Michael Vincent Manalo

“A Hermit’s Way of Looking at Life”

December 12 – January 12, 2020

The photo-manipulations works here show the artist’s recent experience of how it is when breaking off from the world, trying to counter the system and living almost off-the-grid and looking at life from a different perspective. The artist chose to live in his hometown in the Philippines, stayed in their family’s house for 2 1/2 weeks without talking with anyone in person, with only the internet as his window, while doing his everyday life of just cooking, working on commissioned works, swimming, watching films, making guitar music and creating reflections on the life he experienced particularly related to the memories he had with members of his family.

During the artist’s reclusive and almost hermitic time, the artist argues that if you go away from all distractions and immerse yourself in a place where you are alone, from all the ups and downs of the modern world’s fast-paced society, you will see and remember things much clearer.

The photo-manipulations works here show the artist’s insight and commentary on the society that he lives in; emotions that he goes through as a receiver and observer. The way of looking at life in regard to social media, the people that the artist has met, together with the objects that represent the latter, all this are seen from a different perspective; together with the effect of memory which results in this output of images.