Join ACC's inDialogue on art as an essential need during crisis and visions of art-making in the post-COVID world. Moderated by performance-maker JK Anicoche (ACC 2018), this online talk brought multidisciplinary artist Leeroy New (ACC 2015) and dance artist Ea Torrado (ACC 2016) in conversation around art and culture in crisis, pandemic responses through creative initiatives, the artists' role in infrastructures of collective care and support, and redirecting the future of art-making. Watch the full recording below or on ACC's Youtube Channel. 

 



Leeroy New (multidisciplinary artist) is a Manila-based artist whose practice overlaps and intersects with different creative industries: installation, sculpture, fashion, product/ion design, filmmaking, costuming, and performance. This inclination to harness different modes of creative production has become the spine of his practice driven by concepts of world building, hybrid myth-making and social change. He received an ACC Fellowship in 2015 to research contemporary arts, developing technologies, and public art practices in the U.S.

Born in General Santos City, Philippines, in 1986, Leeroy has worked on immersive, psychedelic, and arresting installations around the world. Notable collaborations and projects include: a sculpted silicone bustier for Lady Gaga’s "Marry the Night" music video; a solo show at Pintô International (New York, 2019); and works exhibited at PDNE at the NoMad Hotel (Los Angeles, 2019), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2019), the Singapore Biennale (2008), and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2009). He was recipient of the CCP 13 Artist Award in 2012, and was  selected in 2020 to create an installation for the next Burning Man festival in Nevada, USA. Learn more at http://leeroynew.com/. Follow Leeroy at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. 

Ea Torrado (dance artist) is the founder and artistic director of Manila-based dance theatre group, Daloy Dance Company. She is a contemporary Filipina artist whose creations manifest in site-specific work, film, installation, improvisational performance and dance theatre pieces. She received an ACC Fellowship in 2016 to research and explore contemporary dance practice in the U.S.

She has been awarded the Alvin Erasga Tolentino Koreograpiya Award (2014) and the Remedios De Oteyza Award for Choreography (2016) for her works with Daloy DC. The company has also been nominated by Aliw Awards as Best Dance Company (2017), Best Classical Dance Company (2018), and Most Outstanding Contemporary Dance Group (2019) by Philippine LEAF Awards. With Daloy DC, she has presented Walang Hiya Festival, Sayaw Galaw, Ugnayan Community Program and Tanghal at Talakay, all projects that tapped diverse Filipino communities by utilizing dance as a tool for personal and social change. Ea is also the founder of Daloy Movement, a guided and durational free-form healing dance practice originated and developed in the Philippines. Follow Ea at Facebook and Instagram. 

JK Anicoche (performance-maker) works at the intersection of art, culture and development. He is the artistic director of contemporary cultural laboratory Sipat Lawin Inc. and founding member of anti-disciplinary collective Komunidad X. His art practice ranges from developing performances in blackbox to devising works with and in communities in disaster areas. He received an ACC Fellowship in 2018 to research performance and civic engagement in the U.S.
 
During his stay in New York, he received the Davis Projects for Peace Award for his “community performance for peace” projects. Other awards have included the Ginebalso a Ako Para sa Entablado Award 2018 and De La Salle University Public Intellectual for Democracy Discourse Series Fellowship Grant. JK has developed programs and performances with and for Philippine High School for the Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines Arts Education, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Department of Education, the British Council Philippines, Paz Y Desarollo (Peace and Development), Japan Foundation’s Hands Project for Disaster and Creativity, Humanity and Inclusion (Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan), among others. He was co-curator and co-facilitator for ADAM Artist laboratory in Taipei, Taiwan (2019), and as performance-maker for Island Bar Shanghai, SAND A/ISLES Project for Festival/Tokyo 2019 and ASIA Topa 2020 in Melbourne Australia. In 2020, JK led the online migration of the Virgin Labfest 2020, and co-facilitated Dans:LAB Singapore-Philippines Satellite and Tokyo Festival’s Asian Performing Arts Farm Laboratory. Learn more about his art practice in TPAM – Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama’s Asian Artist Interview Series or on his website at https://www.jkanicoche.com/. Follow JK on Facebook and Instagram.