A series of paintings from found images on fabrics and clothes that the artist owns is at the center of Jessica De Leon’s first solo exhibition, “False Blooms.” Here, De Leon contemplates the sudden changes that the world continues to experience. The artist examines these objects and the linked missed encounters that had affected our being. The artist ties the dresses with social interactions, gatherings, and relationships disrupted by the pandemic. 

The shades of blue and the floral images symbolize the longing and nostalgia for spring to happen. However, the repetitive patterns of blooms that emerge from the creases and folds would produce the illusion of being caught in a labyrinth. Like an M. C. Escher painting, De Leon’s paintings would appear to diminish our perspectives on time and the stasis of growth. 

Displayed in the exhibition are the actual fabrics and clothes neatly folded on a shelf and waiting for their turn to be worn. In a sense, wearing them signals the reopening of the world, the rekindling of relationships, and the world returning to its sanity. 

De Leon narrates, “The lockdown was announced days before my birthday. Before the pandemic, birthdays were used to gather close friends around the table, each dressed for the occasion, bringing food to the table with stories to share; birthdays, while not necessarily my own, are my favorite occasion. The original image comes from the fabric of the dress that I would have worn to celebrate my 26th. A dress, looking back, seemed like just another petty thing to be sad about: it had no more use. What now? For the next month, we would be sat wrapped in blankets and later learn that one month turned into another, and another, and another. Ten months. Days were now patterned after the other and time didn’t seem to stop: a day within a day within a day; a distorted reality; a warped sense of time. The dress is packed away, gathering dust.”

Curated by Gwen Bautista