Upcoming: Silverlens Presents “The Coconut Tree Methodology” By Martha Atienza

For her first solo exhibition at Silverlens since 2020, Martha Atienza chronicles the impact of rising sea levels on both the natural landscape and those communities living alongside it.

Silverlens presents The Coconut Tree Methodology, a new solo exhibition by Martha Atienza, marking her first presentation with the gallery since 2020. Now open and running until July 11, 2026, the exhibition gathers a new body of work that continues the artist’s long-standing engagement with climate change, community, and the shifting relationship between land and sea.

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How Martha Atienza Created The Coconut Tree Methodology 

For Atienza, this story begins in the Bantayan Islands of Cebu, where the Dutch-Filipino artist was partly raised. She spent years documenting the effects of rising sea levels and coastal erosion, her project at once a “reflection and proposition,” as Stephanie Bailey writes in a statement on the exhibition, one that asks us to sense the world, as well as recognize the changes that shape it. 

Central to the exhibition is footage filmed in 2026 along the same shoreline Atienza documented in 2019. Where fallen coconut trees once lined an open coast, a seawall now stands, a sobering indicator of how rapidly the landscape has changed. In Atienza’s work, the coconut tree becomes witness and symbol at once. Among the first to register environmental change, the trees are uprooted by erosion, carried out to sea, and eventually returned to shore transformed. Their presence forms the conceptual backbone of the exhibition, standing as embodied records of displacement, loss, and survival.

How Art Unravels Environmental Realities 

The exhibition expands beyond environmental documentation into a broader reflection on the lived realities of coastal communities. Concrete barriers, fishing nets, and the experiences of fisherfolk become part of a larger narrative on how climate change reshapes ecosystems and social structures. As Atienza notes, the project is not only about the environmental crisis, but also “how climate change exposes the structure of society itself.”

That perspective has shaped much of Atienza’s practice. Since 2010, the artist has worked extensively in Bantayan, producing projects that examine the intersections of ecology, labor, culture, and history. Her acclaimed 2017 video work “Our Islands 11°16’58.4″ N 123°45’07.0″E” explored the effects of climate change on local fishing communities through an underwater reimagining of the Ati-Atihan festival, positing questions of environmental precarity, colonial history, and contemporary life.

The exhibition also reflects Atienza’s ongoing work beyond the gallery through GOODLand, the Bantayan-based organization she formalized in 2020. Working with local communities, institutions, and organizations, GOODLand focuses on documenting and applying intergenerational knowledge to address the environmental, social, political, and economic realities of climate change.

The Coconut Tree Methodology is an exhibition that also serves as an invitation to consider our own relationship with land, water, and collective responsibility. Through driftwood, moving images, and community histories, Atienza transforms environmental observation into a conversation about what’s being lost, what remains, and what can still be done.

Take a peek at the exhibition below.

The Coconut Tree Methodology runs at Silverlens until July 11, 2026. 

Photos courtesy of Silverlens Manila | New York.