HOW EXCITING! Something is happening in July 2026, and you’ve got to see it! It presents the artistry of a Lungay cousin from the massive Alay-Ano Clan. An Art Project dubbed, “Ku-an Ba Fish,” featuring meticulously-crafted micro-sculptures held by time capsules containing sealed messages encompassing three generations of families engaged in fishing, will be mounted by Atelier Lungay, the Poseidon Group of Tagbilaran, and fisherfolk of Maribojoc, Loon, and Calape, Bohol, at the spanking National Museum of the Philippines-Bohol in Tagbilaran City.
In the project’s literature, artist Gene Lungay explained that the Ku-an Ba Fish Project is inspired by his activities in the early to the late half of the nineties, where he spent most of his time at Alona Beach in Panglao, learning how to scuba dive in the Seaquest Dive Center. “It was during that time that one of the European residents of Alona Beach coined ‘Ku-an ba fish,’ a European humor-harnessing lingo of a Visayan word-reflex whenever a name or a vocabulary gets stuck in someone’s memory bank, or it can also mean something that one just completely does not know how to call,” he said.
The artist added that in that particular case, the Ku-an ba fish became the convenient response after one diver asked a local about the type of fish they encountered during the dive, leading to the ubiquitous use of the comeback by every dive guide.
The project is pro-environment. Lungay posited, “The oceans, our reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and inner coastal wetlands are all under threat from our own civilizations.” “Pollution, overfishing, deforestation, and urbanization have all contributed to the shrinking or disappearance of the once healthy and teeming marine and coastal habitats,” he stressed. Lungay further said that the rate at which we are losing our mangroves, seagrass areas, and coral reefs means the future looks bleak, and sadly, the repercussions will affect the generations after us: our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
The Boholano fisherfolk are given prominence in this exhibit because Bohol is primarily an island-province with a sizeable number of coastal residents engaged in fishing as a main source of income. Lungay elaborated that this art project is the first step to giving prominence to the fisherfolk via the pathway of culture and art.
How do the art pieces work as envisioned by the artist?
The art pieces created in this project will contain the fishermen’s voice – messages addressed to their descendants and future generations. The art pieces consist of a) Sculptures: Treated driftwood, resin, gold leaf, and gemstones, and b) Messages: Rolled parchment contained and sealed in bottles. The micro sculptures are cork-mounted to ensure the preservation of one hundred Philippine bottles, each bottle bearing the message of an interviewed fisherman living in fishing villages from mangrove communities. Attached to each written message are their names and a GPS coordinate.
Interestingly and sentimentally, their words shall drift through time for their grandchildren to receive and read one eventful day. The messages are wishes written in Bisaya, which will be prepared and processed by the collaborating groups; messages that purely relate to how they co-exist with their direct environment and its deep-rooted significance to their existence, primarily, their survival, health, livelihood, and the impact on future generations of family members and Boholanos.
The first one hundred result-creations of this project are particularly important pieces in the coming art exhibition, “Of Man and Myths, Of Muses, And Mangrovian Mothers,” slated for July 2026 at the National Museum of the Philippines-Bohol. These artworks will serve as time capsules that will become generation checkers, revealing to our great-grandchildren how the second generation preserved, or not, our coastal and marine environments. Each rolled message shall be unsealed after a period of thirty years, under the care of those who hold the bottles. Spanning three generations, these messages will find their way back to the descendants of the senders, eventually reaching the grandchild or great-grandchild who will open and read them, thereby completing the loop.
How compelling is that journey! I’m only glad that I am writing about it!
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The writer hosts Woman Talk with Belinda Sales every Saturday, 10 a.m., at 91.1 Balita FM Tagbilaran City. Email at belindabelsales@gmail.com. Follow us on X @ShilohRuthie./PN
