KHIM HIPOL - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL

My here is now. I have opened my eyes to appreciate her glorifying attributes- her mountain that keeps me safe, trees that help me breathe, and water the flourishes me to grow. She has bestowed unto me a place to arise, learn, create, and appreciate. Her home is my home; it is now where I belong, where my roots have grown. I will call this place my home.

The Philippines is my home- it is where I came from. Where I first saw her beauty. But after not too long I had to leave her to see a new beauty. Far and Wide, the land of glory and freedom. O Canada! your splendour has captured me.

                  “With each year, our colour fades, Slowly, our paint chips away.

                                    But we will find the strength, And the nerve it takes

                                                To repaint and repaint and repaint every day.”

Over the past five years, it has been incredible to explore my new home here—her. North Vancouver has offered me a long path of trails, trees that form a labyrinth up to the sky. I viewed the gradient of her mountain and the silhouettes upon the shore that highlight me at night. This place has been a land of untouched, together with my explorations. I have glimpsed how people altered her. Our home is adapting to change. I see trees that are slashed and replanted with steel and glasses buildings. They must have recognized the need for more homes. But as I witness her changes, I pondered my worth. What have I done to deserve her blessings? Is she delighted that I am here? I can recognize that I am taking up space from her. And I am a tiny particle, a speck of dust.

                      “smaller than dust on this map, Lies the greatest thing we have,

                                  The dirt in which our roots may grow and the right to call it home.”

                                                             -sleeping at last, north

BIOGRAPHY

Khim Hipol (b. 1999 in City of San Fernando, La Union, Philippines) is a visual artist residing in the unceded territories of the Squamish, TsleilWaututh and Musqueam peoples, also known as North Vancouver. He uses photography as his main media, to focus on the subjectivity of his identity, culture, and childhood upbringing and how all change when migrating. While also considering his position as an immigrant to the stolen land. 

His recent work was showcased in Capture Photography Festival 2021 as part of the Revision Exhibition by Emily Carr University Photography Department, Fort Gallery in Langley and The Plaskett Gallery, New Westminster, Places Des Arts, Coquitlam, and the gallery by Mui, USA. He also has part of a book published in 2021, The Working Artist I, in the United Kingdom, and Vancouver Street Photography Collective ( 1 ), Vancouver, Canada, 2020, FAKfulness Art Magazine, October Issue, Canada, 2019. 

Hipol holds a Certificate of Photography from Emily Carr University of Arts and Design and is currently finishing his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree majoring in photography and a minor in Image + Text.