Exploring layers in terms of material, personal and public history has been evident in Jet Pascua’s body of work. He uses historical events as references and material in imagining a different reality, or making sense of the present one.
In an exhibition in 2011, he installed a replica of the mast of the Nao Victoria, the only ship in Magellan’s fleet that made it back to Spain. He installed the mast as if sinking the whole ship within the gallery space and within Philippine territory. In this installation piece, he is inviting the viewers to imagine what kind of people Filipinos would be if that ship never made it back to Spain, and the Spanish never colonized the Philippines.
For his exhibition at the gallery 3 of West Gallery, Jet Pascua is installing his new work, OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT. This work focuses on the events that led to the formation of the first Philippine government. He is referring to this crucial part in our country’s history, wondering if the betrayal, regionalism, elitism, fraud, and murder that surrounded it started the cycle we now find ourselves in.
Jet Pascua is now based in Norway. He studied at the University of the Philippines – College of Fine Arts, Oslo Academy of Fine Arts and Bergen Academy of Fine Arts. He is presently a research fellow within the Norwegian National Artistic Research Program.
