Far Away Tilt

14 May-4 July 2026 Ronyel Compra

Far-away tilt presents a new body of work by artist Ronyel Compra, where paper becomes both surface and subject. Using handmade, collaged paper made from manila, Japanese washi, salvaged fragments, and termite soil, he works directly into fragile surfaces. Scratching, cutting, rubbing, and pressing repeatedly until they begin to weaken.

Paper, typically associated with archiving and preservation, is here pushed toward near-breakdown. Surfaces hold and give way at once, accumulating marks as their structure weakens. Image traces of discarded consumer objects; plastic bottles, jars, packaging; appear as ghosts of everyday material life.The pieces become an unstable archive, memory neither fixed nor secured but contingent and in flux. Each work occupies a threshold between retention and collapse, where fragility and resistance coexist.

In doing so, “far-away tilt” proposes a different understanding of preserving. Not as permanence, but as an active, ongoing process. To preserve is to remain with something even as it changes. To mark is to acknowledge both presence and its eventual disappearance.

Text by Ligaya Salazar

Pagtakilid Pahalayo nagpakita sa mga bag-ong buhat-alampat ni Ronyel Compra, mga mugna sa papel kansang mga palid nanahimong parehong sulatanan ug hisgutanan. Binuhat sa kinamot ug gipangtapot-tapot nga papel manila, japanese washi, mga gitigum nga tinipak ug yutang gipang-anay, iya kining gihulag ug gipangporma lahos ug ibabaw sa mga pligo. Gipangkutkut, gipangputol, gibaid-baid, gipusa-pusa hangtud sa hinayhinay ang papel nangagupok. 

Ang papel, nga kasagrang gigamit sa pagtimaan sa kasabutan ug paghandum sa kasaysayan, gipakita dinhi sa mga mugna ni Compra, nga mahuyang ug dali magisi. Mga palid nagkupot dungan nangabugto, nagtipun-og ang mga marka nga naghulga sa iyang kalig-on . Ang mga obra nahimong arkibo sa malimtanon nga panumduman:  dili malungtaron, kanunayng mausabon, lumalabay subay sa bag-ong panahon. Ang matag usa ka mugna naglihok taliwala sa pagtindog ug pagkahugno, diin ang kahuyang ug ang kaisog nagkuyog ug nagduyog.

Pinaagi niini, ang mga obra nga gipakita sa “pagtakilid pahalayo’ nagtanyag ug lahi nga panabot sa paghandum. Dili tunhay apan aktibo kanunay, usa ka nagpadayon ug walay hunong nga proseso. Ang paghandum diay usa ka pagtipig sa mga tipik nga nahabilin bisan pa man ang tanang butang moagi ug kabag-ohan. Ang pagtimaan diay usa ka pamaagi sa pag-ila sa unsay anaa bisan pa man sa ngadto-ngadto sa kahanawan ra gihapon ang iyang padulngan.

Sinulat ni Ligaya Salazar og Hinubad ni Jay Nathan Jore

Ronyel Compra (Born 1985 in Cebu, Philippines; lives and works in Cebu, Philippines) is a visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans painting, video, sculpture, and printmaking. His work explores the intersection of material culture by recontextualizing found and discarded objects; and by integrating practices from local crafts production in assessing memory and history, which is often prompted by narratives from his hometown of Bogo in the northern part of Cebu. He was the artist in residence at Bellas Artes Projects in Bataan (2020) and at Gasworks in London (2025). His works were featured in exhibitions at the VIVA Excon Biennale (2018, Capiz), Vargas Museum (2023, Manila), SOAS Gallery (2025, London), and at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (Manila, 2025). Compra was the recipient of the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour— Philippines through Para Site Hong Kong. He was one of the participating artists in the exhibition, “Moments of Delay” at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) in Manila.