MEDIUM: September 2020

On 2014 during a residency, I would make studies, even produce artworks, in a coin-operated laundry shop while having a slice of a cake and a cold can of coffee. I will do my laundry at midnight so I can have it all for my self, some times friends would come over and help me with cutting stickers and sorting materials, or just hangout by the canal and smoke and watch passers-by. It was a way to meet up with the requirement of coming up with an exhibition and the time i had at that moment (the residency was for 3 months and it's not because time is limited, but I wasn't able to edit down the number of works I would like to present and just went with it even with the knowledge of the heavy labour involved).

"Don't wash your dirty laundry in public."

- I have been told once by a gallery during a portfolio presentation because I was asked to tell something about a piece I presented and told them my truth. I asked them if it was a wrong thing to do, they said it wasn't a wrong, it's just better to leave space for the viewer to wonder. I was confused, they asked...

I received a message one Friday a little after noon that I have a pop-up solo show in their laundry area, it was their first exhibition in their laundry area gallery. I was touched for him to share to public what he would keep in private.

2A balcony gallery: ZEUS BASCON: Colours of mourning

August 28, 2020 / 12:50pm to 12:52pm

1 Installation view

2 Entities # 38 (inverted)
C-print on glossy photo paper
with sparkle lamination
5 x 6.667 inches (5R)
2014-2019

3 Dead Mask: Xyrus Diocares (b.1979), last seen on July 2, 2016
Acrylic paint, alcohol ink, silver marker, foil tape on tarpaulin;
vinyl stickers and paper cut-outs in plastic case.
8.75 x 12.625 inches
2016

4 Dead Mask: Diomedes "Lucio" Sigue (b.1982), shot dead on October 10, 2016
Acrylic paint, alcohol ink, glow-in-the-dark stickers on tarpaulin, paper
cut-outs in plastic case, and grommets
8.75 x 12.625 inches
2016

These were the first Dead Masks i created for an exhibition curated by Franchesca Co in Kaida Contemporary in 2016 titled Strange Loop, which presented art works in connection to a specific location on a map of NCR. 2016 was also the year the government conducted drug-related killings. Before sending the last piece to Harvey, I got concerned with the title I chose for the works, as to highlight information and real accounts of violence that happened to Lucio (a neighbor) and Xyrus (a relative). Entities is a series of images applied with several filters, transforming the mundane to the otherworldly. Magic Hour, an exhibition of this series in Timog Coffee, Biñan Laguna in 2017 attempted to present a comparison of seeing images on screen and in actual, by differentiating both experiences utilising sparkled lamination. The purchase of these photographs were made early 2019. And it's interesting to observe how the images in these photographs seems to react on the Dead Mask pieces. One is in shock; another a fire mounted in reverse, which in symbols can be defined as control.