Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia T

Title: Ocean Dragon

Location: Haeundae Beach, Busan, Korea

Ocean Dragon brings one of the most ubiquitous cultural icons of Asia - the dragon - into a modern dialectic. It finds a use for an ancient symbol of good luck, potency and prosperity, and situates this experience in everyday life, stressing close interaction between the audience and the public art. It impacts the audience in three ways - first, aesthetic enjoyment of colors and undulating forms mirroring wave movement; second, functional use as a bench for rest and recreation; and third, cultural memory and meanings of the dragon. My intention is to incorporate what it is to be Asian with a common artifact of present day society, allowing the audience to relate to it in many levels - as art, furniture, visual feast and cultural badge.

Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia was born in Manila on June 7, 1959. He finished high school at the Ateneo de Naga in Naga City, Philippines. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Zoology, cum laude, from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, he proceeded to the College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines in Manila, graduating with an M.D. in 1985. He is currently doing course work for a PhD. in Eductaion at the Univeristy of the Philippines Open University.

He started painting and sculpting in 1983, and to date has staged more than 40 exhibitions both in Manila and abroad. His interest in Pubic Art started in 2005, with Trans- at the Greenbelt Pebble Park in Makati City, followed by an award-winning entry, Ocean Dragon, to the Sea Art Festival of the 2006 Busan Biennale. His video installation, Banca, won an Award of Merit at the 1st Kobe Biennale 2007 held last September in Japan. Currently, he is working on a major public art commission for the Hong Kong government for the Olympics set to install in the middle of this year.

He is mostly an instinctive artist, drawing from emotional and mental inspiration. His involvement in public art has made him very sensitive to cultural undercurrents for site-specific sculptures and installations. He believes that his work needs to be grounded in the culture and perspective of the surrounding environment in order for it to reach it's fullest development as Art. It has also enabled him to develop skills working with other disciplines like architecture, interior design, landscape design, as well as governments.