bomba/groundwater, 2024, tabo, water, pump/fountain, vinyl digital collage, tarp, rocks, Xpace Cultural Centre

 Tabo, a small water dipper, is a quotidian object in Filipino households utilized to hold water from a filled timba (a bigger plastic pail) for bathing, hand washing, and chores. It is valued for its efficiency in water usage. In “bomba/groundwater,” tabos are piled up as a fountain where water flows to investigate the disproportionate flow of power and resource from the top to bottom. Water scarcity is frequent in many parts of the Philippines, making the region highly vulnerable to the impacts of Western-led climate change. The installation offers a metaphoric rethinking of human and non-human relationships in exploring the (un)monumentality of fountains as starting point in broader issues of power, legacies of colonization, depletion of Earth’s sources, and social relations.

Thank you to to the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of this project.