Creative Nonfiction

Jaime Pacena II, more than anything, is a storyteller. Being an artist and curator, also a video director and educator has provided him multiple platforms to explore modes and practices of narration. The exchange of stories is essential to our humanity since it involves an interdependent interchange between teller and listener – in this instance, artist and viewer. Each artwork on display conveys a story of struggle and triumph, purpose and realization, isolation and solace.

Similar to the artistic production of the art persona Claire Fontaine, Pacena “gives shape to disturbing and painful things.” They both attempt to direct storytelling from the textual space towards the visual field with a political sensibility yet in a gentle and romanticized manner. Insignificant Spectator, for instance, represents the impetus for the sustained probe on the purpose of our existence and belonging in society. The paintings with cityscape and seascape show spaces for self-reflexivity. The sublime surroundings reveal the courage needed in seeing things differently to make way for acceptance. Portraits, reminiscent of the artist’s earlier works, are reminders of what’s constant in his life. The ceaselessness makes Pacena feel grounded, able to learn from the past with wisdom to contemplate about the future, and just be present. “You exist.” The artist reassures himself and us. It is acknowledging our presence in the here and the now. Our co-existence amid love and hate or joy and desolation preserves compassion in the world.

Creative nonfiction is a genre in literature described as “true stories well told.” Whether it be talking about the Philippine art landscape or his journeys in career and life, Pacena has devotedly created for us an aesthetic understanding in seeing stories unfold in his works. He managed to weave all that he does towards a wider appreciation of art, culture, and environment, inviting and enabling discourses on current narratives in our community. (Con Cabrera)

Jaime Pacena II is based in Maginhawa, Quezon City, active as a video director for the advertising and the music industry, a mentor to multimedia arts students in an industry based learning and collaborative practice for cultural exchange in an internship programming called Bliss Market Laboratory (BMLab). A part-time teacher in Asia Pacific College under the Multimedia Arts Department and the in-house Curator for CANVAS.PH, a Non Profitable Organization that believes that children with art and stories can change the world. He was a grantee of Jenysys Programme for Creators by the Japan Foundation in 2010, Arts Network Asia Singapore in 2012, The Asia Center Cultural Exchange Program by the Japan Foundation in 2018 and Rikuzentakata Artist-in-Residence Iwate Japan in 2013, 2016 and 2019. Aside from this he is also a founder and creative director of a multimedia art design collective called Bliss Design Studio PH that caters corporate projects that help sustain BMLab activities. He is currently writing his first feature film to be realized in Japan. He is a father and friend to a 7 year old boy named Sunday.