Kiam Marcelo Junio, multimedia artist and photographer living in Chicago, IL

Reflection plays a key role for the works in this collection - both the intimate act of looking within one’s internalized history, and the physical act of seeing one’s presence on a mirrored surface. In this transmutation of lightwaves, how much is transferred? How much is lost?

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
Untitled (Therefore, I Am). Paper, 34x48 in. We grow, we learn, we change ourselves. But the conditions of our birth, our initiation into existence, are unequivocally documented. In this installation, I have made my birth certificate available for visitors to cut and do with as they choose.
Letters I’ll Never Send. Acrylic, 8x12 in. (5 pieces) This series of five letters, etched onto mirrored acrylic sheets, are addressed to pivotal figures in my life with whom I have no contact. The viewers see themselves reflected within the text, allowing identification and internal reflexion of the written content.
Threshold. Video installation This five-minute video installation is experienced by one viewer at a time. They sit at a desk, put on headphones, and through the ubiquitous apparatus of a smartphone, experience an intimate moment with me.

One Word. Acrylic, 8x10 in. (15 pieces) The words selected for this project-in-progress were solicited through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. I collect a compendium of denigratory words that have personally affected individuals. Through the power of text in numbers, I hope to increase identification with others, and help in the battle to end bullying and hate.
A Feeling of Estrangement. Video projection (7 mins.) In this projected video performance, I recite a passage from Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, in various personages that blur fiction and reality.
Faggot. Mixed media sculpture The commonly-used slur was once used to describe a bundle of sticks. By representing its etymological manifestation, I investigate the tensions and relationships between a word and its latent content.

I create work that investigates identity and its manifestations and permutations when presented in personal, interrelational, and larger social contexts. I am interested in the study of self in both Eastern and Western traditions. I approach this inquiry through materials in multiple media, ranging from photography to performance, video, sculpture, and site-specific installation.
My work explores the thresholds between personal and public, between nostalgia and obsession, between the addressor and the addressed. I make art that is inherently personal and revelatory, yet decisively interactive. By sharing my experiences and explorations, I intend to serve as a catalyst for others in their own self-inquiry. Doing so, I share in their journeys, and in the human condition as a whole.
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.
Hey guys!
I’m sure many of you have seen my “I AM” project (If not, it’s here). Well I have some good news! The project has been selected to be a part of an upcoming art event called 2nd Floor Rear, put together by It’s a Pony Projects here in Chicago. It’s going to be a wonderful art event with works installed and exhibited in nontraditional spaces for 24 hours (February 4-5, beginning at noon). There will also be activities, dances, drinks, etc. and everyone is welcome to attend.
It’s a Pony Projects is raising funds (up till February 1) to help cover the costs of the festival. If you can find it in your hearts, pockets, purses, Paypals, and wallets, please donate at least $1 (just $1! Only 4 quarters! You can find that in your sofa!), it would really help to bring this event to fruition.
Here’s more info on the festival:
2nd Floor Rear is a 24-hour festival of alternative spaces, apartment galleries, and ephemeral and migrant projects celebrating Chicago’s vibrant community of alternative and DIY art spaces.
In 1980, the Neoists, a little-known avant-garde subculture descended from Fluxus, held their first annual “International Neoist Apartment Festival” or APT, a four-day long event complete with concerts, performances, film screenings, and installations, in the apartment of one of the members of the Neoist group. Poorly documented and marginally historicized, it is thought[1] that APT carried on annually, in various iterations, until 1988.
Drawing on the 24-hour block party model (think Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Mainx24 festival), 2ndFloor Rear adapts the spirit of APT to a condensed, 24-hour timeline. From noon on February 4th to noon on February 5th, festival participants such as Pop-up Art Loop, Carousel Space Projects, Milk Gallery, the Happy Collaborationists, and individual artists such as Chiara Galimberti and Karen Faith will host pop-up exhibitions, dream yoga sleepovers, site-specific installations, and New Wave synth-pop art extravaganzas.
Here, also, is the official site, where you can see my name in the Collaborators list! :D
Thank you all, and I hope you can help pitch a buck or two!
- Kiam
Yellow carrots and blue potatoes- I never knew such things existed! (Taken with instagram)
About to brave the Chicago winter snow to go see this film right now.
Pina - Trailer (by HopscotchFilmsEnt)
Everything is derivative.
Here’s more proof. Almost every hit pop song of the past 25 years use the same 4 chords.
Axis of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles) (by random804)
With Elizabeth and Stephen. I love these people so much. Yes, including myself. (Taken with instagram)
Hey guys, have you met The Purity Bear? He’s a plush toy who appears to tempted teens and warns them without moving his mouth that going inside a girl’s house will inevitably lead to sex having, and sex having before marriage is literally the worst decision you could possibly make. In spite of…
map by Bill Rankin, 2005-06
I love Metro systems. Absolutely love them; so much, I could marry them.
On display now at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute museum in Manhattan is the show “Joaquin Sorolla and the Glory of Spanish Dress,” which was conceived by designer Oscar de la Renta and curated by Vogue’s André Leon Talley.
I really enjoy this article and I’m sure you’ll be able to relate as well.
If you’re not feeling happy, take a look at this list and see what you can remedy.
Some samples:
You need to make plans to see someone on a Tuesday because having a guaranteed fun activity in the middle of the week will keep you sane and give you something to look forward to. And let’s face it, we all need something to look forward to during the work week…
You need music you can fall in love with…
You need someone in your life who excites you, makes you nervous, and forces you to question what you think you already know… someone who’s challenging, who we can’t figure out, and can tell us that we’re full of crap.
And of course, as Donna and Tom from Parks & Rec have promoted… a day or two to TREAT YO’ SELF!
We need to treat ourselves to stupid stuff. We spend a great deal of our time saying “NO” to things just so one day we can be like “Screw it. I’m doing me today.” If you did “you” every day, you’d either be broke or ridden with STDS.
Literally the best sandwich I’ve ever had: blackened tuna with avocado, lettuce, tomato, and Jamaican mayo (Taken with instagram)
An Open Closet
When John Waters recently quipped that he wished some gays would “go back in the closet”, he touched upon the idea of “an open closet”, one we encourage. With all respect to Waters, we’d turn his idea (and the closet) inside out: why don’tthose …
Hmm. Interesting idea…
{ Dukno Yoon }: beautiful, kinetic, flying rings.
••••••
I have to admit envy of the “I wish I made it” sort.
Via Colossal. The Girl with Seven Horses, by Ulrika Kestere.
“Once upon a time there was a girl who had 7 invisible horses. People thought she was crazy and that she in fact had 7 imaginative horses, but this was not the case. When autumn came the girl spent a whole day washing all her clothes. She hung them on a string in her garden to let the gentle autumn sun dry them. Out of nowhere, a terrible storm came and its fiercefull winds grabbed a hold of all her clothes and all seven horses (authors note: since they are invisible they obviously didn’t weigh much). The girl was devestated and spent all autumn looking for each horse spread around the country, wrapped in her clothes.” (Ulrika Kestere)
I just came back from watching Pina, the new dance film/documentary/tribute to the late choreographer Pina Bausch. It was an absorbing experience I did not want to end.
The film consists of performances of some of Bausch’s most famous works, and interviews with her dance troupe, some of whom have been with her for over 20 years. Also cut within these are personal dance tributes for the late master.
The dances were not only beautiful and engaging, but also deeply imbued with human emotion. I even cried at one point during the performance of Cafe Muller, to which I was introduced in Pedro Almodovar’s film, Talk to Her.
The staging of these dances were so deliberately smart. Not clever, or tongue in cheek, but intelligent. Dirt, water, and other natural elements are brought into the stage, and in other sequences, the dances are brought into nature and the urban jungle.
I do have a qualm, however with the use of 3D. I found the 3D to mostly work in favor of the storytelling, though I did find it distracting in some instances, especially when there were objects in the foreground. Something about the appearance of floating pieces of poles disrupted the immersion for me. Nevertheless, it did add a sense of intimacy and immediacy to the dances.
From Chicago Reader:
German choreographer Pina Bausch died suddenly in 2009, days before she was to codirect this documentary with longtime friend Wim Wenders. The movie he went on to make with her Tanztheater Wuppertal is more than an elegy; his meticulous use of 3D endows the performances with a corporeality and intimacy hitherto unseen in a dance film. Crane and steadycam allow Wenders to get so close to the action that in the minimalist Café Müller, one’s illusion of being on stage is uncanny. Bausch’s expressive humanism, the multinational makeup of her troupe, and, in Kontakthof, the added participation of amateurs who range from teens to seniors, uphold the value of dance as a universal language.
Nick Playing Your Uncertain Future. 2012.
AMAZING. I gasped.
Best of the series so far.
Doug Ischar’s “Tag” at Golden Gallery
Made in Germany: Received a box from Berlin with t-shirts galore hand-printed by the beautiful and amazingly-talented Dean Sameshima, tumblr’s finest advocate for conceptual photography, cruising tactics and unknown pleasures. His very affordable t-shirts and editions are available here.
thank you!! i’m speechless, totally speechless.
356/365 Chris, Emily, Thomás
May 29, 2011
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid SX-70 Time Zero
355/365 The Night I Lost My iPhone
May 28, 2011
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid SX-70 Time Zero
354/365 View from the Outhouse
May 27, 2011
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid SX-70 Time Zero
353/365 El Mural
May 26, 2011
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
352/365 Bye Bye Bieber
May 25, 2011
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
351/365
May 24, 2011
Sundown
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
350/365
May 23, 2011
Making Shitmix
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
349/365
May 22, 2011
Walking to Town
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
348/365
May 21, 2011
Volunteers at Villas
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-70 Color Push
347/365 Morning at Mastatal
May 20, 2011
Mastatal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
346/365 Chicharones, Mariscos, Hermana
May 19, 2011
Puriscal, Costa Rica
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
344/365 Leaving Los Angeles
May 17, 2011
LAX, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
343/365 The Fire Next Door
May 16, 2011
Anaheim, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
342/365 The Human Hamster Ball
May 15, 2011
Orange, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
341/365
May 14, 2011
Kelsey and Nataly
Corona, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Polaroid 600
340/365
May 13, 2011
Silver Bullet
Anaheim, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-680 Beta
339/365 A House Compressed
May 12, 2011
Anaheim, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-680 Beta
338/365 Goodbye, US Navy. Goodbye.
May 11, 2011
San Diego, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-680 Beta
337/365 North Park
May 10, 2011
San Diego, CA, USA
Camera: Polaroid SX-70
Film: Impossible PX-680 Beta