What does it mean to think, create, and relate as an archipelago?
The search for answers is as manifold as the question. Perhaps to be Filipino lies in answering that question, together, but not exactly as One. This last sentence borrows from Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of carnivalesque polyphony as a counterpoint to State conformity: “the one as many” versus “the many as one.” Here, a play on syntax creates space, however fleeting, for more than one; for those not seen as one, who have been othered, negated, or made-to-be-zero.
So, who are we? Perhaps this is not a question per se – that is, a question needing an answer – but an invitation, a space and time already filled, but nevertheless asks us to listen, maybe even play. Islands are where the cacophony of life at the surface and the magnitude of deep time meet. They reveal our evolutionary history, but also show us the collective future of our species.
Thus, the archipelago beckons for our consideration, for a reckoning with the mark our histories have made on its geography, and our geography on its histories. In truth, our islands have always influenced the movements of our thoughts as well as bodies; their shapes and rhythms hold a prescience of a poetics we can call our own.
Gathered here are artists and storytellers encountered through uncanny constellations, whose work traces the outline of an obscure shape slowly emerging from ocean depths, whose meaning no one may never fully know.
MONO8 is pleased to present Between Grief and Hope, An Archipelago, a group exhibition curated by Emerging Islands. It features works by Alaga, Bree Jonson, Catalina Africa, Cian Dayrit, Derek Tumala, Eisa Jocson, Gab Mejia, Irene Bawer Bimuyag, Isola Tong, Jao San Pedro, Joar Songcuya, Joshua Serafin, Lawrence Ypil, Nice Buenaventura, Rocky Cajigan, Ryan Villamael, and Veronica Lazo.
Between Grief and Hope, An Archipelago will be on view until 26 May 2024. MONO8 Gallery is located at BLK 113, 53 Connecticut Street, Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila.
