“Right Now”
Pow Marin
12 September – 3 October 2020

The moment is clouded with uncertainty. Prolonged restrictions in mobility has brought
insecurity in many livelihoods, leaving some barely surviving. As the world awaits the
development of a vaccine, how soon life gets restored to full normalcy remains indefinite—if it
will at all.

In this solo exhibition, Pow Marin’s observes the prevailing atmosphere of uncertainty under a
global health crisis and sets its images once again in an artistic imaginary of dreamlike seabeds
and flowerbeds that attest to the artist’s devotion to details and penchant for patterns. In the
past, his meticulously speckled surfaces that usually surround crisp, linear figurations have
pictured thoughts both tender and strained—from precious childhood memories and the search
for a purposeful existence, to gender and identity politics. This time, he takes on Philippine life in
the current pandemic, its political backdrop as well as social dimensions.

Nestled amid colorful fields of dots and orbs are people adjusting to today’s new normal and
how these practices are entangled with social realities and national politics. Employing a
combination of visual metaphors and a play on buzzwords, Marin depicts our present situation
with some references to tensions arising from the government’s response to the crisis. In three
works portraying different social classes, he highlights how economic disparity have since
become more pronounced: the upper and middle class seemingly engaging in casual
conversations and spending the day as usual while the poor begs on the street. A man
burdened with a pogo stick on his back is a pun on controversy-laden Philippine offshore
gaming operations. Carrying a trophy, another figure brings to light a recent fuss about winning
against the virus by beating projected numbers. Social media as the battleground for debates
and opposing opinions is represented by a man glued to a laptop. The underwater ecosystem
that has been the main inspiration for the artist’s festive environments now takes on a new
significance with the recurring goldfishes in all paintings. These figures, which represent
commonly kept aquarium pets, may allude to life struggling under quarantine. Just like how the
fishes in captivity swim aimlessly and wait to be fed, people have been confined in their homes,
with some of the most vulnerable forced to rely on social aids for survival.

What these images capture—in stark contrast with their decisive and purposeful arrangement of
forms that leave no room for voids yet crowds the entire canvas harmoniously—are the
dragging months marked by uncertainty and disquiet, faltering to move forward. Unlike in the
artist’s past exhibitions where subjects are painted in retrospect, their realizations and
reflections completed and imprinted on each canvas, the works this time speak of an ongoing
struggle—perhaps telling of a life stalled and yet to anticipate its onward course.

Curated by Ryan Francis Reyes
The Working Animals Art Projects (TWA)