HUNT & GATHER, TERRARIA : A MULTI-TIERED PROJECT THAT COMBINES PHOTOGRAPHY, PUBLIC COLLABORATION, RESEARCH, AND PUBLICATION.

HUNT & GATHER, TERRARIA began as a collaboratory initiative wherein Metro Manila urban and peri-urban dwellers were invited by the artist Wawi Navarroza to forage for soil, plants and ephemera from meaningful and monumental, as well as unexpected and in-between, locations in the city. The collected samples from the public were exhaustively catalogued, and back in the studio, arranged in juxtaposition within glass terrariums by the artist, and then photographed as still lifes for its premiere exhibition at Silverlens Gallery in 2013.

Ultimately, the communal project builds a psychogeographical map from a sample set of 99 corners of Metropolitan Manila (and 1 peripheral place). Within the fabricated terrariums, the city, its memories and its pressing realities inhabit tiny ecosystems from which larger conclusions, reflections and questions are drawn, imagined and asked.

—Lobregat Balaguer

Excerpts from a series of 22 pieces . Complete works in artist book Hunt & Gather, Terraria