Exhibition text

Creativity is at once a product of individual efforts at self-expression and communities that support and nurture them. The struggles of the valiant individual artist are often what emerge when we talk about their art, but the insights of art historians and theorists and even one’s own experiences point in another direction: no one is alone, despite the risks they must take through their choices (creative or otherwise). Hence, community matters. This show celebrates building and strengthening a creative community through the various ways people express themselves.

The Tagalog/Filipino word salubong is helpful in unpacking what it means to be a creative community.

First, the word denotes the act of coming together, or encounter. It may be intentional or totally surprising when people first encounter each other and eventually build a community. Nevertheless, the encounter, the act of welcoming one into another’s life, is what starts the process.

Second, one of the word’s cognates in Tagalog, pasalubong refers to the idea of a gift one brings to another when one returns from a long journey. It is possible to imagine the solitary creative act as such a journey and the resultant gift a souvenir of it. Pasalubong denotes more than just that, though; it is the symbolic sharing of the fruits of the journey that respond to the very gift of the other.

Third, the word refers to an Easter morning ritual of encounter where the sorrowing mother symbolically receives comfort from her triumphant son, a ritual familiar to Catholics in the Philippines. It is accompanied by the ancient Latin chant Regina Coeli, which begins with an exhortation to rejoice and celebrate because of a fulfilled promise.

Indeed, it is in this spirit that Salubong the show is being staged. This community of artists whom I’ve witnessed over the past year continue to grow from strength to strength, meeting the promise of their creative potential by offering work and seeing their work received in a way that sometimes even defies their expectations. They have chosen to grow together, supporting each other by liking each other’s social media posts, attending each other’s exhibit openings, having lively dinners after, and keeping in touch online and off.

In this spirit, there is one more aspect of the word salubong that I want to explore, along with my prospective curatorial and artistic collaborators: it is about gathering together for a common purpose, regardless of how we pursue our creative endeavors. The purpose I propose is viability and sustainability for artists and the spaces in which we exhibit. By offering each other and the wider community the best work we can, we hope to generate support from the community, from future collaborators, and from like-minded spaces. This enables us and our host space to pursue other collaborative projects in the future.

The promise of encounter and community transforms ourselves and the world we live in, allowing us to grow in our capacity to be more truly human in communion with all that lives and ensure that no one is left behind. Community restores and reconciles us to each other and to a world in need of health and healing, shattering the walls of division imposed by social, cultural, and economic systems. Finally, community is a way in which we participate in re-creation, the act of bringing forth new life despite all that has gone before.

Salubong is an invitation for artists and the wider community to witness what it means to transform ourselves and our world in the process of encounter, friendship, creativity, and bearing witness to renewed life.

Ren Aguila

30 January 2024