Favourable Impressions: Saluhan Collective

Building upon their earlier video work, Dodong and the Dai’s (developed during Saluhan’s Mainit Illusion/Mainit Fantasy commission with Arts House in 2024), Catherine Ortega-Sandow, MJ Flamiano, and Kenneth L. Suico perform a cover of Magellan (1972), a satirical song by Cebuano singer-comedian Yoyoy Villame.

The song narrates a simplified version of the Philippines’ so-called discovery and the colonial impacts of Spanish rule, culminating in the resistance of Indigenous warrior Lapu-Lapu, who defeats Magellan.

Revisiting their characters for this new iteration at Blindside, the artists explore contemporary Filipino aesthetics — drawing on karaoke culture, New Wave influences, and the queering of Catholic rituals and iconography.