Art Verité Gallery

BEING AND TIME

WRITTEN BY JASON MONTINOLA

Art Verite is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Valerie Chua, Tiffany Lafuente, Rhaz Oriente, Ciane Xavier, and Victoria. Being and Time is formed around a collection of works with elements of portraiture and landscape created in the months of the 2020 quarantine. Together, the artists revisit the idea and definition of Being in relation to time and temporality in a disruptive event, while exploring identity in the context production in the midst of societal dissolution. The exhibition’s title is in reference to Martin Heidegger’s book, Being and Time (1927), which chiefly explores the mystery of being and humanity’s task of running away from nothingness.

Unfortunate events such as the current pandemic halts everyday functions. People, such as creators, living in solitary are pushed further to the state of the seemingly hermeneutic. One’s absence in normal societal functions leads us to question our own identity and our relation to the larger world. What is deemed useful loses its value and what is deemed of less value is suddenly put into a pedestal. Events such as these lead society into a unified spirit of questioning of purpose and existence.

Metaphorically speaking: The act of creating (in this case, painting), albeit temporal, is seen as a contemplative act of questioning one’s identity. Putting Heidegger’s ideas into context into our normal lives, we are thrown into the world of archaic rituals and structures imposed on us prior to our birth. Previous structures are now altered and thrown into disarray. An adverse event throws us into a sudden realization of the briefness of time and the existence of death in proximity. This exhibition is a reaction towards this briefness. The works presented are an attempt of each individual artist to claim freedom within their own constraints. The very act of creating, whether it is derived from life or imagination, is an active strife to overcome nothingness, and an assertion of one’s imprint in this temporal time and space.

As a viewer, how are you running away from nothingness?