WALKING ON THIN ICE

ZEAN CABANGIS: Walking on Thin Ice

Certainty is a construct that arises from the human experience; it does not exist in the realm outside of reflexive sentience. Whereas stars, molecules or hamsters are not anxious to be sure that they exist, the opposite runs in the stream of every human consciousness that strives to find even a smattering of awareness that 1) the world is real and 2) “I” exist, with some absolute sense of certainty. Thus the other constructs that buffer the value of certainty are invented: ideology, dogma, doctrine, revelation and tradition. Framed by the conflicting, layered, profuse knowledge in plenitude around us, we fight tooth and nail to preserve our “worldview’ and our “identity”. In this regard, certainty is not a rock-solid idea, but a red flag that is raised in every aspect of life. We create our own zones of certainty, as we are anxious about it all the time.

Contemporary artist Zean Cabangis takes the bull of certainty by the horns in his series Walking on Thin Ice. With works peppered with titles arising from the range of: secrets / regrets / accusations / remonstrations / declarations / doubts, the young artist exposes that our anxiety of uncertainty almost always includes the affective more than the mere conceptual…

Excerpt from the essay, ‘Uncertainty in the Age of Networks’ by Riel Jaramillo Hilario
Opening :Thursday, April 7
@ artinformal