WORDS by Nicole Ignacio

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Naiveté shows selected scenes from a resurgent age of innocence. It covers selected personal pondering from a very specific vignette of the artist’s life starting from point A—the artist graduating from college with her new undergraduate degree in tow, and point B—her dropping out of a doctorate pursuit a few years later. What ensued was an immersive personal journey away from the artist’s general comfort zone (admittedly that typical of a privileged Manilenya’s), and into the belly of both traditionally conservative and atypical socio-political environments, explored in an attempt to better understand the inner workings of Philippine society, and to first-handedly discover the ever-expanding complexity (both innate and imposed) of the Filipino identity. Moreover, the show is a coming-to-terms with the clashing of the persistent academic scrutiny over spontaneous creative experience, in an effort to illuminate a more critical and holistic view of the world. This show is a narration of this continuing personal journey. 
 

The exhibit is composed of a series of pyrography works—wood-burnt pieces—on pine parquet tinted with ink, dye, and stain. Circular shapes are dominant in this collection, intentionally representing an encasing of sorts—perhaps the entrapment within that perennial bubble.

The primary piece (titled Naïveté) shows a female figure in the fetal stage of human development. Bits and pieces of her head float about, a hand tightly grips a significant document, the nervous system seems to be centerpiece, and an umbilical cord connects to the outside world. 

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Edited by Nikki Ignacio