Club Ate: Mythologies of Movement
By Johanna Bear

Portrait of CLUB ATE (Justin Talplacido Shoulder and Bhenji Ra). Photo by Joseph Pascual. All images courtesy the artists.
Audiences are cocooned by a reef-like canopy of woven textiles. Beyond this intimate threshold are two large screens—one horizontal, one vertical—projecting a multichannel film in a darkened room. In one scene the ancestral Buwaya (crocodile) swims across a horizon razed by smoke and fire, rippling between screens toward artist Bhenji Ra, who floats on the water’s surface with closed eyes. The haunting soundtrack amplifies as the Buwaya carries Ra skyward out of frame, like an ascending deity, drawing viewers into an enthralling and formidable world.