2025
Dimensions Variable
Mountain Dew bottles, artificial pearls, local cement, locally foraged stones

One of the most recognizable reuses of bright green Mountain Dew bottles in the Philippines is turning them into decorative flowers—a practice that, for some, provides a livelihood. Inspired by this contemporary craft (and at times, a form of economic survival), this work repurposes Mountain Dew bottles collected from the local landscape, reshaping them into decorative weeds and placing them back into that same environment.

I installed them in places where the built and natural worlds collide—like sidewalks that encase immovable boulders instead of removing them. These moments reflect a relationship with land that sees the built world as inseparable from nature. At the same time, such improvised infrastructure reveals deeper issues: a chronic lack or misallocation of government funding that hinders the development of resilient systems meant to serve the public.

Expanding on my interest in wayfinding and the navigation of art’s political role, this piece takes form as a temporary sculpture garden dispersed across Lucban. These small, vivid interventions—scattered through both urban and rural spaces—create a kind of trail guide along one of my routine walks from Project Space Pilipinas to my site-specific installation on the town’s outskirts, Beneath (Lupa Sa Magsasaka).