by Karize Michella Uy May 23, 2021 View Point by Paul Eric Roca The country, and the rest of world, has, in over a year, been in simultaneou...
May 23, 2021
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| View Point by Paul Eric Roca |
The country, and the rest of world, has, in over a year, been in simultaneous states of rest and crises—as if a body in a state of trauma, shifting from arrest to overdrive, almost unable to cope and return to regular functions. How does this inform how we sense? If pain and spasm were present, do we decisively strike the nerve? If there were an itch, do we first pinch to see if it were real?
Nine visual artists from the Southern Tagalog region featured in DECAY AND DELUSIONS attempt to address these questions, gathering their strokes from separate perspectives—this group show is their meeting point.
Perhaps answers to questions are too presumptuous a goal; rather, it is the act of carrying across their reflections to images on canvasses and objects that becomes the approach, especially when each day is a mirror of another for far too long than anyone has anticipated.
And so these pieces mark the days of repetitive distress and indignation. Here one can see intersections of vibrant colors with themes of despair, elements of frail and failed grandeur, growth and tolerance in sites of damage—uncertain motions of climbing and falling in an effort to expose violators and exploiters, and to survive.
Although or because each artist created his or her pieces without conscious regard for what the other artists would have created, all their pieces had created tension among themselves, lifting each other and holding the whole show in place.
DECAY AND DELUSIONS invite the audience to modify their question of when all this chaos and injustice will end, into how, engaging a more hopeful perspective upon viewing, and a more proactive response after they leave the show. There is tomorrow—how will it go when here we still are.
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