COLLECTIVE

UNCONSCIOUS

Just as a ripple expands and reaches outward from the center, Faye Abantao’s second solo exhibit titled Collective Unconscious is concentric to her first (Personal Unconscious, 2020).

Collective Unconscious, an eight-piece solo exhibition by Faye Abantao, lays upon the seven archetypical structures of the human psyche established
in Jungian psychology. Abantao delves into the common patterns of unconsciousness since the eve of the pandemic. The exhibit treks through how individual experiences transition uniquely though not autonomously into a common state of awareness; focusing on how dreams and fears come from and are lead by a more transcendent form of mere being.

Mirroring her themes, Faye Abantao’s art practice is defined by the inclusivity of many versions of a self; a photographer, a painter, a digital and an origami artist. Every creation is a paused explosion of forms and symbols conscribed in an origami tapestry. The complex facade of Abantao’s works may be better understood by enumerating the layers end-first: a painting of gouache on paper, an archival digital print, a modular origami piece, a collection of deconstructed book pages. Interestingly, the artist counts ever fold, every page, and every origami module, so that when describing her works, she describes them numerically. And just as any number multiplied by one remains unaltered, Abantao absorbs the multiplicity of experiences around her and renders them into one; just like a ripple- expanding and reaching outward... From the center.

Solo Exhibition
Ysobel Art Gallery, Taguig City, Philippines
September 2022