Miljohn Ruperto
Janus
From February 6 to March 29, 2025
Opening on February 6 at 6 pm
— Facebook event
Janus (2014) — 3 min. 30 sec.
Animated by Aimée de JonghActing Exercise: Demon Possession (2009) — 43 min. 38 sec.
The present two films by Miljohn Ruperto test perception thresholds by conjuring liminal states of being between life and a possible beyond. Transitions from one form into the next are anticipated yet never total. This quizzical simultaneity of almost antagonist presences is held in place by dilating temporalities, startling processes of perceiving, believing, and knowing.
Borrowing its title from the two-headed Roman god of transitions, beginnings and endings, Janus features the rabbit-duck illusion made famous by Wittgenstein. An emblem of our perceptive capacity, of both its potential and limitations, here the rabbit-duck is animated so that either creature appears on the cusp of death. Labored breath cycles serve as the chronometer of the repeated loop. Through the cinematic lens, the struggle becomes a melodrama, thereby beckoning the viewer to identify with this bivalent image.
Acting Exercise: Demon Possession documents a series of actors solitarily improvising a demon possession — or at least, the demon of their subjective imaginations. They attempt to dissolve the threshold between real and supernatural, mining their bodies for readable cues like grunts, cries, convulsions, and paralysis. The long duration of each take bloats the experience of time, either numbing or sharpening the viewer’s reason and critique. As in Janus, the viewer might choose to stretch or edge their perception, convincing themselves to be convinced.
Miljohn Ruperto was born in Manila and lives in Los Angeles. Working across photography, cinema, performance and digital animation, he is interested in developing approaches to interrogate and expand conceptions of nature and history. Ruperto has exhibited his work internationally at numerous venues, including Friends Indeed (San Francisco, 2020), Singapore Biennale (2019), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, 2018, 2012), Schinkel Pavillon (Berlin, 2018), Koenig & Clinton (Brooklyn, 2017), REDCAT (Los Angeles, 2017), KADIST (San Francisco, 2017), ILHAM Gallery (Kuala Lumpur, 2016–17), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2016), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2016), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, 2014), and Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library (Saskatchewan, 2014), among others. In 2019, he participated in the Acts of Life critical research residency NTU CCA Singapore and MCAD Manila, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Hammer Museum, and KADIST Art Foundation.
Other exhibition
Steven Cottingham
Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley
From February 6 to March 29, 2025
Dazibao thanks the artist for his generous collaboration as well as its advisory committee for their support.
Dazibao receives financial support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Ville de Montréal.
Dazibao acknowledges that it is located on the unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá: ka Nation and that Tiohtiá:ke / Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations, and today, is home to a diverse population of Indigenous as well as other peoples. Guided by ethics of respect, listening, and awareness, Dazibao commits to a continued reflection regarding the deep-rooted and systemic challenges tied to accessibility and inclusivity in the arts and beyond, and endeavors to apply such reflections to all aspects of its activities and governance.