SHIFT is a set of new projects in MAPS that highlights different directions by young artists that investigate new meanings and associations in their respective practices. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (1962), he introduces a concept called “paradigm shift,” an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way. Although it originated in the philosophy of science as a concept of understanding, it highlights a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions especially in the concept of social conditions and different creative practices.
In this new set of projects, we present three young artists that navigate through their paradigm shifts. In Mariel Garcia’s Old Soul, we see her approach veering away from her usual surreal graphic tendencies by presenting a homage to her Grandmothers, in calm and serene compositions. Alyssa Bartoline’s Four Stages Of_ on the other hand, offers us a different animated experience through her exploration of moving images as a way to challenge her own practice and audience perception. In John Lloyd Benz De Leon’s In Between Days, his choice of music and spirituality helped shift his mood and sense of artistic direction.
Through this series of works, we hope to distill the importance of finding one’s artistic direction by challenging different paradigms of artistic practice, to help nurture and define one’s own creative language.
