Opening
Friday, 8 November 2024, 5PM onwards
Studio Maya
33 Mayaman St. Teachers Village, Quezon City
Visual Artists:
Alee Garibay
Benedict Simbulan
Carlo de Laza
KR Rodgers
Pancho Alvarez,
Steph Lopez
Curated by JA Balaguer
In a society increasingly fixated on visibility, what truths do we choose to keep hidden? Each person harbors a shadow as an internal landscape, suffused with fears, insecurities, and untold stories. To confront these hidden aspects necessitates a profound degree of introspection and self-acceptance, as we come to terms with both the seen and unseen.
For the inaugural opening of Studio Maya, six contemporary artists embark on a profound exploration of intrusion, identity, and the concealed recesses of our inner selves. Utilizing a diverse array of mediums—oil, ink, and acrylic on canvas and paper, alongside cast marble and wire sculpture—that delve into the intricate dynamics of presence and absence, the works seek to illumine the figures and forces that linger at the periphery of our perception. Each artist presents a unique proposal through which we can interrogate these concealed dimensions, urging us to reflect on our personal narratives and the experiences that have shaped our supposed selves. By daring to look into the dark, the shadow becomes relegated into consciousness, arising from the uncharted territories of our inner worlds.
Yet identity is but another shadow. The “stranger” actually assumes multifaceted forms: akin to a fortress devoid of entry points or the weighty silence that envelops a dinner table, it embodies the self we grapple to recognize, the haunting specters of memory, the visceral remnants of human connection, the myriad personas cohabiting within us, and the unspoken truths that steadily hum within our inner consciousness.
There Is a Stranger Breaking In, I Am the Shadow espouses intimate moments when individuality experiences shifts and fractures, blurring familiar boundaries and inviting new insights that break our constructions of reality. The disintegration of the physical body, face, and hands—along with their complex contortions and confusions—echoes the nature of danger and allure found within the unknown: what intrudes into our lives exposes what we truly are.
John Alexis Balaguer
