In The Sea We Built To Not Forget, artist Pow Marin navigates the tumultuous love/hate relationship that he has with his own art and art-making.

Like other artists who aren’t anchored by privileges of sorts, Marin feels the financial strain of earning solely through art. A continuation of his earlier show Life Is Full Of Flowers, this show showcases works that Marin dedicates to his younger and future selves, in an attempt to self-soothe from the anxiety that art-making brings and as an attempt to make all versions of himself proud. Feeling like his body isn’t what it used to be, Marin attempts to make the most out of his time by creating labor-intensive works that he might not always have the stamina for in the future.

With the unpredictability that comes with making art, Marin often feels like his works serve as a sort of last hurrah that he hopes best represent himself. He finds that the whimsical nature of his aesthetic often has underlying dark tones of anxiety, pressure, and uncertainty. He finds himself asking questions like is there a manual to making art? Should he just quit this chosen path? As much as he’s passionate about this career, he finds that it’s also the very thing that makes him feel suffocated more than he would like to admit.

Inspired by the book Evil Eye by Etaf Rum, Marin feels the need to stop resisting the uncertainty and to surrender and accept that his insides would feel violent and tumultuous at times, and to be okay with that. At the end of the day, making art is what fuels him, and feeds his soul.

Nikki Ignacio