Martha Atienza’s ‘Our Islands’ Brings the Seas of Philippines to Times Square

From the 16th through the 19th Century, the trade route between Manila and Acapulco connected the pan-Pacific regions,  facilitating an early global maritime trade similar to the Silk Road, linking East Asia and the Americas from east to west and vice versa. Galleons filled with Chinese ceramics, spices and silk sailed from Manila in the Phillippines to Acapulco, passing through China and Japan and then connecting with other ports of New Spain in the Americas, creating meaningful cultural exchange.

On view through the end of July in Times Square, a video work by Dutch-Filipino artist Martha Atienza invites us to explore this story while raising questions and concerns about pressing issues surrounding local communities and the environment. Our Islands 11°16’58.4” N 123°45’07.0” E reimagines an annual traditional parade from her native Philippines by staging it on the floor of the Visayan Sea. Divers from Bantayan Island perform the parade underwater, moving within coordinates they chose based on nature, considering the tides, current and time of day. The choice of costumes, characters and objects is a humorous commentary on contemporary society in the Philippines yet also addresses the progressive erosion of cultural memories and identities due to a pervasive global culture.

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With the sea as background, the work also links to the threat of climate collapse to which Southeast Asia is increasingly exposed. Exploring this intricate interplay between local traditions, human subjectivity and the natural world, with this work, Atienza highlights the dynamics through which specific explorative human behaviors about nature have been established while eroding this relationship with ancestral knowledge and spirituality, which encouraged instead a more respectful symbiotic relation with natural cycles.

“I want to take this opportunity to amplify urgent environmental and social challenges faced on our island home of Bantayan and the Philippines,”  said in a statement. “This brief, powerful moment brings attention to issues around the complexities of climate change while underscoring the intersection between environmental and cultural loss and resiliency.”

The video is screening nightly through the rest of the month as part of Times Square Art’s “Midnight Moment,” the world’s largest and longest-running digital art program, from 11:57 p.m. to midnight on all ninety electronic billboards in the square.

Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Atienza has navigated between these cultures and identities throughout her life, allowing her to adopt multicultural viewpoints and a transnational open approach to her observation and documentation of global events.

In addition to her art practice, Atienza is the president and co-founder of GOODLand, a platform under Art Lab that develops and applies a creative and collaborative methodology to tackle social, economic and environmental issues on Bantayan Island in the Visayas. The mission is to facilitate the realization of a self-sufficient and resilient community that can preserve nature and its cultural memories.

The work the artist creates is both an extension and integration of her community-centered practice to empower and create awareness of the values already embedded in their roots and connection to the land.

“Our Islands is a continued collaboration with compressor divers, their families, and the community,” Atienza told Observer. “As we documented and created a ‘living’ archive over the years, the work visually tackles issues of climate change (as the sea levels rise and super typhoons become a common occurrence), human destruction of the environment, social dislocation within the community as more people choose to earn a living overseas, and our loss of culture. We are also exploring ways to use new technology to find solutions together. We are creating a model for change and resilience for our neighboring islands and beyond our borders.”

Originally conceived as a  72-minute film, Our Islands 11°16’58.4” N 123°45’07.0” E was awarded the esteemed Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2017 and acquired by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in 2022. The work has been widely screened across Asia, Australia and Europe, and this presentation in one of the most iconic places in the world marks an important moment for societal and ecological reflection and for the empowerment of the Filipino community, bringing those complicated legacies and issues to a global stage.