Nothing Gold Can Stay

Lifted from Robert Frost’s 1923 poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, the exhibition gathers the works of different artists whose practices explore a spectrum of forms, themes, and, materiality. Here, an inquiry is made to consider the idea of impermanence as we struggle from what is deemed as the impalpable human desire for mortality and the difficult truth characterized by the nature of things —that in our world, nothing will remain forever. Navigating on a wide range of tropes that suggest an interrogation into the human ego as the root of this inclination, the exhibition examines the depth of our individual differences in the diminution of our impulses. Views that give prominence to one’s ability to de-emphasize the ego, such as in Buddhist practices and philosophies, which counterpoise the negative consequences that arrange a pursuit of fame tied with celebrity status and with the obsession of finding ways to outlive the body.

The direct link connecting the notion of permanence to the arts has always been attached to the creation of legacy and status; sometimes, celebrating the ego of the artist more than the contribution to culture and history. However, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” evaluates how art-making can become more involved in sustaining our attention to experience the present. The American sculptor, Eva Hesse, who pioneered materials that were then regarded as impractical in the field of sculpture, manifested this contradiction in her artistic practice. While Hesse’s dedication to process and material was unparalleled, she battled to attain permanency among her works with many of them destroyed and can no longer be conserved today. Hesse’s resignation and acceptance to the limits of her legacy is found in her statement as she declared, “Life doesn’t last; art doesn’t last.”

In looking through the works of the artists in this exhibition, we are left to administer time in our own hands. Here, we reckon with the images and tales presented as we move along towards different junctures and trajectories. Bounded and confronted by time, we take a quiet walk among these works of art that somehow revel in an attempt to yield and capture a moment. As in the verses of the intrepid Frost, “So dawn goes --down to day / Nothing gold can stay.”

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Join the Opening Saturday December 14, 2019

With Performances by Jason Soong, Marie Garcia, Brando Umali, Krista Roma, Tribu Manila.