WORKS

Detailed descriptions of works can be found below gallery.

In collaboration with Asher Hartman and Gawdafful National Theater:

Further Collaborations:

DESCRIPTIONS OF ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE WORKS:

TALGED, Her Body She Cares for, Her Soul/s (She) Guards (performed at REDCAT NOW Festival 2021) Based on pre-colonial combat systems and Ilokano witchcraft practices of the Philippines, TALGED is a solo, multi-lingual, counter-operatic sound and art installation, composed, written, choreographed, performed and sung live by Jasmine Orpilla. Dedicated in loving memory of Pilipina/x caretakers as well as fellow survivors of violent hate crimes throughout the diaspora, TALGED rebukes the unnecessary emotional and intellectual labor of decoding white supremacy, while rejecting the patterns of desensitization that quietly haunt the Fil-Am body today. Live performance in 8 languages with English supertitles. Kusikus Binakul by Master Weaver Corazon Agosto and family. (TALGED: Her Body She Cares for Her Soul/s (She) Guards, copyright ©2021, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

SUNGKA: a Civil War, a Civil Marriage (2020, created at Human Resources LA for Time/Space/Money residency). An Ilokano operatic performance piece and activated installation with choreography and music by Jasmine Orpilla. The installation contains elements of soil, copper, gold, goat bone, human hair, guava leaves, tobacco leaves and various bullets. ‘Sungka’ is a popular strategic game from the Philippines that Jasmine’s mother used to play, by digging out small holes in the dirt on the family tobacco farm. During the war, the family home was rained upon by shrapnel, which took the lives of young relatives and fellow children who were outside playing when they were attacked by air strikes. Jasmine’s family took refuge in a foxhole dug under the house. The musical and choreographic themes in the performance connect to the acts of self-sacrifice vs. celebration under the umbrella of grief. (SUNKGA installation, music, performance copyright ©2020, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

KAPRE (2020, created at Human Resources LA for Time/Space/Money residency). Kapre is a performance piece within SUNGKA, stemming from the supernatural shapeshifting creature of the Philippines, known to be a cigar-smoking tree dweller, and watchful giant guardian that can chirp like a bird from high in the branches. Tobacco farming was one of Jasmine’s grandparents’ livelihoods that overseas American markets took regular (sanctioned) cuts out of. In Jasmine’s work, the kapre is a witness to this long-term theft. In SUNGKA, Kapre uses tobacco, her family’s guava leaves and Jasmine’s actual hair. (KAPRE copyright ©2020, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

SARMING (2021, created at the Madrid Theatre as AIR with Ghostlight Residency) Standalone ‘dancing’ installation from the filmed performance piece “Failure of Grace: Sarming & Kuarta.” Jasmine Orpilla’s gold mirror, inherited from her grandmother, acts as a dancing, 3-way beacon in search of signs of life in an empty house. (Sarming, copyright © 2021, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

FAILURE OF GRACE: Sarming & Kuarta (2021, created at the Madrid Theatre as AIR with Ghostlight Residency). In two parts ‘Mirror’ and ‘Money.’ Based on a Filipino children’s game where a coin balanced on the head lands in the mouth; hints at the Filipino mythology of the headless Pugot and the Aswang Manananggal creatures, whose physically divided body is her only means of freedom. Home is an empty ‘house’ inhabited by overworked parts of the body that represent a Filipino-American landscape politically divided during a tumultuous 2020, which happens to reflect the same statistic of Pilipinx medical frontliners disproportionately dying of COVID-19 in the USA. (Failure of Grace: Sarming & Kuarta, copyright © 2021, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

Full interview of Jasmine Orpilla’s creative process for “FAILURE OF GRACE: Sarming & Kuarta” here: https://www.ghostlightresidency.com/artists/project-one-5zp2c

“BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION” aria (2022 Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, for LAX Festival. From ORO/PLATA/MATA (beauty/brutality/breadcrumbs). Gateway gestures and belief structures built in sound, for the penetration of severely live voicings, meant to stave the cognitive dissonance of unwelcome pattern recognition and privilege, right on time for October, Filipino-American History Month 2022. Based on factual but forgotten American/Filipino historical events.  Also a tribute to the beauty of Carlos Bulosan and Jose Rizal’s poetry. Featuring Marlo Campos on dabakan and kulintang; Original soundscape installation, traditional music arrangement, combat tools, movement, composition, live translation, kulintang and all voice performed by Jasmine Orpilla. (Benevolent Assimilation © 2022 by Jasmine Orpilla.)

“NATURAL HISTORY“ taxidermy series, film with 3-part live performance. (2023 COLA Fellowship, DCA Los Angeles). Sung, chanted and performed in 7 multiple languages and instruments to observe definitions of stillness vs. disruption throughout history, while channeling words of notable Filipino artists José Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes, Paz Pardo de Tavera, Juan Luna and more, a litany of embodied disconnection gets shed through the voice and body. Compositionally and emotionally anchored in Southern Filipino kulintang music, Jasmine Orpilla attempts a trajectory towards wholeness, in the name of homecoming. (Natural History, taxidermy series and performance, copyright ©2023, by Jasmine Orpilla.) Video link: https://vimeo.com/838158729

GO HOME: Where the Heart is. Feed my Heart. Free my Hate (2019- OXY ARTS CTR, Breaking Bread Series DCA, L.A) Comparing the true accounts of her family’s escape during WW2 with her own survival from violent hate crimes directly experienced in the USA,  Jasmine Orpilla’s multi-layered, theatrical sound installation ‘GO HOME’ physically maps the symbolism of traditional Filipino foods, minerals, materials and weaponry as they ‘touch’ upon and ritually ‘feed’ the memory of renowned anti-colonial warriors, activists and revolutionaries of the Philippines’ past. (GO HOME copyright ©2019, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

HOW MANY YEARS DID WE FIGHT THE BEAST TOGETHER (2018- REDCAT NOW Festival) Conceived, composed and directed by Jasmine Orpilla, the premiere Filipino-American Pangalay chamber opera for kulintang ensemble, solo soprano, and Linggisan shadow dancers, inspired by Carlos Bulosan’s poetic activism. At the occasion of a surprise birthday, a voice embodying an invasive, growing colonial influence is thrown into question by the powerfully unchanging dances of Southern Philippines. (How Many Years Did We Fight the Beast Together, copyright ©2018, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

WE CRY A LOT  (2019 PØST KAMIKAZE Exhibits, L.A.) an installation of metal bars against a white wall, with gravel and mylar blankets framing the children’s artwork, WE CRY A LOT is a durational litany of names dedicated to the memories of Darylyn Cristabel Cordova Valle (10), Jakelin Caal Maquín (7),  Felipé Gomez Alonso (8), Juan de León Gutiérrez (16), Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez (2), Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vásquez (16)  Mariee Juárez (2 months) and all the infants and children still currently held in U.S. ‘detention centers.’ Gallery attendees were invited to donate to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a 501(c)(3) RAICES Texas.

AMERICA is in the HEART-Surgery (2016 CAATA Festival, Ashland Oregon) In a simultaneous laboratory of reverberating exorcism and medical procedures, Jasmine Orpilla examines the socio-political, spiritual risks of Filipino psychic surgery. The soundscape is sterilized by subliminal versions of ‘Dahil sa Iyo,’ provided as a form of culminative musical dis/comfort. (America is in the Heart-Surgery, copyright ©2016 by Jasmine Orpilla.)

16 YOKAI: a Supernatural Sampler (2015 Machine Project, L.A) Having transformed the Machine Project’s Mystery Theatre into a turn-of-the-century underground musical seance parlor, Jasmine Orpilla and ensemble sonically channels numerous specific yokai spirits met during her childhood in Northern Japan; all is well until they open a portal giving voice to those drowned and killed in the Philippines during WW2 . (16 Yokai: A Supernatural Sampler, copyright ©2016, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

LIFE and DEATH of a VOICE or The Balikbayan Box (2010 Boston Court ArtTalk Series) Within a musical soundscape of ‘tapat’ lullaby-inspired memories of a loving past, Jasmine Orpilla activates the contact-sensitive interior of a large Balikbayan box as an echo chamber for her voice to communicate back home. (Life and Death of a Voice, The Balikbayan Box, copyright ©2010, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

SPLOTCH: the Beauty of Skin Whitening (2010 HIGHWAYS Santa Monica, CA)  While under a light grid mapping her face, Jasmine Orpilla vocally attacks colorism and the popularity of poisonous skin whiteners still being marketed to POC all over the world today. (Splotch: the Beauty of Skin Whitening, copyright ©2010, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

The ROPE, the TYPHOON,and the SLIPPERS (2009 REDCAT, L.A) Based on the reported tragedies at the onset of Typhoon Ondoy, Philippines, Jasmine Orpilla’s installation included multiple, dozens of pairs of children’s flip-flops to show how many countless were washed ashore. These items and proceeds raised from the performance were donated afterwards to the typhoon relief funds in the Philippines: (People’s CORE 501 (c)(3), KmB Pro-People Youth, and the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) through Sagip-Tulong sa Pilipinas Emergency Relief Fund. (Musical performance installation ‘The Rope, the Typhoon, and the Slippers,‘ copyright ©2009, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

ANNAY PUSO©: How to Preserve a “Dying Tradition” (2008 REDCAT, L.A) Trapped behind the glass panes of an isolated window, puppeteered karaoke screens float towards her in the dark as Jasmine Orpilla’s Ilokano rendition of Dungdunguen Canto grows higher and higher in pitch, in her attempt to shatter her supposedly haunted surroundings. (Annay Puso©, How to Preserve a “Dying Tradition,” copyright ©2019, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

(De)LA MASSE ECRASANTE (Des VILLES) (2006 Théâtre de la Villette, Théâtre de la Maroquinerie, Paris, France.) Against a composition she wrote for jazz quintet inspired by dissonance found inside the Paris metro that reminded her of Bertolt Brecht’s Marxist-period ballads, Jasmine Orpilla also built from over 100 sampled, international voices apologizing to her in different languages, recorded from the streets of Paris, France. The theatrical installation consisted of a 15-ft scaffold, sheets and ladders. Jasmine Orpilla’s voice was expressed solely and silently by her in French Sign Language. (De)La Masse Ecrasante(des Villes) performance piece, copyright ©2006, by Jasmine Orpilla.)

COLLABORATIVE PERFORMANCES:

Deader than dead (film version 2020, by Ligia Lewis for Hammer Museum’s Made in LA)

The DOPE ELF Organized Around the Erotics of Doing You In (2020-2021 by Asher Hartman, with Gawdafful National Theater at The LAB San Francisco.)

THE WANT (2018-19 opera by Adam Linder & Ethan Braun, HAU Hebbel Berlin, Germany)

PURPLE ELECTRIC PLAY (2014 by Asher Hartman, Machine Project, L.A.)

GLASS BANG  (2013 by Asher Hartman, musical composed/performed by Jasmine Orpilla. MAK Center L.A.)

SEE WHAT LOVE THE FATHER HAS GIVEN US (2012 by Asher Hartman, Machine Project L.A.)

ANNIE OKAY! (2011 by Asher Hartman, Hammer Museum, L.A.)

IRON LUNG (2012 music composed/performed by Jasmine Orpilla, for Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre at Barlow Respiratory Hospital, L.A.)

ADDITIONAL COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCES and Collaborations for:

THEATER KAMPNAGEL, HAMBURG, GERMANY

CAP UCLA  Center for the Art of Performance, CA

PICA TBA Festival, Portland, Oregon

HAMMER MUSEUM, Los Angeles, CA

REDCAT NOW FESTIVAL Los Angeles, CA

LACMA (Art+Technology Lab) Los Angeles, CA

HAUSER & WIRTH Los Angeles, CA

WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL MAINSTAGE, Los Angeles

THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLETTE, PARIS, FRANCE

THÉÂTRE DE LA MAROQUINERIE, PARIS, FRANCE

THEATRE 145, GRENOBLE, FRANCE

MAK CENTER for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA

LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS/ LACE

MACHINE PROJECTS Los Angeles, CA

LOS ANGELES THEATRE CENTER, LA, CA

TED CONFERENCE 2011, Long Beach, CA

FORD THEATRES, Los Angeles , CA

BOSTON COURT THEATRE, Pasadena, CA

HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE, Santa Monica, CA

SASSAS for  Scratch Orchestra, Los Angeles, CA

18TH STREET ARTS CENTER, Santa Monica, CA 

CAATA FESTIVAL Consortium for Asian American Theatres & Artists, Ashland, OR

LILI BERNARD ART STUDIO/ HABLA UNDERGROUND, Los Angeles, CA

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, San Francisco, CA

PAST COLLABORATIVE WORKS with artists: Llyn Foulkes, Nels Cline, Gabriel Garcia Columbo, Renee Petropoulos, Paul Outlaw, Cindy Bernard, Rick Potts, Jose Luis Valenzuela, Sean Cawelti, Patrick Kennelly, Jonathan Snipes, Haruko Tanaka.     

CREATION AWARDS: City of Paris, Paris Prix Jeunes Talents; Pasadena DCA, CCI, Durfee Santa Monica, United Artists, Alliance for California Traditional Arts/California Arts Council. 2022/2023 City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project fellowship (COLA/IMAP), Los Angeles DCA. 2023 Creative Capital “Wild Futures: Art, Culture, Impact” Award.

Influential studies and residencies: Maguindanao and Maranao kulintang with Dr. Bernard Ellorin and Pakaraguian Kulintang Ensemble; Filipino folk repertoire Ramon Obusan and Amilbangsa Pangalay traditions with Master Ligaya Amilbangsa and Malaya Dance Arts. Invisible World performance art ensemble curated and led by Peter Sellars;  Extensive Hebei bangzi research with Association de Recherche des Traditions de L’Acteur under Pei Yanling, Guo Jinchun; Brecht-Weill song study with Gisela May, Dessau, Germany; Theatre of Giorgio Strehler under Giulia Lazzarini.  Personally selected for creation residency with Théâtre du Soleil, Paris, France by director Ariane Mnouchkine.

 Degrees and teaching artist residencies: University of California, Berkeley, BFA in Theatre, emphasis in world theatre studies, minor in music. Teaching artist at: CALARTS Theatre department; Pomona College Art department; Music Center on Tour LA: Culture and History of the Philippines, Performance Art in Practice; Performance Art as Social Action; Theatre and Poetry of Carlos Bulosan (workshops for incarcerated youth).

PRESS REVIEWS in: L.A. Times , Asian Journal, L.A Weekly , L.A. Dance Chronicle, Riting, L.A Stage Times. Further promoted through: ABS-CBN, Cheddar TV, NBC, LAist, Examiner, L.A Taco, Life In LA, Daily Beast, Daily Sundial, 93.5 KDAY, KCRW.

Site content by Jasmine Orpilla, © 2020-2024. No part of the materials available through JasmineOrpilla.com may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Jasmine Orpilla. Any other reproduction in any form without the permission of Jasmine Orpilla is prohibited. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Jasmine Orpilla.