Naburok’s artistic evolution has been very personal. Her first exhibition—whatever floats ur boat—ingratiated herself with uncontainable happiness: artworks with a primal drives towards happiness that can be compared to her succeeding solo, call an ambulance but not for me, which intermingled darkness coming through isolation and emotional resistance. Her major participation in Art Fair Philippines, however, introduced an exploratory juncture: a search for self, the start of healing, acknowledgement that changing meant accepting oneself.
These led to slow and steady, her fourth solo exhibition in this narrative. This is where Naburok marks a gentle, careful departure from the extremes that fueled her earlier works. Perhaps the most self-reflective exhibition yet, her series of works continue to be communicate in visual adjacency and in narrative coherence, basing on the idea that growth, when cultivated with intention and kindness, may be quiet and radical. Her biggest solitary work for this exhibition, “i’ve fallen into endless possibilities”, absorbs the theme, having her signature character lounging in a seemingly hermitic state of being amidst the glowing verdure.
A nod to the contemporary scene, the slowness and steadiness of it caught Naburok as being in between non-activity and action. These are really not proclamations but rather conversations-between self, time, patience. This is where she denies the insistence upon immediacy: of answers, of success, of wholeness. The exhibit would instead speak to an unbroken dedication to gentleness, rhythm, and care. There is movement here and not without-that movement however has been redefined-not breathless output, but firm presence.
There is something radical in the gentleness in her subject for this exhibition, in opting to slow down when the world urges speeding up. slow and steady is a refusal to sacrifice wellness for work. It asks to be entered into a place where healing isn’t linear, but ongoing. Where art, like growth, is not about the end result—but about the patient, loving steps along the way.
This is Naburok’s quietest show and perhaps her bravest.
