DON MARALIT SALUBAYBA Traject-StoriesDON MARALIT SALUBAYBADON MARALIT SALUBAYBA

TRAJECT-STORIEDMeandering through the personal collection of Don M. Salubayba

Through tentacles and trajectories, we theme this trib-ute exhibition for Don M. Salubayba as a way, beyond the function of a retrospective, to understand the total-ity of an artist’s accomplishment.

Don is the sum of his trajectories. Here is the world within his worlds: of manipulating art mediums in var-ied expressions of play, of exhibits at museums and galleries, of residencies with art communities, of the performance of puppets and shadow play within the mediums of theatre and video, of schools where he conducted his teaching by developing students as present and future colleagues, and through his ev-er-reliable presence and contribution to so many artist collectives that we have developed through the years as channels of artist empowerment and leadership.

This exhibition is a way of passing through Don’s path-ways and the narratives wrought by his process and experimentation. Co-curated by Noel Soler Cuizon and Brendale Tadeo, it is a selection from his most important exhibits and projects, but includes as well studies, and the works and objects treasured by him and his family. With the inclusion of ‘last works’— for Don was always likely to be working on several pieces at any time— and the final plate he was working on at the CVP, this collection offers a vision of the artist tran-scending notions of the absolute and what is ‘done’ in art making. This is the artist aspiring to honor the threads of influence and mentorship by creating direc-tions of ‘beyonds’ that actually interest and intrigue us in contemporary art practice.

Don Maralit Salubayba was born on September 11, 1978 in Davao City. Describing his career as painter, puppeteer, illustrator and animator, his art education was formed early on at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA), and graduated from UP College of Fine Arts, Diliman where he won the Dominador Castañeda Award for Best Thesis. He also took up MA in Fine

Arts and Design at Philippine Women’s University, Ma-nila. He was a very young workshop instructor at the Ayala Museum, and from there he proceeded to build a career as educator: advising junior and senior high school visual arts students for their thesis at PHSA, teaching core art subjects and thesis at the Asia Pacif-ic College School of Multimedia Arts, joining the faculty of PWU-SFAD, and most recently, the Beacon Acad-emy in Laguna; among other varied teaching engage-ments. Don was also active in collectives and projects such as Tutok, Anino Shadowplay, Museo Pambata, Bliss Market, and CANVAS, Inc., to name a few of his many forays in collaborative and public art efforts.

A fellow of the Asia Cultural Council (ACC), Philippines, his residencies had brought him twice to the Taipei Art-ist Village, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Vermont Studio Center, the Headlands in San Francisco and the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. But his first and ever-returning residency was always with Casa San Miguel in Zambales. Don also garnered prizes for his animation, but his foremost rec-ognition as a visual artist would be the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards in 2009.

With his passing on March 11, 2014, Don is most remembered as a friend, a restless co-con-spirator of art ideas, and beloved Tatay to wife OJ Togan Salubayba and kids Amaya and Elias.

TINTACLES Bangketa Art X celebrates with this exhibit and activities, our gratitude to Don and his philosophy of enjoining art making to the crit-ical experience of the everyday and the mythi-cal; and also to the certainty that everything that he ever made formed tentacles that connected communities and created new art practitioners. To celebrate Don M. Salubayba is to salute our struggles and triumphs in expanding the agency of art through its publics.

-Karen Ocampo Flores Curator, SFAD Studio Gallery

Dribblevideo2011

A not so GIANT Story (the legend of the Philippines)video2005

row, row, row OUR boat. . .video20062006

macoy sayawvideo

Peregrinasyonvideo

unibikevideo

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