Outset-supported MOTIONS OF THIS KIND: PROPOSITIONS & PROBLEMS OF BELATEDNESS, was the UK’s first institutional thematic exhibition of contemporary art from the Philippines, curated by Renan Laru-an, Merv Espina and Rafael Schacter in 2019, at Brunei Gallery SOAS.
Inspired by the curious indeterminacy of Newton’s analysis, and by the ‘motions of this kind’ that exposed the limitations of his own scientific expertise, MOTIONS OF THIS KIND explored not simply "the rise and fall of the tides", but, as Filipino historian Ricardo Manapat suggested, the "historical ebb and flow of ideas": Newton’s work thus set us off, inadvertently, on an exploration of the turbulent temporal currents flowing between Europe and Southeast Asia, the undertows that can both hasten and delay the circulation of knowledge.
Commissioning new works and developing ongoing projects by 11 artists working in and on the Philippines – each of whom examine transnational and temporal themes in their practice – as well as featuring a display of materials from the never before exhibited Ifor B. Powell archive held at SOAS, MOTIONS OF THIS KIND charted the historical and contemporary forces linking this archipelagic chain with other key spheres of global power. Placing the theme of belatedness as our principal concern, however – as both a concept, reference, and argument – the project underscored the way time has been used both as a weapon of power and a tool of everyday resistance, a way of dominating the marginalised and creating alternative imaginations alike.
The show refused to act as another (belated) survey of "art from elsewhere" – in which the culture of the ‘periphery’ is extracted from its origin and surveilled in the ‘heart’ of the global art centre. By rejecting the need to "fix" the Philippines as one determinate thing or place, the exhibition continued to explore Newton’s indeterminacy as central to both the methodology and concept of the project: Exploring the perplexing tides, the unmapped channels, the strange motions of this kind equally apparent in the work of our eleven artists, MOTIONS OF THIS KIND acted as a speculative mapping beyond the dominant historical narrative, a refiguring of knowledge beyond these neighbouring shores.
In Sir Isaac Newton’s famous treatise of 1687, the Principia, there is an unexpected passage taken from the observations of voyager and astronomer Edmund Halley, in which ‘Leuconia’ – today known as Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines – is discussed:
'There are two inlets to this port and the neighbouring channels […] one from the seas of China, between the continent and the island of Leuconia; the other from the Indian sea, between the continent and the island of Borneo.'
Laying the very foundations for modern science in his unparalleled exposition of the three laws of motion, gravity, and planetary movement, Newton was left stumped, however, bewildered, by the tidal currents surrounding these distant equatorial seas. As he continued:
…whether there be really two tides propagated through the said channels, one from the Indian sea in the space of 12 hours, and one from the sea of China in the space of 6 hours, which therefore happening at the 3rd and 9th lunar hours, motions of this kind add together; or whether there be any other condition imposed by other seas, I leave to be determined by observations on the neighbouring shores.
MOTIONS OF THIS KIND incorporated a range of public programming. This included a performance by artist Eisa Jocson (her first performance in the UK) at the private view, a range of experimental film screenings in collaboration with LUX, as well as a 2-day conference at SOAS on the 12th and 13th of April. All of these were fully open to the public.
MOTIONS OF THIS KIND has been initiated and generously sponsored by Mercedes Zobel, partner of Outset Contemporary Art Fund, with support from Philippine Studies, SOAS, and The Office of Senator Loren Legarda. The initiative has been made possible by the kind assistance of Approved by Pablo, The British Academy, The British Council, Delfina Foundation, The Department of Anthropology at University College London, Gasworks, and Philippine Airlines.
PREVIEW: 11th April, 18.00-21.00
ON VIEW: 12th April - 22nd June 2019
Click here to see this project more in depth.
