In his exhibition, Ang Polonpolon mula sa Limurya, William Gaudinez demonstrates the importance of restoring age-old symbols in order to experience and inflect new context to conceptions of origin and destination. In his small sculptures and altarpieces, Gaudinez makes evident the belief of the sects in Mt. Banahaw that the islands of the Philippines are the remnants from the continent of Lemuria said to be steeped in mystery and advanced civilization before it sunk into the waters of either the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. Gaudinez structures the signs of the past in his simple and folkloric objects to emphasize that the formation of a self relies on looking at our pre-colonial history. We have bodies of knowledge we need not set aside. His appropriation of new symbols (such as the Facebook reactions) proves that that this self should also be open to contemporary flow—a unity that prompts a hybrid reality. Each time one opens or closes his work, it offers an element of surprise. One doesn’t need a key in order to unlock mysteries.

–Carlomar Arcangel Daoana