We are Martha Atienza and Jake Atienza, two Dutch-Filipino siblings who collaborate as DAKOgamay. DAKOgamay is an experimental platform for work responding to a shared interest in social, economic and environmental issues. In Bisaya, dako and gamay translate to big and small, reflecting the scope of projects and issues. This play of words also suggests the contradictions of many co-existing realities and is a reference to us being siblings.

Growing up together, we intuitively work together, sharing each others interests. Our formal collaboration started with Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat in 2010, a project which combined a video installation documenting the lives of seafarers and fishermen from Bantayan Island with a series of informal and formal dialogues, film screenings and workshops. 

This project set the base for using art as a way to respond to issues on Bantayan; from increasing income gaps, environmental dilapidation and climate change, to diaspora. While continuing on Bantayan Island, we are also connecting to island neighbors in South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific.

Martha Atienza graduated with a BA in Mixed Media and Media Arts at the AKI Academy for Visual Arts in Enschede the Netherlands in 2006. Martha mainly works with the video camera filming people she knows and has travelled on numerous marine vessels in the Philippines and in international waters; including the Trans-Atlantic crossing on a cargo ship starting at the Mississippi river, crossing the Atlantic into the Baltic sea to Kalinggrad ending in Köpin, Sweden in 2013.

Jake Atienza completed a BA in International Communication with a minor in Public Affairs at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in 2014. Jake has covered current affairs for radio and digital media as a freelance journalist and also worked on small projects in Australia’s public media environment. He’s interested in journalism and art as investigative and documentary practices.

As a collaboration, we bring our perspectives and background in the arts, media, experiences from traveling and working closely with people. Working on projects is a continuous learning experience, collaborating and consulting across different sectors is part of pushing our own work. 

We have exhibited at APT8 at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia (2016), I am where I want to be, the Engine Room at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand (2016) and SUNSHOWER at the MORI Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan (2017).