In the Age of Abundant Scarcity

2023 | Art Fair Philippines | Philippines

Many Filipinos, including my own family, rely on informal water sources to bathe, wash, clean, and drink because there is no direct water supply at home. The work, In the Age of Abundant Scarcity, speaks to the severe scarcity of clean water in the Philippines. Each “bottle” contains waste materials including plastics and metals that I gathered from local lakes and rivers.

“As an archipelagic country, the Philippines is surrounded by water. Yet access to clean water for drinking and day-to-day activities is challenging for most. Gupit shared in her residency talk how access to water was incidentally cut off on the day she needed to cook for the residency. Though explained lightheartedly, this is a daily and deeply rooted struggle in many places. Searching for Water has three components—a multi-channel video, watercolor paintings, and resin sculptures. The presentation was eye-catching, with the blue wall mimicking the blue water jugs that Filipinos use to store filtered water. Another point of interest is ‘In the Age of Abundant Scarcity,’ an installation of 44 resin sculptures in the shape of bottled water plastic. Instead of the expected pristine water in the bottles, they contain contaminants often found in lakes and oceans. The beautifully lit installation invites reflection as the conversation about water comes into focus, knowing the problem but having little access to a solution. The video series ‘Not All Rivers Flow into the Sea’ and the watercolor series ‘Residues of Water’ supported the installation. The colors in both video and watercolor bleed out of the bottle, much like how contaminants penetrate bodies of water.” — Portia Placino

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