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Talåyan Langhet

Sid M. Duenas and Isa Gagarin

Pilele Projects

May 16 - June 27, 2026

Gallery hours Fri/Sat 11-4pm


In this collaborative two-person exhibition, Sid M. Duenas and Isa Gagarin present Talåyan Langhet. Translated literally to sky net in English, Talåyan Langhet evokes an image of a CHamoru talayeru throwing a circular fishing net in shallow ocean waters. Duenas and Gagarin’s work employs the idea of a fishing net as a conceptual framework for their collaboration (which draws connections between their distinct visual and material approaches); it also functions as a metaphor for the fragmented nature of their respective CHamoru-language fluency. In his multi-media work, Duenas builds poetic textual elements including bilingual phrasing and compound words. Gagarin’s recent work plays with the ochosyllabic structure of kantan Chamorrita, composing original songs that accompany her paintings as a way to pursue CHamoru-language thought frameworks in her creative process.

Accompanying Duenas and Gagarin’s exhibition is an open-edition poster produced by Pilele Projects. The poster is a double sided print featuring 48 video stills from their collaborative video piece, also titled Talåyan Langhet. It also includes a folded insert with titles and a copy of Isa Gagarin’s kåntan Chamorrita, I Kinenne’ (The Catch) (2026), which shares its title with the site specific wall drawing that she produced for the exhibition.

Purchase Talåyan Langhet Poster - $30

EXHIBITION  LIST




Sid M. Duenas
2026
Bad Moon
Laser ink toner, charcoal, paper
44 x 45.5 x 1.5 inches (each panel, diptych)

Bad Moon (2026) is a diptych composed of toner and charcoal prints depicting star charts that represent a dense cluster of frozen debris with 82 moons. The two panel work is part of an ongoing series of star maps that correlate imagined celestial bodies with events related to the passing of the artist’s father. The work’s title refers to Bad Moon Rising (1969) by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a song representing the events of the artist’s father’s death on Saipan and an aspect of his legacy.

The subject of moon becomes additionally pertinent to the theme and representation of the casting net in Talåyan Langhet at Pilele Projects in that, moon phases are significant designations of harvest to the talayeru. The act of fishing, particularly with a talåya where some fish are either caught or slip away, then, as explored by Gagarin, becomes a metaphor for translation as well as a representation of conversations between Gagarin and Duenas since 2024.





Sid M. Duenas
2026
Talåya Sequence, Fishing with Isa
Laser ink toner, paper
44 x 45.5 x 1.5 inches


Talåya Sequence, Fishing with Isa (2026) is an assembly of prints on standard sheets, each composed of an 8 line poem of compound words by Duenas describing a fishing event. Placed adjacent to Duenas’ words are Gagarin’s translations, words which have been included in Gagarin’s kåntan Chamorrita entitled I Kinenne’ (The Catch) (2026); a song which has been written by Gagarin especially for the show entitled Talåyan Langhet at Pilele Projects. An additional textual component of the poem is positioned between the columns of CHamoru and English. These interior sections are typographically aligned with each subsequent line, and are intended to span the spatial and experiential gap between translated words.





Isa Gagarin
2026
I Kinenne’ (The Catch)
Site-specific wall painting
Dimensions variable

I Kinenne’ (The Catch) (2026) is a site-specific wall painting based on a small-scale ink drawing by Gagarin. Painted in a light green hue with an iridescent and glittery finish similar to fish scales, I Kinenne’ (The Catch) depicts a gestural, abstracted form inspired by the shapes of circular fishing nets when they are cast midair. The title is shared with the song that Gagarin wrote for her collaborative video with Duenas, Talåyan Langhet (2026). Written in the musical structure of a kåntan Chamorrita, Gagarin’s song tells the story a talayeru–a fisherman–as they warn guihan (fish) of their inevitable catch. The first verse references a traditional kåntan Chamorrita stockphrase to establish the melody.





Sid Duenas and Isa Gagarin
2026
Talåyan Langhet
Digital video, audio
5:00 minutes

In Duenas and Gagarin's collaborative video Talåyan Langhet (2026), Gagarin’s ink drawings are animated on screen as if caught at various stages of flight, and are overlaid on images selected from Duenas’ archive that flash in and out of view like scintillating fish. Layered with the moving images is a candid audio recording that captures a phone call between the artists. After greeting each other, the artists play an invented game of ináyotte (the root word yotte means to throw, cast, fling, or toss), exchanging poems and song verses. In Chamoru, the noun form of yotte, ináyotte, can be understood to mean debate, with a combative or negative connotation. For Duenas and Gagarin, they take a playful approach to the call-and-response game in the form of bilingual images and narratives. 


 


Email hafa@pileleprojects.org