Filipino Artists Reimagine Island Life in Groundbreaking Exhibition
A remarkable art exhibition at the Ateneo Art Gallery challenges conventional views of tropical island life, bringing together eight Filipino artists who explore themes of migration, memory, and environmental change through innovative multimedia works.
"A World of Islands: On Palms, Storms & Coconuts," curated by Ligaya Salazar, runs until May 24 and presents a fresh perspective on the Philippine archipelago without featuring a single traditional painting. Instead, visitors encounter sculptures, video installations, and digital works that examine the movement of Indigenous knowledge, materials, and people across oceans.
Curator's Vision Rooted in Philippine Heritage
Born in the Philippines, Salazar left during the first Marcos era at age seven. With a German mother and Filipino father, she built an impressive international career, including nearly a decade as curator at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Her research into Indigenous materials, particularly coconuts, palms, and pineapples, inspired both the exhibition's title and approach.
"I spent a lot of time in libraries, lost in researching Indigenous materials," Salazar explained during the preview. "I got stuck on coconuts, palms, and pineapples, and specifically how they moved between the Philippines and Mexico."
Water as Memory and Metaphor
Derek Tumala's "Vanishing Points" opens the exhibition with a three-channel video installation transforming memory into digital waterscapes. The 3D-modeled water cycles from day to night, emphasizing cycles rather than linear time, accompanied by Mario Consunja's atmospheric soundscape.
Kim Sacay Chin, born to a Leyte mother and Guangdong-heritage father from Kingston, Jamaica, presents "Memory Debris A Tourist in My Mother's Land." She describes her three-screen installation as "an honest love letter to intergenerational resilience," exploring her relationship with her migrant mother through art-making as a bridge between generations.
Local Materials Meet Contemporary Expression
Cebu artist Ronyel Compra draws directly from recent natural disasters in his hometown of Bogo. His installation "Playing in Reverse" uses Molave wood from typhoon-fallen trees, incorporating traditional banca-making techniques into contemporary sculptural language. The work reflects both destruction and rebuilding cycles familiar to many Filipino communities.
Nice Buenaventura brings actual water into the gallery with "High Tide Atlas (Gaian Assembly XVIII)," featuring PETG trays filled with still water creating perfect meniscus surfaces. This "water archipelago" evokes the constant threat of floods and environmental instability while serving as a durational work that evolves throughout the exhibition's four-month run.
Diaspora and Maritime Sovereignty
The exhibition features strong representation from the Filipino diaspora. Stephanie Comilang, a Filipino Canadian artist, presents "How to Make Painting from Memory," a "science fiction documentary" exploring migration experiences while documenting Thai women in Berlin and connecting to Filipino bayanihan practices.
Alex Quicho offers a provocative vision with computer-generated renderings of artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea. "Alley to Heaven" imagines a future where genetically engineered corals have overtaken an island, addressing maritime sovereignty and environmental futures through gaming aesthetics and science fiction.
Seafarer Stories and OFW Experiences
Perhaps most poignant is Joar Songcuya's work on paper, drawing from his decade as a ship engineer. His six long scrolls combine real events like ship fires with subjective impressions of global waters, featuring national flags of countries he sailed past but never visited due to visa restrictions.
Songcuya's personal connection to overseas Filipino worker experiences runs deep. His mother worked in Kuwait and other countries, returning home only once or twice yearly but regularly sending colored pencils from abroad, gestures that continue to inform his artistic practice.
Reimagining Tropical Narratives
"We want to relocate the agency in the tropical narrative, unpick clichés, and consider how interconnected our futures are as a world of islands," Salazar emphasizes.
The exhibition successfully challenges stereotypical tropical representations while honoring the complex realities of island life, migration, and environmental change. Through these diverse artistic voices, both local and diasporic, visitors experience the Philippines as both lived reality and imagined space, navigating personal and universal stories that resonate across communities.
This meditation on archipelagic identity arrives at a crucial moment when questions of climate change, migration, and cultural preservation demand urgent attention from Filipino communities worldwide.