The Queerious Murse and Queerious Texts

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"The Queerious Murse and Queerious Texts Series"

2014-2017

This series addresses themes of post-colonialism, immigration, diaspora, sexual identity, and identity construction, focusing on the personal hybrid nature of Filipino culture and queer identities. The Queerious Murse Series are constructed brand name purses (Murse - Male Purse) using gay porn images to create the logo patterns and queer texts in English and Tagalog. They relate commodity, obsession, compulsivity and fetishism of brand names, using male bodies to sell the ideal Homonormative Male; manufacuring the unattainable utopian image. We buy the physicality and tangible objects as commodities, as well as buying into the intangible ideas and thoughts to dress up our own cultural identities. Manapul's Murses mimic the idea of commoditized branding and the collected exotified otherness that struggles for a place within these idealized Homonormative conventions. They need to be questoned and changed to make queer bodies of colors visible.