STEPH LOPEZ ART

KAPIT LANG. Stainless steel, screens, wire, beads, epoxy, acrylic epoxy and lacquer spray paints, paper boats. 52 x 27 x 42 in. 2024.

Piece for Buen Viaje: Manila- Acapulco-Manila, An Art and Cultural Exhibition. Pinto Museum, May 5 – June 23, 2024.

I can only imagine what the crew must have felt during the journey: their fear in the middle of a storm, the brutality, pain, and hunger onboard, and the anxiety of seeing a stretch of sea that seemed to be without end. In the midst of these, many of them must have held on to their belief in The Virgin to grant them a safe journey. Or maybe they prayed to their pre-colonial gods. Maybe others held onto the promise of a better life in a new land, or to the hope of coming home to their loved ones.

Kung tutuusin, lahat tayo biyahero. Kapit Lang is about “holding on” in the midst of hardships, storms and uncertainties that we may encounter in our own journeys.

Human figures clutch at the skirts of the Nuestra Senora de la Paz y Buenviaje, while paper boats and words such as “porcelain”, “silk”, “spices”, “gold”, “silver”, “cacao”, “cochineal dye” – items traded between Manila and Acapulco – decorate the base which is fashioned to resemble waves. On The Virgin’s dress are sprigs, for the thousands of Philippine hardwood trees (and hectares of forest and wildlife) lost in order to build these ships (It took at least 2K+ trees to build a SINGLE Galleon ship).

Check the video here.

Know more about the event here.