Silverlens is pleased to present Study in Reality No. 3, Martha Atienza’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The show presents a different facet of Atienza’s art practice, whose works continue to expand as it explores the porous boundaries between art and life.

Atienza’s works are direct reactions toward her environment, particularly in Bantayan Island, a fishing community situated in the northwestern end of Cebu. Her identity is deeply rooted in the place: her father was born in Bantayan while her grandfather manned the lighthouse in Tangigue, an island off the north coast. She had spent her time between the Netherlands (where her mother is from) and the Philippines while growing up, which has led to a desire for understanding through synthesis the conditions of two different worlds. The Dutch’s effective policies to protect them against nature was in stark contrast with the Filipinos’ struggle in controlling their environment. It was what Atienza would later address in her artworks, as the ‘crevices between understanding and imagining,’ and the ‘constant dance between the ideal and the real.’

The questions of the real and the ideal have surfaced from these projects, sparked by the island’s vulnerability against uncontrollable forces—like typhoons and the land’s topography—combined with the daily strife between communal and individual needs. The low-lying group of isles has proved to be a difficult terrain for agriculture as it was experimented upon during the first stages of Para Sa Aton. It was one of the first incidents where Atienza has begun to acknowledge the discord reality has caused against the ideal. In trying to inspire a utopian-like community, Atienza became aware of the discrepancies between the people’s audacity to succeed and the reality of their own situation. The incident of typhoon Haiyan on the island became a culminating illustration as to how reality can strike back, and how a single force of nature can expose the vulnerability of human nature.

Martha Atienza’s Study in Reality no. 3 is an incisive portrayal of how experience can be constituted as image, and how image can re-inhabit the jurisdiction of the real. It is a continuation of her ongoing projects in Bantayan Island—Para sa Aton and My Navel is Buried in the Sea. It is a cycle that has formed its path—from actuality, to imagination, and then back to its concreteness—by pondering on the question ‘how do we deal with our reality?’ The path for Martha Atienza has been laid out via her first inquiry, as reflected in her previous works: Can art tackle social, economic, and environmental issues? The ambivalent results from her constant attempts in trying to assist a community in Bantayan Island have prompted her to cast out another question: How is Reality (social, economic, the environment) as a mode of art broken down further into opposing concepts—the ideal construction versus the actual condition?

Born in Manila to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Martha Atienza (b. 1981) has moved between both countries and cultures throughout her life. In 2006, Martha received her Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts and Design in the Netherlands. She also participated at the art programme at the Kuvataideakatemia in Helsinki, Finland in 2005. She recently was awarded the Ateneo Arts Award with studio Residency Grants in Liverpool, Melbourne, New York and Singapore. Currently she resides both in the Netherlands and the Philippines, dependent on where her projects bring her. Study in Reality No. 3 is her first solo show in Silverlens Gallery.