C A N VA S
Hello! Please introduce yourself.
Hi! I’m Gerome Soriano, a 28-year-old visual artist who lives in Manila,
Philippines. I mostly work with photographs, videos and zines. I use
daily activities and everyday objects as take-off points to tell stories about
contemporary issues, history, and ideas.
I graduated with the Best Thesis award for my Kite Aerial Photography in
the Fine Arts program of the University of Santo Tomas. I also received the Most
Appreciated Portfolio award from the 2012 Manila Behance portfolio review.
'Quiapo Church'
kaleidoscope photograph, 2012
Previous spread: Stills from
the Spin Cycle burning ritual.
Sugar, baking soda, sand, lighter
fluid, fire, metal tray, Duterte
jeepney front seat curtain, 2018
Were you born and raised in Manila? Have you always lived in Bacood?
Yes, I was born in Sampaloc, Manila. I had my consciousness in
Mandaluyong, moved to another apartment in the city because the previous
one was prone to flooding. We had a conflict with our landlord because the
apartment was collapsing on itself thanks to my mother’s ukay-ukay hoard and
more. [That’s when we] moved to Bacood.
When I was in elementary, my father would drop us off in their ancestral
house in Morong, Rizal. There I got to live the probinsya life: waking up before
the sunrise, helping lolo gather duck eggs, hunting for spiders, walking under
the hot sun to go to the hut in the middle of the rice fields, biking like a mad
man, trying to go up steep cliffs then speeding down with adrenaline.
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