A Trip to Gravity Art Space, Infinity, and Beyond With Indy Paredes
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"What are you going to write? We didn't talk about art, did we?"
It only takes one visit to Gravity Art Space, or GAS, to see that it's a living, breathing organism. You just have to know how to look. There is beauty, wonder, and joy to be had around here, and it commands you to behave accordingly to access such. Whether you're a visitor, patron, or artist, you find out about this symbiotic relationship between you and the space. Each relies on the other for support. Each relies on the other to shape new ways of living.
Right there to welcome you are its founders or rather its parents Indy Paredes and his partner Melai Matias, who co-run the clandestine space inside Nanka Steakhouse along Mother Ignacia in Quezon City. Since opening two years ago, what was once a pandemic baby has morphed into something else, something far more spectacular. Apart from hosting six to seven exhibitions at a time every month, the space houses events like raves, film screenings, artist talks, and drag shows, to name a few. The night-club-slash-creative-den-slash-artist-watering-hole, Dirty Kitchen, on the other hand, is situated just past the exhibits. Nice touch.
Depending on the day or week or mood or feeling or energy, we're bound to find something we least expect in this building. Sometimes, it's even something we've forgotten along the way. Other times, it's an off-the-grid artist who only came back for a Manila show just for GAS. Always, something true. That's the pull this space has. I catch Paredes right after finishing his daily errands, fresh from elsewhere, sitting around the Buen Abrigo hall, posting stuff. He's a busy man, of course. While I wait, I look around and see that there is something mercurial here. The last time I was here was for Kurt Dijamco. It's been a while, I think to myself.
"I don’t run this. There’s a big spirit behind me running this. And it’s in everyone. Inside of you, there’s gravity. When you go here, you do it because there’s gravity inside you. It comes naturally."
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View this post on Instagram>p"Kaya nga gravity. It’s the pull—it’s the pull, man," he says to me.>pFinally, a proper sit down with the man himself. "Chill lang tayo dito siyempre." A cool guy with a cool gallery with a cool backstory. So it goes: GAS was conceptualized during a time when both Paredes and Matias had faced the grimmest consequences of the pandemic: losing the people you love. The two had lost some special folks during that hellish time. The former, his grandparents; the latter, her mother. Out of the ashes, it seems, rose GAS. It's a celebration of life, in a sense.>p"The funny thing about GAS, is that they always want to know about art or about how we did this or that," Indy Paredes tells Esquire Philippines. "Pero kapag nakausap mo kami, it’s just a battle of life. We just want to survive and share this experience with other people. We just want people to be happy. Kung gusto mo maging masaya, itong space, hindi siya magdadamot. Gusto naming sila bigyan ng physical [space] na pwede mong sabihing, 'Ah, maganda pa rin ang buhay.'”>pAll ideas are welcome here, no matter how big or small they get. Art is simply the vehicle. And its destination, well, that's for everyone else to decide among (or within) themselves. When talking to Paredes, you get a sense that his only mission is to give back as much to the world as it has given to him. It sounds overly simplistic, considering his years of learning at the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Fine Arts or his residency in Paris, or his stint as a gallerist and artist with 1335MABINI. But all that time has taught the curator one thing: the Philippine art scene is long overdue for a paradigm shift.>p
"I don’t run this. There’s a big spirit behind me running this. And it’s in everyone. Inside of you, there’s gravity. When you go here, you do it because there’s gravity inside you. It comes naturally.">p
“Dati pa lang, sabi ko na, Philippines ang magiging frontier ng arts sa Southeast Asia,” he claims. “Ang daming mga cathartic ideas na masarap pagusapan. Ang meron tayo, hindi mo makikita sa isang comportableng bansa. Privileged kayo. Kami, meron kaming vino-voice out.”>pCurrent art market trends point to Asia as the next global art destination. "Kung nandito sila, nandito ang magnifying glass ng mundo sa art world. For sure, dahan-dahan ‘yan." This is the time for Asian artists to express themselves. We saw the rise of ART SG, the robust interest in Art Basel Hong Kong, and the like. For Paredes, this is a sign of things to come for local art and, yes, GAS. “Ang responsibilidad ko sa Gravity Art Space ay higitan sila. Mas lulupitan natin ang works dito... Ang dami pang gagawin ni GAS—domination ng mundo.">pGravity is disruptive. See, GAS isn't run like any old gallery institution. It isn't positioning itself as a gallery, gallery, as Paredes puts it. It's run like a commune, where radical freedom is directly correlated to a penchant for the enrichment of life and the self. This is an artist-supported space made for everyone. "I don’t run this. There’s a big spirit behind me running this. And it’s in everyone. Inside of you, there’s gravity. When you go here, you do it because there’s gravity inside you. It comes naturally.">pMadness needs company, after all. More than that, it needs a good space to germinate. Photographed here are some glimpses of what GAS used to be.>p
Photo by INDY PAREDES.Quezon City, a place that has the biggest art demographic in Metro Manila, as Paredes' research yielded, GAS makes the most sense. The only thing Makati has going for it is how "clean" it is. Its galleries feel posh that way. But texture-wise, now QC has something to say about that.>p
Photo by INDY PAREDES.
>pParedes is aware that some things he might say are going to sound crazy. But maybe that's the thing with genius and madness, right? To be a genius, you got to be a little crazy from time to time. To go mad, you need to be smart enough to break your brain. Art functions that way on some level, I suppose. You have to be bold. The GAS founder, being an artist himself, knows that it takes a little bit of madness for the most profound realizations to come. Buen, a fellow artist, who is one of Paredes' friends once told him: "'Yung community ni GAS, lalaki pa. Hindi 'to sinosolo. 'Yung kabaliwan, hindi yan sinasarili," he quips.>pOut of madness came GAS, becoming a definitive space for discourse and for reflection. These are some things that Paredes does not take lightly. One of his first major breakthroughs, Paredes recalls, was when he was out one night on a "vision trip," let's call it. "Looking at the stars, I saw myself as this one small particle for this universe. That universe is telling me to do something. Hindi ka pwedeng ngumawngaw diyan ng walang ginagawa. Wag kang reklamo nang reklamo nang di ka nagtatrabaho. Kung gusto mo may magbago, wag mong abangan, gawin mo.">pAnd so he did. He has had quite the responsibilities since. Paredes curates and does the programming for each exhibit while Matias handles sales, marketing, and more. All the other gaps, like social media, branding, ingress, egress, the general distress, and the like, have to be filled in among themselves. They're a carefully coordinated machine that way. It only takes a dream as wild and as lush as this to be this singularly focused. Matias says that she's the present and he's the future. Makes absolute sense.>pIndy and Melai at their office during the night of this interview and a photo of them from the past.>p
>pALSO READ:>pPicking Apart Kirk Dijamco's Beautifully Twisted 'Intrusive Thoughts' With the Artist Himself>pThis New York-Based Filipino Artist Is Carving Out His Place in the Pop Art World>pFunny enough, Paredes is so focused on GAS that he's even abstained from alcohol recently. "Mas iniisip ko na ‘yung health ko. Itong katawan na ‘to, physical lang ‘to. ‘Yung kaya kong gawin, ‘yung naiisip kong gawin, malayo pa. Kaya dapat hindi bumigay katawan ko. Hindi na ako bata pero kailangan ko ‘tong alagaan.">pSo here we are drinking water instead. Funny how something so sobering can bring up the intoxication of memory. On this Friday night, he tells me that it just hit him how far they've all come. "Kahapon, nandito ‘yung Vogue, tapos ngayon, Esquire. Sabi ko sa kanila, malay ba natin na magiging ganito to." A few weeks ago, it was Tatler with Jove Moya. The curator says that they were shot by the same group that did that all-world-breaking cover of Whang-Od. They're always ready to speak when need be. Man, now I think I should've brought a photographer with me.>pThere are plenty of things photographs can't capture, like the grandeur of the earth or the taste of a good meal or a rare animal outside its natural habitat. At GAS, we can always find Paredes in his natural element. Facing Isha Naguiat's swimming (floating) exhibition, Paredes gives me a glimpse of his curatorial process, if you want to call it that.>p"The programming starts by looking at the season, what do people need? After the calendar, space naman ang titingnan. Ano magandang pagsabayin? Dapat kapag nag-turn kami, ibang mundo dito tapos ibang mundo naman diyan." In this case, it is summer and it's unbearably hot. Naguiat's works offer us a break from the reality of the treacherous heat, all the while asking us how well we're doing against our respective currents. Are we really swimming or floating? I'd answer that myself later on.>p
Look above the gallery halls, and we can see an exposed ceiling with messages of the present and the future. "Symmetrical lahat, sa open ceiling concept. Triangles, kung naniniwala kayo sa geometry. May all-seeing eye kumbaga sa itaas. Bawat corners, meron 'yan."
He notes: "Hindi ako nanininwala dati sa ganoon pero na-realize ko math din yan. Math can explain mysteries. Triangles, man. A mystical element."
Mystical indeed. It's the kind of mystical that takes care of itself and those who choose to see the space's cosmic magnet. Paredes also notes how the space doesn't have a security presence, albeit from them and some people they hire to look after the space.
"‘Yung mga tao, kapag pumupunta dito, nagbe-behave nang tama. Minsan naisip ko sa ibang galleries, 'Sus, may duda lang kayo sa mankind kaya kayo may security,'" he jokes. A joke as amusing as how the Quezon City government once told him and Matias to get a permit for being an amusement park instead of being a gallery. It's a complex of complexes that way.
GAS, suffice it to say, has turned heads by the dozen, both those from the art world up to the state. Paredes claims that the expectations are at an all-time high for them now. “Now the challenge is what we’re going to deliver. I always think five steps ahead, parang math competition. Nag-international math ako doon. Tinuruan ako ng logic. Nasa patterns kasi na natututunan mo e.”
GAS, we may argue, also demonstrates how the intersection between science, logic, and superstition can create a space where art can flourish. Paredes, ever the Math whiz, says that math is more of his forte. Art apparently got in the way. But the application of such principles is just the same, whether you're a curator, artist, or logician.
View this post on Instagram>pThe restaurant downstairs is going to be reactivated soon enough, Paredes says, speaking of GAS and beyond. He says that they’ve gotten in touch with chefs to translate the language of art into food. What’s going to happen here is that a menu is going to be conceptualized from artworks. It’s going to be called, hold your breath, “DeGAStation.” Pretty cool. “So we’re choosing works and concepts to define. Kumbaga, sensory evaluation. Dami pa nating di natitikman,” he adds.>pAnother project in the works is a service-oriented app they’re developing. “On this app, each collector will have a dashboard. Para siyang social networking platform for collectors. ‘This is my collection. This is me.’ You can see other people’s dashboards. Artists can join, as well,” he points out. “If they have works na hindi na-show, these can be put here. It’s an archive. That way, you can connect artists and collectors in a healthy way.”>p
"It’s magical that way. Nadi-discover ng place ‘yung mga bad people.">p
The platform, which has a working title called “GAS Archivist,” should encourage a healthy flipping system among collectors and artists. “As an institution that knows how to handle art, we will do it for them.” And Paredes’ group is already doing beta tests for collectors as I’m writing this. “We can sustain gas with that app and we can go all the way, rakenrol.”>pA lot more to come, surely, that GAS can’t unveil just yet. In art, there has to be good timing, after all. More than anything else, GAS is building a coalition here. Maybe with some other QC galleries like KalawakanSpaceTime, West Gallery, and SuperDuper Art Gallery, among others, in due time. Paredes says that he hopes to one day create an all-artist-run art fair, maybe at the College of Fine Arts. We'll see, once the scene is ready.>p"Iba yung discipline na binigay ng gallery. Dati, I didn’t care. Bata ka e, dadaan ka doon. Petix lang, bahala na. Artist lang ako, gusto ko lang gumawa. Ngayon, naiisip mo gumawa ng legacy," he claims.>p
Photo by Neil Derrick Bion.>pIn the meantime, GAS is carving out a movement, built on a network of like-minded kindred spirits, crazies, and reality-benders who dare to dream beyond what is asked of them. There's a great infinity to be had, and GAS is here to help you find it. The space has a habit of finding the right people at the right time, too. All you need to be is, well, good.>pInterestingly, the curator notes that, while he doesn't necessarily want to scare anybody off, he says that GAS knows who the bad people are. If we go into GAS with bad juju, the space itself will kick us out. "It’s magical that way. Nadi-discover ng place ‘yung mga bad people." So the next time you go, you best be sure to say hello as you enter the space.>pLooking at the walls, you may observe random scratches, too. Paredes tells me that there had once been a kid here who asked them if there were other small kids who stayed there. There aren't. "There are other entities, and I can attest." A past caretaker of the gallery also told him that there had been sounds and lights when there weren't supposed to be on the weekends. The gallery closes on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe it's the entities partying, we joke.>pWhat a trip. Paredes says that we see reflections of ourselves in the people who understand us. I completely agree. At GAS, if we know how to look, we'll find countless reflections, maybe even more than we can handle in one sitting. Gravity Art Space belongs to those who claim it the hardest as much as it does to those who need a new vision. "Dito, ang drama ng mga dumadaan, kumukuha sila ng energy tapos pagkatapos, they can face the world." From artists and enthusiasts to kids in elementary schools to lolas on a morning walk, there's something for everyone at GAS. Gravity is within all of us. Even within a writer like myself, I come to realize.>p"Do you feel the energy?" Paredes asks.>pNow how could I not?>p
