Six months. One hundred eighty-six days. from being rooted where they stand, now fifteen artists ponder how they have been adapting to the new normal. Like a routine from yesterday, today, and tomorrow, they have put together a guide, but something softer than a manual: Recipes.
The paintings I present here are a departure from the drawings I made for the lockdown exhibition ‘Becoming Trees’, where I produced works from a method of repetition using only the pencil and eraser as rudimentary tools of discovery. For this show ‘Recipes’, I’ve awoken the senses to colour and scaled my compositions to stretch out again–the way one does after a long nap.
Through the eyes of a child, time is not a clockface but the ebb and flow- wave of events, of naps and games, sunshines and moonlit nights. Through the eyes of a child, the world is at once a revelation and a playground for the imagination, of consciousness and mystery. To be childlike is the final retreat.
Loved ones share recipes all the time, and have been doing so for a long time.
My process moves like history: overlapping sheets to cover the past and expose what’s been forgotten.
I study the self like mapping a recipe to pass down through generations; a vessel of continuity that my choices can spice up or sweeten.
From collages once-cherished, I created a narrative of two individuals only successful when separated.
Things are falling apart at home, as they are in many other places. I make no grand attempts to rebuild – it feels futile and also premature. Instead I turn to some kind of atlassing wherein I try to find my way to a simpler and more genuine place. In the process, I eschew concentrated mark-making and try a more spontaneous gesture. This has taught me nothing new except the true back of my drawing hand.
The Weight of 6 Eggs in Sugar
Before measurements were standardized in recipes, common approximations were used and widely accepted. For instance, “the weight of 6 eggs in sugar” or “butter big as an egg”. It reminded me of the manner in how I measure certain processes like paint color mixing or gel medium dilution in the studio.
My works Fragments #1-4 came about as a result of re-visiting old images I had previously produced.
I am constantly consumed with the drive to go beyond what a conventional photograph reveals.
Recipe for life in Corona times
The current pandemic situation has made me be more deliberate in my actions. Having said that, I would like to acknowledge and promote my seemingly foolproof method of navigating the scenario.
We have endured many challenges in our lifetime, but torment slowly creeps in as it dawns upon us that these are not unprecedented times at all. Thus, being drawn to the great discomforts of change and growth, I have been working on the concept of personal sanctuary as a conduit to confront, converse, contemplate and face down our inner demons.
Sa panahon ng kadiliman ang bawat isa ay naghahanap ng pintuan, na ang lahat ay umaasa sa liwanag na dumating na galing sa pintuan ng Diyos.
Everyone has their own recipe for coping with an unbearable situation. Some, literally, have taken to cooking and baking to distract the mind from focusing on the ugly truth.
june 26
recipe for survival
(in the new normal)
Aliwarus is a Cebuano word that roughly translates as mischief-maker or rascal. Generally said with affection when used to describe a child, the term becomes an insult when directed towards an adult. In this context, aliwarus describes an annoyance or a menace. The term can also be interpreted as an interruption or a disturbance.
What is my new normal?
My goal each day is to live with loss. After my mother’s passing, I’ve been trying to find ways to make it through.