today’s age of economic migration and modern technology.
About the Artist
Stephanie Comilang (b. 1980; based in Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany) is an artist and filmmaker whose documentary-based works create narratives that look at how our understandings of mobility, capital and labour on a global scale are shaped through various cultural and social factors. Her work has been shown at Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid (2024); Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2023); Tate Modern, London (2022); Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2022), and Haus der Kunst, Munich. She was awarded the 2019 Sobey Art Award, Canada’s most prestigious art prize for artists 40 years and younger.
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding under 8 chapters.
