MEDIUM: i burned myself to life

TREES

Zeus Bascon's works are anchored in metaphors. Perennially in love with how words can romanticize instances, he lets these bloom in time or even forcibly impose these when necessary. His creative process involves immersion; experiencing and absorbing all eventualities, whether in solitude or in the company of others. His creative process involves reflection; feeling and meditating on particular occurrences, whether exclusively of inclusively. His creative process involves expedient production; espousing a self-taught artist's mantra "Work with what you have." For Bascon, art-making happens while one is actively living in the moment. During meltdowns, while running wild, he interprets life without distancing himself from it.

BURN

Zeus Bascon's works are attached to the bonds he has created, severed and reconnected. Amidst closeness, phases of confusion, rituals and spirituals; his mother is a thriving wildflower. His works bear narratives of frustrations, interpretations of ideologies and a liberation from inhibitions. His home, his dog, his neighborhood, the realities of his environs are reflected as elements, as subject or as visual anecdotes. To encapsulate his source of inspiration is to betray geography. Much like saying that the journey from Cubao to Santa Rosa is akin to the move from 19C Yale Street to 110 Barangay Pooc. He knows it is not.

DOWN

Zeus Bascon's works are products structured though abstract concepts. His recent outputs show maturity and focus, while subtly relaying pertinent chronicles. Rather than engage in a society that is obsessed with colonial escapism, we should devote our time in living. As such, there may be a need to hear (or see) someone else's story to provoke us to question our own reality, for as Jean-Paul Sartre stated: "Existence precedes essence."

- Words by Con Cabrera