Flotilla (2022)

Filipino artist Leeroy New presents a flotilla of boats made from recycled plastic. Floating above viewers, they speak to the nature of the Philippines as a country made up of many islands, in which water has a central place in everyday life. These fantastical forms could refer to the main type of transportation employed by people throughout the region for thousands of years, or they could reference Spanish arrival and colonisation from across the seas in the sixteenth century.

In recent history, the waters and oceans around the Philippines provided the backdrop for conflicts during the Second World War. As such, these boats speak to the contested nature of our oceans, waterways, and the political nature of water in our lives, while for New, plastic as a material is symbolic of Filipino adaptability to change.