Water Stories

Soft Opening
October 2, 2020 | 5 PM

Galerie Roberto
Molito Lifestyle Extension Building, Madrigal Avenue corner Commerce Avenue, Alabang, 1776 Muntinlupa City

Despite its obvious life-giving properties, water is also central to some of the most pressing and life-threatening issues the world continues to face, having taken lives, damaged neighborhoods, spread illnesses, and incited violence. In the context of Metro Manila alone, whose clogged and polluted networks not only propagate deadly diseases but have also made the effects of climate change all the more devastating, shortage crises and the growing inaccessibility to potable water⁠—inevitabilities produced by the questionable privatization of such a basic necessity⁠—was the subject of heated discourse and mass outrage not so long ago. This conflict extends well beyond the region as dams planned and designed to supply the capital often come at the expense of indigenous communities, their ancestral lands, and the ecosystem in general.

This complex network of destruction is what Waterstories engages and foregrounds as its theme. The exhibition invites viewers to confront a myriad of challenges, in which water is central, through the works of eighteen artists who have made these narratives visible using various processes, conceptual approaches, and individual modes of representation, mostly along the idioms of abstraction. Utilizing diverse media, the artists present images and objects displaying a wide range of strategies⁠—analytic, improvisatory, and collagic⁠—and render a variety of environments and concepts through forms that emphasize fluidity, gesture, lyricism, materiality, geometry, and biomorphism among many others.

With this heterogeneous set of works, Waterstories aims to simultaneously produce deeply emotional experiences and stimulate intellectual conversations on this tangled web of dire situations and conflicting interests over a vital source of life. Hoping to broaden horizons, the show encourages viewers to imagine possible futures and potential steps to take to move away from this current dismal state of devastation and deprivation which ultimately threatens to obliterate not just the human population but all life on Earth.

Written by Dominic Zinampan

Participating artists:

Mio Aseremo, Bea Aspiras, Don Djerassi Dalmacio, Clarence Eduarte, Kat Grow, Binong Javier, Niccolo Jose, Rico Lascano, Ronnie Lim, Kenneth Montegrande, Jaime Nepomuceno, Julianne Ng, Marge Organo, Josep Pascual, Bea Policarpio, Jay Ragma, Julian Udine and Nestor Vinluan.

For safety purposes, walk-in visitors are advised to wear face mask and face shield at all times when entering the gallery.

Keep safe!

𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗘𝗧 𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗜𝗡𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦, 𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛:

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