About the Event
Where do we go when we die? The enigma of death has teased humanity since time immemorial. Catholics believe that we go to a place called Heaven where we meet our creator and experience everlasting happiness.
But, they also posit that sinners go to Hell for eternal damnation. Similarly, Buddhists think that there is (re)birth after doom: Nirvana—a godly state where we lose all earthly desires and attachments. Some reckon, however: it’s also possible that we just float in Limbo, become mere spirits, or just dissolve into the ether and become stardusts in oblivion.
There’s an endless string of theories and probabilities, but all of them are tied by the geist of immortality. In his new show, Jonas Eslao explores and questions these possibilities by simulating an altar of pagan and contemporary forms of worship adorned with surreal paintings of persistent barbaric death rituals, and a toy menagerie drowned in urn-like jars filled with wax. Exactly: it's a mock museum of man's collective spiritualization of nightmares.
Words by Czyka Tumaliuan