Mainit Illusion

Catherine Ortega-Sandow is a visual artist and researcher based in Naarm/Melbourne. Interested in the incidental, and often mundane moments of life, Catherine works across textiles, installation and sculpture to create a playful universe filled with the everyday accoutrement.

She is the founder of Pagbasa Archive, and co-leads Saluhan Collective with friend and collaborator MJ Flamiano.

Kenneth Suico is an artist residing and working in naarm/Melbourne. Born in Cebu, Philippines, they jump across a broad range of mediums – such as employing the modes of photography, video, pop-song performance and installation – and have previously shown at Gertrude Contemporary, Seventh, Blindside, Testing Grounds, and CalArts (US).

Raised by a family of artists and creative cooks in Quezon City, Philippines, Mariam Ella Arcilla spent her childhood mixing paint at her father’s studio and selling goods from her family bakery. Today, she works multimodally across community engagement, writing, editing, and producing. Now based on Gadigal land, Mariam collaborates with artists and organisations to turn radiant ideas into programs, publications, and resources. She has staged projects for the Institute of Modern Art, Runway Journal, Powerhouse Museum Sydney, Arts House Melbourne, fine print magazine, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Entree.Pinays and Arts Queensland. She has managed ARIs, galleries, independent publications, and knowledge-trading projects since 2006. Her writing is published in Memo Review, Running Dog, Art Guide, and VAULT. Mariam is also the founder of the domestic program Magenta House, which hosts talks, test kitchens, soirées, and reading rooms. 

MJ Flamiano is a visual artist and creative producer with roots in Central Luzon and the Western Visayas. Through her practice of drawing, printmaking, and writing, she endeavours to present critical and often playful investigations into sites and their cultural significance. She has previously exhibited with artist-run spaces including Blindside, c3 Artspace, SEVENTH, The Walls (QLD), West Space, and Watch This Space (NT). In 2018, she held her first solo exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila. Since 2021, she has been making art in more collective ways and shares a creative partnership with Catherine Ortega-Sandow through joint leadership of Saluhan and Pagbasa Archive. The focus of these two projects is on building long-term and reciprocal relationships with Filipinx and BIPOC communities through collaboration, events, exhibitions, and workshops.

Ranima Montes is a filmmaker and artist from Eastern Samar, Philippines and so-called Australia. Their practice explores grief through markers of absence, the collective loss of memory over distance, and the preservation of language and story. Ranima is a part of the film collective TEN DAYS (formally Slo Collective). Made with TEN DAYS, their most recent film, ‘The fish that ties its body in knots’ delves into remembering through myth and dreams between three sisters.

‘Mestiza’, their debut short film, premiered at the 2018 Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). In 2022, Ranima was a recipient of Creative Victoria’s Creators Fund and travelled to the Philippines to research for her debut feature film, ‘Holy Ghost’. Supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, they recently completed a mentorship with Filipina artist, filmmaker and activist, Kiri Dalena. Together they worked on script development for ‘Holy Ghost’. 

Raquel Solier (Various Asses, Mod Con) Neil Cabatingan (Kuya Neil) and Del Lumanta are three musicians based in Naarm (Melbourne) and Gadigal Land (Sydney). Individually, their solo endeavors showcase a range of musical expressions, spanning experimental, electronic, club, footwork, and punk. Coming together for the first time as a band, they embark on a collaborative exploration into the realms of heavy metal.