RECALLED TO LIFE
2019
VARYING DIMENSION (APPROX 1-1.5′ ROUND)
SOFT SCULPTURES MADE FROM DISCARDED OR WASHED UP FISHING IMPLEMENTS (FISHING LINES, NYLON ROPES, NETS, FASHIONED FLOATS AND BOUYS) COLLECTED FROM SONGCOLAN BEACH.
RECALLED TO LIFE INSTALLED AT PANIKI GALLERY AND PLACED STRATEGICALLY AT SONGCOLAN BEACH.
This project began on the shores of the Sibuyan Sea (in Songcolan, one of Batan’s barangays).
The refuse found on Sonngcolan beach was wide-ranging in quality and kind. Half-buried in the sand, tangled in the roots of trees, mixed with windswept wrappers and single-use plastics, have found an eternal home under sun and sea. Beachcombing the stretch of fine ashen sand was satisfying work.
Due to the generations of local fisherfolk that lives and docks in Songcolan, the fishing paraphernalia was abundant. Bright-coloured nylon and abaca rope of different widths and lengths, various types of nets and meshes, bespoke rubber buoys and barnacle-crusted styrofoam, in different stages of disintegration, was easy to spot against the dark sand.
Once cleaned and untangled of sand and weeds, the fishing materials were knotted to each other to form spherical masses of synthetic matter. The years of weathering have softened and bleached the refuse, mimicking the characteristics of their organic counterparts.
(While combing the beach for garbage, the locals looked on with mild curiosity. They were more concerned, however, that we were labouring under the heat of the sun.)