San Juan, La Union – Opening on Earth Day, ‘Follow the Water,’ an outdoor photography exhibition in La Union, invites viewers to rediscover our beloved Philippine waters, confront the threats they face, and to journey to other coasts and islands across Southeast Asia through photography.
The Philippines is the center of the world’s marine biodiversity, and among the most vulnerable countries to climate disasters. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to recenter coastal communities as the frontline in the fight against the climate crisis. In ‘Follow the Water,’ Emerging Islands, a coastal-based art residency, brings the global conversation about art and ecology to one of the very places that desperately need solutions to the issues of plastic pollution and climate change, to the surf town of San Juan, La Union.
The exhibition features work from award-winning international and local photographers as ‘The Banda Journal,’ by Muhammad Fadli, which explores the impact of colonisation in a remote island in Indonesia; ‘Mekong, Mother of Rivers,’ by Huiying Ore, which documents the damming of the Mekong River in Laos; ‘What the Water Gave Us,’ by Woong Soak Teng, which takes a look at how objects of civilisation find their way to a riverbed in Vietnam. Work by Filipino photographers will also be heavily featured, among them ‘Langit, Lupa, Impiyerno,’ by Geric Cruz, a long term project that looks at the devotees of Manila Bay; ‘Pearls,’ a collaborative work by Archie Geotina and Bren Lopez featuring Ikit Agudo, which centers Filipinas in surf; ‘Cities Made of Water,’ by Hannah Reyes Morales and Nicola Sebastian, which documents coastal communities in the heart of the Coral Triangle; and ‘Guardians of the Marsh,’ by Gab Mejia, which lovingly documents the stewards of the Agusan Marsh amidst its destruction.
Headlining the exhibition will be the launch of ‘DIP Sea KISS,’ a new work created by Mandy Barker, in collaboration with Emerging Islands, to raise awareness on the plastic sachets that pollute our ocean. A conservation photographer whose work on marine plastic debris has appeared in the MoMA and Tate Museum, Barker embarked on a remote expedition with Emerging Islands and local communities in La Union, who collected plastic sachets from their waterways for Barker to use in the production of this work.
The exhibition will also feature student work from the Plastic Passages workshop, mentored by Mandy Barker, Hannah Reyes Morales, and Emerging Islands.
A dynamic and intimate celebration of the rivers, lakes, and seas that give our communities life, while also illuminating the problems that they face, ‘Follow the Water’ hopes that these stories will help the seaside community of San Juan feel connected to other coastal communities struggling with the climate crisis, and ultimately the global archipelago to which we all belong.
DIP Sea KISS was created in collaboration with the coastal communities of La Union, especially the Young Earthsavers Society (YES!), the turtle patrollers of Baroro, Bacnotan, the mangrove stewards of Bauang, and the beach clean up volunteers DOERS of Dalumpinas Oeste, San Fernando. Special thanks to Celso Jucutan of DMMMSU and YES!, San Juan municipal environmental officer Riza Abat, Tina Antonio of the San Juan Resort Restaurant and Hotel Association, Miguel Vargas of DOERS, Jesse M. Cabanban from Baroro, Bacnotan, for coordinating the collection of these plastic sachets from the beaches, shorelines, and creeks of La Union, including a nesting turtle sanctuary, mangrove forests at high-tide, Baroro River, and Car-rille surf spot in San Fernando City.
Follow the Water opens on April 22, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam Artist Beach Hostel, San Juan, La Union, at 4pm. You can find out more about Emerging Islands on www.emergingislands.com.
