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Our gut bacteria sensed that our country was heading on a dystopianpath. In July 2016 my wife and I were forced to become nomads. Wemanaged to escape Dutertopia just before he was elected to power.4. My last solo exhibition in the Philippines, in 2016, was entitledName, Kind, Application, Date Last Opened, Date Added, DateModified, Date Created, Size, Tags – the list of categories used toarrange the files on one’s computer. The endlessness of this show’stitle is a playful jab at the impossible volume of informationaccumulated in the attention and projection economy.It was a sentimental farewell show in which I decided to print all of thefiles archived on my hard drives, starting from 2003 (when I startedtaking photographs and first had access to a personal computer),until 2016 (when my wife and I migrated from the Philippinesto Aotearoa New Zealand). These files comprised thousands ofpersonal and commercial photos, web images, documents, emailsand internet cookies.My brother, a software engineer, helped me to develop a computerapplication that automated, collected, and arranged these imagesbased on the date they were taken and created. What resulted wasan enormous scroll titled 2003 – 2016, a visual diary of thumbnailswhich in aggregate resembled pixels. A timeline of my pre-migrationexistence hung from the ceiling and spread across the floor of thegallery space.5. In Aotearoa New Zealand life became a blank canvas, anaccumulation of fresh data as we immersed ourselves in our newenvironment. This canvas slowly filled as time moved forward. Icontinued to accumulate and record thousands of images on harddrives, preserving the digital traces of our experiences. The imagesthat populate this mural, taken between 2016 and 2020, representevery moment since we stepped foot on this whenua.Many significant events have occurred during this time. Initially Iwas dealing with the internal and external chaos brought about bythe displacement and disconnection from family and communitythat accompanies migration, in conjunction with the difficulty offinding a home and employment in a foreign land. However, thismural also reveals the journey of self-transformation which emergedas we adapted to survive in this unfamiliar territory. Repeating theprocess of my brother’s app with these new images illustrates that asnew roots grew, my mind and gut started a process of decolonization.6. When we found our current home, we were introduced to theidea of growing our food rather than grass on our front lawn. Thiscould be seen as the antithesis of the aspiration of progress, but withmy hands in the dirt, I was immediately transported back to my preinternetprovincial life in the Philippines. When I removed the lensof modernity, I was left with the community of life: friends, seeds,birds, bees, worms, microbes, fungi, clouds, water, the sun – incollaboration. It reminded me that this is what constitutes true valueand meaning in life. Walking into the future, I was rediscovering mypast. I learnt to wash my hands by building soil, and the dirtiermy hands got the more my community grew: in my yard, in myneighborhood, and eventually, as a full-time volunteer in the māraat Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae.This work – paradoxically, generated digitally and presented as acommunal selfie – has revealed that regenerating the culture ofabundance is an antidote to hyper-individualistic modernity andselfie culture. And the culture of abundance reveals itself as a radicalpolitical transformation and a viable alternative to the tyranny ofconvenience and the populism offered through the internet and byDuterte, Modi, Bolsonaro, Johnson, Putin and Trump.115
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COVER
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CONTENTS68Curators Notes Eastern Vi
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Messages
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Flashbacks of VIVA ExConby Charlie
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It may not be our fondest memory bu
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DUMAGUETE (2012)Garbo sa Bisaya Awa
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VIVA ExCon 2016 Iloilo - Photo by L
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ROXAS (2018)The 2018 VIVA ExCon was
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VIVA ExCon 2020 Bacolod Launching,
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Bayanihan ExhibitionsFundraising Ev
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25
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works of art, either individually o
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We were actually quite excited abou
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V-CON1 Day 2 November 12, 2020Virtu
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V-CON1 Day 4 November 14, 2020Virtu
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Caught by the Lockdown:Artists’ S
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Art Initiatives in Changing TimesJa
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Kalibutan Seminar Node 2:Artists Ex
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Kalibutan Seminar Node 2:Artists Ex
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Music Video Launch of Uwak47
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The Art Market Post COVID-19April 1
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Kalibutan Seminar Node 3: WorksDisc
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Lockdown ArtJune 5, 2021This webina
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Museum Management Projectionsfrom t
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- Page 69 and 70: Contingent Kalibutan:Notes on Curat
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- Page 78 and 79: 78HingaloSonic performance, Virtual
- Page 80 and 81: Interative Box Installation16 x 20
- Page 82 and 83: Curators Notes Central Visayas
- Page 84 and 85: 84The design-driven creative scene
- Page 86 and 87: Mona Alcudia’s Peacock ChairMona
- Page 88 and 89: Curator’s Notesby Maria Tanaguchi
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- Page 97 and 98: On Seeing the Kalibutanby Liby Limo
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- Page 103 and 104: The multiple positions she occupies
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- Page 107: 107BahandiMultimedia DocumentaryFar
- Page 110 and 111: Visayas Elsewhereby Patrick FloresT
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- Page 122 and 123: it is thisNeonLani Maestro2018
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- Page 134 and 135: Brenda FajardoSiya, Ikaw, At Ako (1
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- Page 138 and 139: Nunelucio AlvaradoUntitled 45.5”
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- Page 142 and 143: Leandro LocsinLeandro Locsin (1928-
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- Page 146 and 147: Lino SeverinoUntitled 24 x 30 inche
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- Page 152 and 153: My VIVA ExConby Raymund L. Fernande
- Page 154 and 155: VIVA ExCon Cebu, which we called
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Ratia Mufida (Biennale Jogja) revea
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VIVA Excon 1990 at Mambukal Resort,
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Finding Inspirationin VIVA ExConby
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Patrick FloresGuinevere DecenaLiby
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Partner Viewing Spaces172
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Major SponsorsMercedes U. Zobel174