Above Land 02

Nona Garcia’s photo assemblages are reflective contemplations on calamity and destruction. Layering multiple copies of a found image and deftly cutting out sections, Nona transforms a 2-dimesional photograph into a 3-dimesional artwork reminiscent of a diorama. Unlike the staged sets of dioramas, however, these images document actual events and the raised details somehow make the destruction seem more real.  By enclosing these small images into ornate frames, Garcia elevates these everyday pictures into landscapes that reveal our helplessness in the face of natural disasters.

Nona’s photo assemblage series, Above Ground, 2010 recalls the aftermath of the destruction wrought by the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991, one of the strongest and most destructive volcanic eruptions in past century, that buried entire towns and villages in volcanic ash, claimed the lives of dozens of people, and displaced hundreds of thousands of families. This set of three images revisits the remains of a town that was destroyed by lahar following the eruption. In Above Ground 1 and Above Ground 3, the roofs of houses seem to grow out of the red earth, surrounded only by grasses and other vegetation. In Above Ground 2, a tiled room still retains the faded framed images of San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor, Pampanga on its walls, while its ash-covered floor, devoid of footprints and furniture, attests to its abandoned state.