Offered by Ysobel Gallery, Sid Natividad’s “Of Ebbs and Echoes” was the one Filipino solo exhibition at Artwork Taipei 2024
Reflecting on his solo exhibition “Of Ebbs and Echoes” at Artwork Taipei 2024, Filipino artist Sid Natividad shares his conceptual factors: “The Philippines and Taiwan are each fully surrounded by water. This shared geographical function was a core level of reflection as I used to be engaged on my work for my solo exhibition at Artwork Taipei 2024.”
“For me, the ocean is each a barrier and a bridge,” he continues. “As Austronesians, anthropologists have traced the origins of a lot of the Filipino individuals to the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Right now, the Philippines and Taiwan share similarities in local weather, geography, tradition, and even geopolitical challenges.”
The Manila-based and Quezon province-raised artist is understood for his visible language marked by photorealistic depictions of the ocean, tackling the paradoxical nature of the water.
Born in 1989, Natividad considers himself a recent visible artist whose inventive course of and visible language are each inextricably linked to his rural expertise in Quezon. In his personal phrases, Natividad considers himself as somebody who “senses, responds, and communes with nature” in deeply visceral and intuitive methods.
“My relationship with nature is essentially outlined by my existential must be close to it, to be immersed in it. I discover a grounding sense of peace each time I’m surrounded by the pure world. I’d prefer to suppose that I’m a listener. I take heed to the waves, to the breeze, and even to the sound of silence.”
Over the past seven years, Natividad has developed a physique of labor that embodies his mastery of oil portray methods in addition to his poetic and enigmatic visible language that presents objects submerged in water as topics that straddle the road between figuration and abstraction. For Natividad, water features as a “veil” that conceals, reveals, amplifies, distorts, mystifies, and obscures his topics, normally discovered objects that bear observable materials degradation.
“Alla prima or wet-on-wet is the method I take advantage of in capturing the richness, complexity, and nuance of water as a subject. As a visible storyteller, I take advantage of the archetypal symbolism of water to connect with the broader human expertise,” says Natividad.
At Artwork Taipei 2024 held on the Taipei World Commerce Middle from Oct. 25 to twenty-eight, Ysobel Gallery introduced Natividad’s first worldwide solo exhibition and the one solo exhibition by a Filipino artist the place he captured the contradiction between the ocean’s boundless serenity and unimaginable terror in addition to its capability to each maintain life and produce forth dying.
“The plan to mount Sid’s solo exhibition on the Artwork Taipei 2024 was a yr within the making. Our objective has at all times been to signify the perfect of Philippine modern artwork regionally and globally. For a gallery that isn’t as established as a few of Manila’s globally acknowledged galleries, we accepted the monetary and logistical challenges that include mounting an bold solo exhibition overseas. The expertise required us to punch above our weight class. Our perception in Sid’s expertise, imaginative and prescient, and inventive course of is sufficient for us to have some pores and skin within the recreation,” says Patrice and Mark Tiongco, co-owners and co-founders of Ysobel Gallery.
On this sit-down interview in Taipei, Natividad shares the impetus behind his charming visible language, his on-going love affair with nature and rural life, and what it means to be the one Filipino to current a solo exhibition at Artwork Taipei 2024.
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In your individual phrases, who’s Sid Natividad?
Sid Natividad is an introvert and an observer. When it comes to my essence, I’ve at all times been a probinsyano. I’m a creature of Quezon, the coastal province I grew up in. As a toddler, I knew I couldn’t categorical myself with utmost readability by talking. I at all times noticed myself as a nonverbal individual. As a toddler, I had a approach of framing in my head the objects in our house. Objects weren’t simply objects however have been trinkets to be disassembled and reconstructed. As a toddler, I keep in mind having clear visions on the best way to break down an object and put it again collectively and even create a brand new incarnation of it.
How essential is your rural expertise within the growth of your visible language as a painter?
My works emerge from an never-ending sense of longing. I really feel displaced each time I’m in an city house. Reconnecting with my hometown grounds me and allows me to provide works that reveal my private worldview and the way in which I work together with the atmosphere. If I’m unable to reconnect with my rural roots, I wouldn’t have the ability to function correctly as a human being and visible artist.
Are you able to stroll us by your inventive course of for this challenge?
I’m a really intuitive individual. I really feel deeply. I sense profoundly. I’m additionally a rational and intellectually methodical individual, however the way in which I have interaction with my interior world and the world round me has at all times been pushed by what I really feel. Each time I see an object that has undergone vital degradation, I’m reminded of that object’s materials historical past and authentic context. I instantly think about how the method of submerging worn-out objects which might be embedded with reminiscence can create new meanings. I basically use water to distort how these objects are perceived in a brand new gentle.
Why is the method of visually distorting objects essential to your inventive course of? What’s it about distortion that continues to compel you to visually remodel photographs and types?
The method of distortion allows me to attract parallels between portray and historical past. By manipulating water to basically remodel the looks of static objects, I’m able to flip a representational picture into an nearly nonfigurative, abstracted model of it. I join this transposition with the fabric degradation of objects over time. I’m curious about how time adjustments every little thing—how time brings forth dying and destruction and the way time permits for brand spanking new life to emerge.
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What’s it about water that has stored it the middle of your physique of labor?
The ocean basically connects me again to my rural roots. The ocean additionally serves as a setting whereby I discover the paradoxical nature of water. Water is archetypal, common, transcendental. Moreover, I actually couldn’t thrive inside city areas. My aesthetic sensibility, my essence, my methods of being and seeing are linked with my provincial expertise. Portray water takes me again to the place the place I’m most myself.
What’s the core idea behind your solo present “Of Ebbs and Echoes”?
In my solo exhibition “Of Ebbs and Echoes,” I’ve deeply explored the paradoxical nature of water each as ingredient and image. The ocean is each serene and turbulent and it serves each as a barrier and bridge. Making ready for Artwork Taipei 2024, I hoped to attract parallels between the shared experiences of the individuals within the Philippines and Taiwan. I’m curious about creating work that enable for broader, extra common human experiences to be expressed and felt.
What are the challenges and setbacks that you just and Ysobel Gallery skilled whereas mounting your first worldwide solo exhibition?
Except for the apparent challenges of transporting artworks to a international land, I really feel that the deeper problem was that of progress. Ysobel Gallery and I have been challenged to raise the way in which we function inside a regional context. Committing to current a solo present in a world honest equivalent to Artwork Taipei 2024 meant that we needed to have some pores and skin within the recreation.
To have been capable of efficiently put collectively our first participation in a significant worldwide honest confirmed me that Ysobel and I, within the phrases of Ysobel co-founder Ma’am Patrice Tiongco, can truly “punch above our weight class”—that we are able to, actually, take up house and amplify, by artwork, the distinctive methods Filipino modern artists view and have interaction with the world.
In case you can depart us a quotable quote concerning the essence of your studio follow, what would it not be?
What is probably crucial ability to amass is to have the ability to repeatedly pay attention. We have to take heed to our cells, our physique. We have to take heed to nature, the world round us. We have to take heed to our intestine, our instinct.
Why are you an artist?
As a result of it’s the solely language that I do know. With out it, I’m unvoiced.
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