One Long Funeral Song
Space 1026 Gallery, Philadelphia
August 1st-29th


The epic, two-person show of Monica Canilao and Kyle Ranson over at Space 1026 in Philly boasts one of its largest installations to date. Canilao and Ranson’s styles are married so seamlessly that it’s hard to tell two people were responsible for the mystic community unraveled on the gallery walls and floors. Both artists hail from the Bay Area in California and took a week to install the show, which features a dizzying array of mixed media works including an inviting Sweat Lodge based on the small huts Native Americans used as a sacred space for spiritual cleansing.

Also included in the diverse works were wood-burned portraits, a dead magician painted within a three dimensional coffin. There were also ‘fashion’ pieces which adorn female mannequins and include animal pelts worn as headdresses and weapons fashioned out of animal jaw bones. The use of many different mediums is a signature of Canilao’s work; she admits to using recycled and found objects in her work because of the past lives each of these objects possesses. As well as these re-used materials, the works also includes embroidery, synthetic hair, lace, stenciling, feathers, tree branches, collage and woven paper.

The works center around the ideas of two ‘magicks’ coming together; the indigenous magiks of native cultures that are more connected to earth and natural elements and those of secret societies such as the Free Mason’s. A jeweled King is placed next to bare-chested warrior; a colonial George Washington, adorned with a loincloth bearing masonry symbols stands vigilant over the tattooed dead magician. The contrast between these two societies is apparent in the way Canilao and Ranson have painted and assembled it’s members, however, the harmonious way they share space in the gallery with the viewer allows for a third society to be born, one in which we are invited to join.

Words and photos by JL Schnabel

Natives 2, Mixed media on paper

Dead Magician. Considering the show is titled One Long Funeral Song, we gather the funeral is for the magician and could symbolize the death of magic in the face of colonialism.

Entrance into Sweat Lodge, guarded by a Lost Boy

Detail of bone weapon. The phrases ‘Forgive Me’ and ‘Forget Me’ appears in other Canilao works.

View of back wall including Horse and a limbless tribe’s woman wearing Canilao’s ‘fashion’ pieces.

View of Sweat Lodge. Visitors are permitted to enter and view more works painted on the walls and ceiling.

Bare-chested warrior. Mixed media on wood.

Ranson’s wood-burned portrait, LuvYerself

Wolf with Arrows Mixed media on paper with feathers and fur.

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