When venturing out to Bantayan Island, you can sense the calmness of the waves, bringing serene feelings like never before. Coconut trees stretch out and sway in the gentle breeze. It's a feeling Dutch Filipina artist Martha Atienza knows all too well, having been partly raised on the island just northwest of Cebu. 

In Martha's "The Coconut Tree Methodology," we are shown how the tides of time have changed the island. Using Bantayan's coconut trees as a reference, Martha emphasizes how climate change has drastically affected the island. Through videos and imagery, she shows us what once was.  For Martha, the main focus of the exhibit is the lived politics of land and sea. In one piece, we are shown a fisherman crouched inside an aquarium by the sea.  “The installation is not only about climate change. It’s about how climate change exposes the structure of society itself," shares Martha.

Martha has also gone the extra mile in using her art to protect the island's nature. Through GOODLand, a Bantayan-based organisation formed in 2020, Martha works with communities, organisations, and institutions to uncover, archive, and apply intergenerational knowledge to the real-world, real-time politics of climate change and its environmental, political, social, and economic effects, including methods for sustainable living and forms of organization. The group has also helped in ensuring the preservation of nature on the island and its surroundings, often working to secure ordinances designating protected areas.