The Queerious Murse Series

Julius Poncelet Manapul

A Space Windows

January 27 – March 18, 2017

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Julius Poncelet Manapul’s work addresses themes of post-colonialism, immigration, diaspora, sexual identity, and identity construction, focusing on the personal hybrid nature of Filipino culture and queer identities. The Queerious Murse Series are constructed brand name purses (Murse – Male Purse) using gay porn images to create the logo patterns. They relate commodity, obsession, compulsivity and fetishism of brand names, using male bodies to sell the ideal Homonormative Male; manufacturing the unattainable utopian image.  We buy the physicality and tangible objects as commodities, as well as buying into the intangible ideas and thoughts to dress up our own cultural identities. 

Manapul’s Murses mimic the idea of commoditized branding and the collected exotified otherness that struggles for a place within these idealized Homonormative conventions. They need to be questioned and changed to make queer bodies of colors visible.

Biographies

Julius Poncelet Manapul was born in Manila, Philippines in 1980 and immigrated to Toronto in 1990. He attained his Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2009 from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, and his Masters of Visual Studies at University of Toronto in 2013, along with his Sexual Diversity Studies Certificate from University of Toronto. His work had been presented at UTAC Gallery, Open Gallery, Propeller Gallery, P/M Gallery, Daniel Spectrum, The Paradise Now Collective and the Fashion Art Fusion Show, Nuit Blanche, Toronto World Pride Affiliated Art Event, BAAF Big Alternative Art, Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Koffler Gallery. Currently he is exhibiting in the group show Yonder at UWAG Gallery, curated by Mona Filip and Matthew Brower.