LAKBAY

Image description: Joshua Ongcol stands on stage wearing loose-fitting clothes; a grey button-up and brown pants. His body is tilted up, his gaze towards the sky with his hands cupped around his mouth. Still taken from the Paguugnay ugnay video (below).

In his current piece “LAKBAY” (Tagalog word for Journey) Josh meditates on patterns, cycles and rhythms. Drawing upon his mother tongue of Tagalog, pivotal personal experiences and journeys into the natural world of the west coast rainforest, he intimately attunes into buried roots; breathing life into the undercurrents of their queer and filipinx identity.

Joshua Ongcol

I am a Dubai born, Queer, Filipinx artist that is currently a settler on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. As a multidisciplinary artist, I trained in streetdance culture including Krump, Locking, Popping House, Hip hop, Vogue, Whacking from Jerry Chien, Koffi Noumedor, Ralph Escamillan, Mike Brown, Natasha Gorie, Rina Palerina, Anna Martynova, and Kim Sato, and Contemporary dance from Tiffany Tegarthen, David Raymond, 605 collective, Sufeh lee, Kevin Fraser, Peter Bingham, Justine Chambers, Delia Brett and Deanna Peters.

I am interested in the ways tenderness manifests in my body, and its receptivity to deep patterns, cycles and undercurrents. With this, I hope to unravel the narrative of being a part of the Filipnx diaspora; specifically of intergenerational exchange, resilience, autonomy, queerness and spirituality.

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CMHC Granville Island Exhibition (May 24th – 31st)

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