Friendly Tides

“Manila Bay: The Burning Ship—To What Have You Fully Committed?”

Feb 6 – May 18, 2023  Marin Civic Center Galleries, San Rafael

My Philippine home was blessed with a panoramic view of Manila Bay and I spent hours admiring the spectacular sunsets. One day, I espied a mythical sight—a burning ship! I grabbed my camera and snapped this image, showing at the Marin Civic Center exhibition, Friendly Tides.

To “burn ships” is a metaphor for fully committing to a forward action by intentionally cutting off any escape routes. The figure of speech purportedly came from Hernan Cortes’ Spanish conquest (boo, hiss) of the Aztec empire; arriving in 1519 and seeing he was badly outnumbered, Cortes ordered the burning of his ships to send a clear message to his men—no turning back. Do or die. What ships have you burned—to what have you fully committed? Tell me!

Wonder Nurse

Dia de los Muertos Installation and Video Projection at Kularts Nursing These Wounds dance performances

Oct 21-31, 2022 Brava Theater, San Francisco

Filipino Americans make up just 4% of U.S. registered nurses but account for over 30% of all COVID-related nurse deaths. To honor their ultimate sacrifice, O.M. France Viana portrays nurses as superheroines in a Dia De Los Muertos installation at Brava Theater. Featured is a butterfly cape of the binakol kinuskos fabric pattern, a magical Philippine cloth hung beside the dead to ward away evil spirits. (In Philippine folk lore, a butterfly flying nearby means an ancestor is visiting.) The cloth’s op art spinning vortex pattern echoes Wonder Woman’s signature transformational spin; Wonder Woman’s first secret identity was a G.I. nurse.

The nurse’s scrubs are made of cloth stamped and inscribed with letters from the community; the pocket holds sage, frankincense, ube, and vaporub.  Purple grow lights shine healing rays on passersby. The Philippine Community came out to stamp and sign the cloth at FANCO club events and Pistahan at Yerba Buena.

Read more here

Video projection at Kularts Nursing These Wounds performances

Magical Textile Art Mask

Fiber Sculpture and Social Practice

A Ritual Healing Object Offering

Mask distribution to Filipinx museum security guards and cultural workers

March-Sept 2022 San Francisco and Los Angeles area

Who guards the guards?  Cares for the caregivers and the cultural workers?

Limited artist masks distributed as ritual healing objects to Filipinx American museum guards and cultural workers.  Handmade from Binakol, an authentic indigenous Philippine textile, this traditional design is believed to possess magical powers and have the ability to ward off evil spirits.  Woven by Ilocano and Itneg communities in northern Luzon, the distinctive pattern called kusikos (whirlpool) creates a dizzying optical illusion meant to confuse and deter harmful spirits. Also used for boat sails, Binakol promoted good sailing by appeasing and attracting good wind spirits. These cultural badges connect their wearers to our rich Philippine heritage of caregiving, and are offered as symbolic gestures to empower and give visibility to invisible members of the artworld. 

A giant mask textile sculpture anchors the social practice and performance.

Legacy of Isao Fujimoto

Legacy of Isao Fujimoto, International House, and Manetti Shrem Museum, UC Davis,  CA

Curated by Scott Tsuchitani
Feb 14- -June 14, 2020

O.M.France Viana Halo-Halo: The Delicious Sun

Covid Relief: PIA Meals and Art Project Distribution: Galing Bata

PIA Covid-19 “Kapwa Care” Packages: Meals and Art Project Distribution

Nov 2020 and March 2021

With schools closed due to Covid-10, many Bessie Carmichael school Galing Bata students missed their hot meals. This Philippine International Aid project delivered packages consisting of of hot meals from Filipino restaurants, fresh produce, and an art project from Kularts to entertain kids at home. Delivered in cooperation with SOMCAN and Filipino American Development foundation,  these care packages promoted Filipino values of kapwa and hospitality while giving needed business and support to local Filipino restauranteurs. Underwritten by Wells Fargo Bank.

SOMCAN director Angelica Cabande and volunteers package meals and groceries for delivery to Galing Bata students.

Super Sarap, Asia Society of Texas, Houston, 2019

In Houston, France’s ice cream photos are exhibited near the Magnolia tree for which the brand was named. More here

Agrarianaa At SOMArts - 2019

France’s installation with soil from Delano, birthplace of the United Farmworkers Movement, began with a pilgrimage. Read the whole story here

At ProArts Gallery: Purple Salve/Salve Morada: The Hollywood Ending - Sept 2018

Invoking the magic of effigy and enacting Spanish-Filipino colonial conflict and healing, this site-specific installation of indigenous artifacts, flags, textiles, photographs, lights, and Vicks Vaporub lights up the Frank Ogawa Plaza. Read more here

Ube Trade at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art-May, 2018

France trades ube sweets for food stories at the SJICA Live! See more photos and read about it here.

O.M. France: Turning Ube Into Manna by Jeff Kelley

As an artist, France knows enough about the canon of American high modernism, the first and second waves of feminism, post-colonial liberation, and traditions of the sacred in art and everyday life to move among their discourses with a messianic passion, making miracles by turning ube into manna. Read more here...

Installation view: Black Madonnas and Ifugao bulul (rice god) ladder

Photo © Phil Bond

O.M. France Viana's Ube Art: By Manzel Delacruz

O.M. France Viana's Ube Art

12 Degrees MFA Exhibition

The latest works of note were her installations on Black Madonnas and purple yams in the 12 Degrees MFA Exhibition shown recently at Mills College Museum in Oakland, California. Like her published writings, her artwork is infused with her standout insights on life, Philippine culture and universal matters that make one seriously ponder humorous situations, or find humor in serious matters. Read more here...

France transforms the Pinoy funny gesture of pointing with lips into directional signs, posted throughout the Mills Art Museum grounds and at various SOMA Pilipinas sites. France aims to restage instinctual gestures that were colonized and civilized out of Filipino culture. (Photos by ©O.M. France Viana

50 Shades of Kayumanggi by Manzel dela Cruz

“A stunningly graphic typology of skin toned color samples provides us with a deconstruction of identity to consider. Her work is both humorous and rigorous in its conceptual execution.” Read more...

O.M. France's art installation dares to ask: “What is the true color of your heritage?”