In A Kiss on the Ground (Halik sa Lupa), a solo show by acclaimed Filipino artist Leslie de Chavez, he returns to his native Quezon province as both witness and interlocutor. Curated by Joyce Toh, the exhibition unfolds as a vibrant tableau of mixed-media installations, sculptures, and paintings, drawing from Lucban’s celebrated fiestas—the Pahiyas harvest festival, Holy Week rites, and the parades of Higantes (giants). Through these culturally rooted yet visually sumptuous works, de Chavez explores how faith, excess, and endurance intertwine within the collective psyche of a people shaped by both bounty and inequity.
Thanksgiving, in all its forms, is an act of gratitude and a symbol of hope. But beneath the exuberance of celebration lies a reckoning. A Kiss on the Ground probes the paradoxes at the heart of Filipino devotion: reverence and indulgence, sacrifice and spectacle, piety and performance. De Chavez’s works seduce through their splendour—gilded surfaces, vivid hues, monumental forms—while unveiling the tensions between faith and power, ritual and politics, wealth and want. His sharp yet empathetic vision exposes the dissonance between the abundance of the land and the deprivation of those who labour upon it.
Rituals and rites, for de Chavez, are both anchors and mirrors: ways of creating belonging, negotiating continuity, and revealing the human contradictions beneath ceremonial grace. Known for his incisive critiques of colonial legacies, religious hierarchies, and institutional corruption, he brings wry humour and moral clarity to his exploration of how societies sustain faith amidst fracture. At the same time, the exhibition invites reflection on how new rituals might emerge—small, intentional gestures of creation and care that reclaim meaning from repetition.
Several of the works were made in collaboration with the people of Lucban, from grandparents to children who participated in the crafting and gilding of the Higantes and the golden bull. Others were realised through cross-border collaboration at Gajah Gallery’s Yogya Art Lab (YAL) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, whose artisans and technicians expanded the artist’s material vocabulary and scale. These collective acts—of making, gilding, and reimagining—become contemporary rituals themselves, reaffirming community and re-enchanting the ground from which they spring.
In A Kiss on the Ground, ritual becomes resistance, creation becomes communion, and the earth—kissed in gratitude and grief—remains witness to the eternal cycle of offering and renewal.
Join us for the opening reception on 26 October at Gajah Gallery Singapore. The exhibition runs until 30 November 2025.
