What Did The Tree Learn From The Earth To Be Able To Talk To The Sky II

Elaine Navas, Breakdance, 2026, Oil stick on canvas, H91.5 x W153 x D4 cm / H36 x W60.2 x D1.6 in

“What Did The Tree Learn From The Earth To Be Able To Talk To The Sky II” is a solo exhibition by Elaine Navas and an extension of a previous show held in the Philippines. Bearing the same name as its sequel, the first show was held in 2022 while the world was still reeling from the effects of a global pandemic. Its title borrowed from a line in The Book of Questions by the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. The line struck a chord with Navas, in the same way the uncertainties and precarities brought upon by the pandemic had struck a permanent notion to all those who had lived through it. Through Navas’ own way of coping, she had chosen to meditate on this line from the poem along the drawing of trees.

These trees manifested in what she referred to as drawn paintings, made by applying oil sticks on canvas. The method of creating these achromatic polyptychs extend into Navas’ new body of work, where the artist reflects on drawing as an intimate act that opens the artist up to dialogue with the subject matter. She cites the late David Hockney’s ideas on drawing as a steady engagement with something as fundamental as a line, particularly in trees: “Trees don’t follow the laws of perspectives, or don’t seem to, because they are so complicated, with lines going in so many directions”.

What Did The Tree Learn From The Earth To Be Able To Talk To The Sky II

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