Art
EDUCATION
WORK
Immersive works, solo and group exhibitions
BFA in visual art with an emphasis in painting & drawing
Bekah Badilla is a multi-disciplinary creative with a deep connection to the elements, family and community. Her work spans murals, graffiti, 2D, installation, performance, dance and immersive works. From the lense of revolutionary matriarchy, indigenous wisdom practices and animism, Badilla interweaves explorations of deep memory, embodiment, ritual, divergence and liminality. She is currently examining the relationship between animist-based ways of being and creativity—by exploring rites of passage, relational identity, repetition, spirit communication, world-building, object memory, ritual, and sensory contact. Her practice is spiritually grounded in the elements, inter-generational knowledge sharing, ancestral guidance, and co-creation.
Creativity is powerful because it is the modality that draws you out beyond the edges of the known. My art is like a by-product of these expeditions into existence. In that way, anything that brings me into liminal states has the power to transform and help translate mystery into wisdom.
As We Grieve is a multi-media ritual performance piece that explores collective and personal grief in relation to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Through mediating the creative practices of Dan Gorelick, Raya Hazell, and Marie-Therese Png, Bekah worked with each artist to create a container for a cross-disciplinary experimental work grounded in relational grief and communal support between the artists. As a catalyst, the piece centered contact with physical/sensory symbols of Palestinian land such as pomegranates, olive branches, sounds of mediterranean ocean and birds. Poetry was written by Marie-Therese Png, grief rituals and movement exploration by Raya Ward and Bekah Badilla, and music exploration and video/sound by Dan Gorelick. The piece’s first public exhibit took place at the Paper Kraine theatre in Manhattan on December 17th, 2023.
As We Grieve
"As We Grieve" - Bekah Badilla, Dan Gorelick, Raya Hazell, Marie-Therese Png
Creative Director & Movement Artist | Performance piece
ROLE
WORK
Conversations with Fire
"Conversations with Fire"
Bekah Badilla
Performers: Bekah Badilla (dance), Dan Gorelick (cello), Marie-Terese Png (poetry)
Video/Projection, Music, Mugwort Branches
7 Minutes
2024| The Paper Kraine Theatre, Manhattan NYC
WORK
"Conversations with Fire" - Bekah Badilla, Dan Gorelick, Marie-Therese Png
ROLE
Creative Director & Movement Artist | Ritual Performance piece
"Conversations with Fire" is a ritual performance piece that uses herbalism, video and poetry to document various dialogues with sacred Fire. The piece has motifs of spirals, fire, ash, burial and rebirth and documents contact with mugwort, water, earth and air. The piece was performed as a live dance and cello piece at The Paper Kraine in Manhattan, NY.
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Panarit
Bekah Badilla
Performers: Bekah Badilla, Raffy Bunal & Maxxine Evangelista
Video/Projection, Music, Silk Cocoons, Movement
6 Minutes
2023| The Paper Kraine Theatre, Manhattan NYC
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Panarit
WORK
"Panarit"
ROLE
Artist | Concept through Installation
“Panarit” is a video/sound and movement piece created by Bekah Badilla. It is a modern ritual piece in which dancers ask permission from the spirits before interacting with elements in nature. In many Pilipinx cultures, it is customary to ask permission (“panarit” a contraction of “pagsarit” which means “asking for permission” in the Waray language) from spirits/ancestors (“diwata”) before actions that will affect the earth or “middle-world”. The piece explores themes of ecological grief and non-linear healing of past, present and future generations in relation to the earth. It also explores Indigenous belonging and ancestral healing through Waray language reclamation. Music and dance are core to Pilipinx culture and an integral medium of spiritual, communal and ancestral connection in both past and present day communities. The choreography seeks to explore choreographed and free movement, communal belonging and embodiment.
The music was written and produced by Badilla and sung in the native Waray language of Eastern Visayas. The projected visuals are videos taken by Badilla in her home in Aani Southeast Alaska, Turtle Island, South America and SE Asia.
Acknowledgements:
Salamat language and culture facilitator @bababisaya for inspiring new work. Salamat @paperkraineproductions for the space and amazing collection of performances.
Waray to English Translation:
Return. The bridge that was wood is now metal. The sky that was blue is now red. Ask permission first from the spirits, I am divine being. Waray Waray. I won’t forget you. Return to me. Return.
Relation
WORK
Ritual Performance Piece
Ritual + improvised dance and vocals
Dan Gorelick, Bekah Badilla, Marie Lloyd-Papse
ROLE
"Relation" explores improvised cello, vocals, and dance, focusing on themes of presence, direct communication, ritual, and connection with plant spirits. It highlights the role of women in the process of harvesting and cultivating plant medicines, emphasizing this medicine practice as a spiritual relationship rather than just a means to heal. Eucalyptus served as a co-creator, while the spirits of palo santo and jade were also invoked. This collaborative work illuminates the auditory and sensory aspects of womxn's historic relationship with plant spirits and the intertwined nature of spirituality, creativity, and medicine.
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Ablation
"Ablation" Solo Exhibition
Artist | Video/sound, drawing/painting & installation
ROLE
WORK
“Daunted by the immensity of my geological elders and intrigued by the strangeness of it all, I sought to uncover the humanity within them. As I observed the way glaciers have ablated, the way mountainsides have eroded into sand, I saw one of the purest forms of the human experience—loss.”— Badilla | Artist Statement
Through my experiences growing up in Alaska near an icefield and subsequently guiding people through these magnificent geological wonders, I began to see how loss surrounds us. The meeting of the edge of a mountain and the beginning of a glacier is pure chaos, but the process brings life and needed minerals to the ocean. It’s violent—suggesting the true nature of growth is rooted in the conflict of opposing forces. It is the ablation of our existence that is the substance of our purpose.
