Filipino contemporary artist Poklong Anading is presenting a collection of unrealized and abandoned ideas in #AVoidWork, an audio-video project that blends interviews, narration, and visuals to explore collaborative artistic processes.
The collection features conversations with key figures from artist-run initiatives and self-organized spaces, including Surrounded by Water, Big Sky Mind, Green Papaya, Junk Shop, Future Prospects, Lost Frames, Spare Bedroom, Art School Now Salon, Golden Cargo Gallery, Bastards of Misrepresentation, and the Museum of Mental Objects..
“In the late 1990s and early 2000s Manila, artist-run spaces thrived as vital platforms for contemporary art, and I came into this ecosystem in the late 1990s as an exhibiting artist,” Anading said.
#AVoidWork was initially showcased through the Museum of Modern Art’s C-MAP Asia program and the Ctrl+P Biennale. It will be screened this month as part of MCADxMoving Image, a program of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, which features hybrid documentaries, video essays, filmed performances, and archival works that examine culture, society, and politics.
Each entry in #AVoidWork begins with a recorded narration by Anading, paired with edited visuals from site visits, the surrounding environment, and sourced materials. The works explore sustaining artistic spaces, projects that were never realized, and ideas that emerged during moments of transition or closure.
Anading, who studied painting at the University of the Philippines, often works with found and discarded objects to investigate notions of value and the role of art within and beyond capitalist production.
#AVoidWork will be on view from Jan. 28, to Friday, Jan. 30, at the Ideation Room, The Atrium @ Benilde, 1040 Arellano Avenue corner Ayala Street, Malate, Manila. More information is available at facebook.com/MCADManila and mcadmanila.org.ph.
