Patrick Cruz

We are pleased to announce our latest installment of CAG Reads, a book club where artists invite us to read alongside them. Each month an artist proposes a text for our collective reading pleasure, culminating in a virtual hangout where the artist leads a wide-ranging discussion grounded in their chosen reading material. 

This January, CAG Reads will be hosted by Patrick Cruz. Patrick Cruz is a Filipino-Canadian artist based in Quezon City, Philippines and Vancouver, BC as an uninvited guest on the land of the Coast Salish peoples—Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Cruz studied Painting at the University of the Philippines and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, a certificate in clownology, and a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Guelph. His intuitive inquiry is informed by his interest in cultural hybridity, the project of decolonization, and the paradoxical effects of globalization. Most Recently, Cruz’s work has taken form in playful configurations manifesting in various activities such as cooking, curating, trading, and freestyle rapping.

Patrick has chosen Book 1 (pages 24-225) of the fantasy fiction novel *A Dweller on Two Planets* by Phylos the Thibetan (also known as Frederick Spencer Oliver). Published in 1905, the novel portrays the social, technological, and religious structures that shape society in the lost city of Atlantis. Presented as a true account channelled by the spirit Phylos the Thibetan, A Dweller on Two Planets is acknowledged as source material for many new age belief systems, and has been highly influential as an early work of occult science fiction.

### Getting the texts
To access a digital copy of Book 1 of *A Dweller on Two Planets* please follow [this link](http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1920__oliver___a_dweller_on_two_planets.pdf). Copies of the full text can be ordered from [Banyen Books](https://www.banyen.com/) here in Vancouver, but keep in mind that shipping may take 2-3 weeks!


A detail of Patric Cruz’ black and white drawing. It depicts books, stars, and leaves placed inside a circle. 

thumbnail_Dweller.jpg

Dweller.jpg

Patrick Cruz presents Phylos the Thibetan

CAG Reads

Patrick Cruz creates an immersive sonic experience on the turntables, turning visual art audiences into listeners aboard his wrapped *How far do you travel?* bus as it tours through the city.

An image of the exterior of a transit bus that is wrapped in a patterned vinyl. The vinyl pattern is made up black pictographic imagery on a white background. 

thumbnail_DSCF0676lowres.jpg

DSCF0676lowres.jpg

Patrick Cruz aboard the moving bus

Sound Performance 

Throughout 2019, the Contemporary Art Gallery is producing a major public art initiative in partnership with TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s transportation authority. Five Canadian artists — Diyan Achjadi, Patrick Cruz, Rolande Souliere, Erdem Taşdelen and Anna Torma — were commissioned to graphically wrap the exterior of a series of articulated buses traveling on major routes throughout Vancouver. The nature of this project — public transit vehicles enveloped by visual imagery and traversing the space of the city — offers a lyrical opportunity to explore connections between images, meaning and movement. Buses and trains are not the only transit systems that we navigate in our everyday lives: visual images constantly transport ideas and meaning from one place to another. They link and organize histories, spaces and identities. They connect us with others. The English word commute is derived from the Latin *commutare*, which means to change or transform. Each of the five artists featured in this project has an artistic practice that is deeply attentive to the commute of visual language across time and space. This project asks “how far do you travel?”, a question that could well be posed to each rider on the bus, but also to the graphic imagery that Achjadi, Cruz, Souliere, Taşdelen and Torma use to interrogate how and why images move and communicate through time and place.

Curated by Kimberly Phillips, with assistance from Julia Lamare

This project is produced in partnership with TransLink.

ProgramGuideWinter2019.pdf

A graphic pattern made up of a purple, blue and green geometric background with various illustrations of buildings, swirling clouds, imaginary birds and plants superimposed on top.

thumbnail_00-HEADER-HowFar.jpg

00-HEADER-HowFar.jpg

An image of the exterior of a transit bus that is wrapped in a patterned vinyl. The vinyl pattern is made up of a purple and blue geometric background with various illustrations superimposed on top.

thumbnail_02-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

02-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

An image of the exterior of a transit bus that is wrapped in a patterned vinyl. The vinyl pattern is made up of a plain pink background with abstract illustrations of various forms and shapes. 

thumbnail_03-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

03-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

An image of the exterior of a transit bus wrapped in a patterned vinyl. The imagery on the vinyl resembles blueprint-like geometric shapes, composed of thin white lines on a dark blue background. 

thumbnail_04-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

04-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

An image of the exterior of a transit bus that is wrapped in a patterned vinyl. The vinyl pattern is made up black pictographic imagery on a white background.   

thumbnail_05-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

05-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

An image of the exterior of a transit bus wrapped in patterned vinyl. The pattern is composed of road work caution tape, with arrow-like shapes alternating from yellow and black to red and white.

thumbnail_06-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

06-HowFarDoYouTravel-2019.jpg

Diyan Achjadi, Patrick Cruz, Rolande Souliere, Erdem Taşdelen, Anna Torma

How far do you travel?

Diyan Achjadi
*The catch of a tiger*, 2019
silkscreen on paper
8.75 x 8.75 inches
Edition of 250 in four variations
Unframed

Diyan Achjadi’s artistic practice is concerned with print media’s fundamental role in the transit of knowledge throughout the world. Her work is a critical response to the cross-cultural influences, contaminations and fantastical imaginings that result from the colonial project. For many years she has been interested in how the decorative arts — particularly wallpapers, textiles and ceramics — are presumed to be innocent, ornamental backdrops to social life, but contain politically potent imagery that serves to perpetuate powerful assumptions around gender, race and nationhood. Extending from Achjadi’s participation in CAG’s major public art initiative, *How far do you travel?*, presented in partnership with TransLink aboard Vancouver buses throughout 2019, *The catch of a tiger* presents a swirling, riotous reconfiguration of traditional Chinoiserie plate design that depicts an imagined Indonesia — its landscapes, architecture and fauna, which with Achjadi’s deft printmaking skills seep outside their borders and boundaries.


Patrick Cruz

Exhibitions

Talks & Events

Publications & Editions