Gahum kag Pagtubo: Women Artists of Negros

Celebrating twenty years of Orange Project, the exhibition gathers seven women artists who have been part of the past two decades of the space. It foregrounds women as arbiters of history—signalling an experience of womanhood pervious to the complexity of the region’s milieu, where the bounds between personal and social are permeable, ultimately illusory. 

At times, the cue comes from within. Moreen Austria’s embroidered tarot cards chronicle healing from a childhood rife with turmoil. The same autobiographical tenor permeates Erika Mayo’s portrait series gesturing defiance against generational pain that has long silenced the women of her family.

The rest of the exhibition expands its inquiry outwards. From her observations as a public school teacher, Vincent Sarnate’s installation honors the capacity of mothers and grandmothers to build life from rubble. This tendency to extend oneself is also seen in Karina Broce-Gonzaga’s ceramic work, which venerates women’s propensity to nurture through their bodies. Similarly, Zabiel Nemenzo’s mixed-media textile work highlights femininity in community-making within the region’s pageant scene.

Finally, the exhibition broadens its gaze towards history. Elwah Gonzales alludes to the perpetuity of injustice in her installation of half-burned candles collected from municipalities devastated by massacres against farmers. Faye Abantao parallels this temporal slant in Rueda de la Fortuna, evoking the role of women in this harsh cycle of labor and survival marking the region.

Altogether, the artists grapple with conflict as it traverses spheres of self, family, community, and society. While varied in their approaches, they posit a womanhood active in life-bearing and history-making—at home, in Negros, and beyond.

Chesca Santiago

25 February 2025

Manila, Philippines