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‘Places Within’ Reflect the Emotional Resonance of Our Environment
While discussions about community often center on people—our neighbors and social connections—Vinyl on Vinyl’s newest exhibit, Places Within, shifts the focus to the physical spaces that define our surroundings. This group show puts our communities’ setting at the forefront, with the artists looking to capture a sense of place. They highlight how buildings, greenery, and other factors contribute to our sense of belonging or alienation with the world around us.
“It is a visual exploration of the invisible threads that tie us to the spaces we occupy,” the exhibit write-up said. “[This ranges] from the comforting familiarity of home to the disorientating vastness of unfamiliar terrain.”
How Our World Affects Our Sense of Self
Places Within emphasizes the importance and ephemerality of spaces through multiple mediums. A variety of paintings and mixed media artworks litter the exhibition space as the artists attempt to highlight the different important aspects of community.
While not necessarily melancholic, the works here dig down on the feeling of coziness and longing. It focuses on those feelings and how they feed the need to find our own place. These artists portray the world with different perspectives; some of it are city-centric, while others place nature at center.
Luwalhati Vergara-Yoder’s three works show a nature-centric approach to her work, illustrating forests, oceans, and townships from a godlike perspective. Other works, like Aina Valencia’s “And Everything in it,” dip into abstraction to depict nature’s wilder growths and sprouts.
Meanwhile, Noelle Varela’s “Still and all” combines acrylic paint, sawdust, and a three-dimensional recreation of sprouting leaves to capture an early-morning feeling of openness. Regina Reyes’ “Thoughts and Musings” contrasts that openness with something more targeted, stitching a question about dreams into the very fabric of her jungle-themed canvas.
City Spaces and Longing
In depicting cities, some of the artists featured in Places Within straddle the line between wistful and nostalgic. These paintings portray the interiors of a home, showcasing how our rooms contribute to the feeling of calm in ourselves.
At least one of the artists, Su Yenne, depicts the pandemic in their mixed media works, whether in the midst of doing chores or in a bedroom doing nothing. Bea Batungbacal’s works, meanwhile, illustrate the feeling of living in a cramped apartment, surrounded by buildings.
There’s a sense of claustrophobia in both artist’s contributions, but also the togetherness that coexists within the closeness of the space. It feels as though the works challenge viewers to redefine freedom in a space that doesn’t allow for much privacy. In an area that crams so many humans together, what does it mean to tether one’s self into a place?
“The works serve as a mirror, reflecting the emotional resonance of spaces and revealing the deep connections between place and person, showing how these bonds influence every facet of our lives,” the write-up said.
Places Within comes together as a collage of images and ideas of people seeking, finding, and defining themselves by the world they live around in. It portrays the complex feelings of melancholy, longing, and peace which situates people in their special spaces. Where we feel comfortable enough to show our emotions is what will shape us in the end.
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: ‘Horror Vacui’: Two Artists Transform Personal Anxieties into Escapism
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