January 10 – 31, 2015
ARTERY
102 P.Tuazon Blvd, 4001 Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Artery Art Space, Cubao Q.C., Philippines, proudly presents an exhibit by Leo Abaya entitled “Because We Cannot Share The Same Light”, opening on Saturday, January 10, from 6 pm to 9pm, and runs until January 31, 2015. The exhibit features a video installation of time-lapse pictures of non-events made possible by the absence of someone or something desired. Through this exhibit, Abaya explores the weave of chance happenings that lend itself to interpretation, symbolic, personal, or otherwise, which ponders on the production of images and the nature of subjectivity.
Facing the wide expanse of the world and its myriad wonders, some moments never get to see the light of day. They are forever in the swirl of possibilities that are never born, falling as dream. Each unrealized moment turn into false hopes that break the will of a desiring heart, they stop becoming, and end up in a pool of despair – the dread of an everlasting unfulfilled state separated from being. Pictures therefore, functioning as documents of events, things, and people, bring the possibility of a living memory. When we look at pictures they tell us that something has been preserved, a moment has been captured into a still image, into something memorable, with the knowledge that life is fleeting and would never occur in the same way ever again. Images are representations of this unique reality. Though distinct, each moment isn’t strict to a singular experience; the mind wanders through a multitude of impressions triggered by appearances within this reality. Time collapses accompanied by presences that may all be in the mind. Solitude. Longing. Hope. Despair. They maybe fabrications construed by the moment aided by the imagination, not truly real but rather as signifiers in suspension across an infinite horizon.
Leo Abaya is a visual artist and a teacher of Studio Arts at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts where he earned his BFA degree with mcl honours. Under a UP Fellowship, he obtained MA Fine Art at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He first exhibited solo in 1997, and has joined group shows in the country and abroad. He has since complemented his transmedia studio practice with design in film and theater, and eventually curation of exhibitions in the Philippines and the region. He recently made an excursion as full-length film writer/director at the 9th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. He has served as visual consultant in film, design and institutional projects. His most recent jury task was the 2012 Ateneo Art Awards. Some of today’s notable emerging artists have been his students at UP.
Artery Art Space is an artist-run space with multiple functions of a studio, an artist residency, exhibition space, shop, and a snack bar. Artery Art Space aims to connect creative production with the realities of the globalized market culture that we are living in today, in relation to fostering critical thinking and developing smart approaches to making and living with art. It is located on 102 P. Tuazon Blvd., Cubao, Quezon City. Contact us via arteryartspace@gmail.com, and Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/arteryartspace.
