Kawayan ROCKS!!!

Kawayan de Guia, "Rock and Roll" jukebox

One of the best shows I’ve seen this year.  I can say that right off the bat.  I thought Kawayan de Guia would have a hard time topping the installation he did for the CCP Thirteen Artists exhibit.  In Katas ng Pilipinas:  God Knows Hudas Not Play, he brings that concept further, develops it into a full-blown show, and makes my jaw drop! He wowed all of us who happened to catch him putting this show together at The Drawing Room in Makati.

Kawayan de Guia, "The True Nature of Things"

The idea of creating art out of discarded, broken-down jukeboxes percolated in Kawayan’s mind after stumbling into a cache at what he calls a “jukebox graveyard” in Baguio.  Like the jeepneys that have now become part and parcel of Pinoy life, the jukebox came to us through the Americans, through our acceptance of America and its culture. Both have been adapted and localized:  the jeepney through embellishment uniquely its own, the jukebox through the music it typically blares out.  We’ve even coined the term Pinoy Jukebox to refer to the sentimental warbles of local artists from the 1960s and 70s. And who would listen avidly to these ditties?  Why jeepney drivers, of course!

Kawayan takes off from jeepney art to adorn these jukeboxes.  After he had found a place to bring the jukeboxes to life, he bedecked them in the combination of kitsch and chrome we’ve come to associate with the kings of the roads.

Kawayan de Guia, "The Road To Nowhere" and "Alaskado"

This show includes three jukeboxes, all repaired and ready to rock:  Lilindol Muna Bago Puputok, UFO Alien Jeepney, and my favorite, Rock and Roll. Turn them on and with neon lights flashing, they deliver an incredible multi-sensory experience.

Kawayan de Guia "Lilindol Muna Bago Puputok"

Kawayan also exhibits six wall-bound pieces.  He digitally prints long-playing album covers, blows them up on canvas, then transforms them.  As he does with the jukeboxes, he takes inspiration from jeepneys.  Like the jeepneys, these canvases metamorphose into amalgams: part print, part painting, and part collage.  Each comes together as an

Kawayan de Guia, "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"

astonishingly original pastiche.  Kawayan frames each one in stainless steel that resembles the frame of a jeepney’s front window.  He commissioned mudguards to hang underneath each canvas.  They spell out each piece’s title in the same way that the the jeepney’s rubber mudguards contain uniquely Pinoy statements.  What a cool touch!

Detail, "Lilindol" jukebox

Kawayan takes original facets of Filipino culture and manages to translate them into art pieces that do not feel insular.  Describing his art seems like describing the artist himself.  While his sensibilities remain inherently Filipino, he has embraced a global aesthetic that feels so now.  He moves with ease across various media and always manages to produce contemporary work  without being derivative.  The guy is FLY!

Kawayan De Guia, "State of The Nation"

When you come to view the exhibit, make sure you request for the jukeboxes to be switched on.  Enjoying Kawayan’s art accompanied by Oh My Candida playing in the background guarantees an awesome experience!

Kawayan de Guia and his team of jukebox doctors

Katas ng Pilipinas God Know Hudas Not Play runs from 21 November to 12 December 2009 at The Drawing Room, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Metrostar Bldg., Makati City.  Phone (632)897-7877 or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com

The Silence of Meaning by Ronald Caringal and Kadin Tiu

I came to see what the buzz was about.  There’s so much interest in Ronald Caringal and Kadin Tiu these days, I came to see

Ronald Caringal, "In the face of facing oneself"

why.

Ronald Caringal, "The Dissolution of Illusion"

Ronald’s paintings, I’m familiar with.  I’ve seen them before in Art In Park, at his gallery, Cubicle’s, booth.  He also made his auction debut at Sotheby’s fall sales last month.  Ronald’s portraits have a very pop, with-it, somewhat retro appeal.  You can make the mistake of thinking he composes them digitally.   He doesn’t use many colors in each piece, but his choice of bright, fun, candy colors that do not blend into each other reminds us of Lichtenstein or even Chinese superstar Feng Zhenjie.  I get his appeal. We can all relate to Ronald’s work.

Ronald Caringal, "The introduction of destruction to the concept of natural selection" triptych and "When rest becomes restlessness"

I had only seen one other work of Kadin before, at ManilART 09 in July.  From what I understand, she’s a photographer who recently shifted to paintings to express herself.  You sense this background in her pieces.  What she makes of this positive response by the art market to her new medium would be interesting to watch.

Kadin Tiu, "Moving Into Perspective" and "Everything, Everywhere, Silence"

This show, The Silence of Meaning, doesn’t pretend to be more than easy and light.  Sometimes, that’s all we’re in the mood for.

Kadin Tiu, "It feels like a moment I've lived a thousand times before" and "When you can't tell the difference"

The Silence of Meaning runs from 20 November to 4 December 2009 at The Metro Gallery, 455 P. Guevarra St., San Juan, Metro Manila.  Phone (632)726-6543 or visit http://www.artesfiguras.com or http://ronaldcaringal.multiply.com.

Lara’s Graveyard Full of Memories

A Graveyard of Half-Baked Ideas

Lara de los Reyes, "I Put Your Face In My Pocket, The Rest Of You I Don't Need"

The show fits the space so perfectly that it should feel like a cliche.  Only it doesn’t.  Lara delos Reyes follows up The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, her solo debut earlier this year, with this show at Green Papaya Art Projects.   In A Graveyard of Half-Baked Ideas, Lara channels the effects of her grandmother’s passing. Just as grief makes its mark on the bereft, so does it scar the mementos and artifacts that belonged to a beloved who has moved on.  A gaping hole disfigures a portrait that has been cut for a locket.   Pieces of furniture hide under dust sheets.  Frames hang empty.  Even the dust congeals into something else. The gallery’s unfinished interior complements the aura of  simple, understated desolation.

Lara de los Reyes, "Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Hear"

I thought her drawing technique, with its faint, almost invisible lines,  went well with her allusion to fading memories. You have to look very close to see her figures. Like ghostly apparitions, they disappear at certain angles. I particularly liked her two drawings of skeleton hands installed on either side of a wall chandelier.  They make a rude gesture as a final farewell.

The installation We’ve All Had Time To Sleep recalls instances at Lara’s grandmother’s when they would awake to find snakes crawling inside the house.  A personal tribute to the woman she lived with as a child.

Lara de los Reyes, "The Naked and Outcast Seek Pieces There"

It seems a pity to  break this show apart.  All the pieces fit so well together,  you wonder how each will fare in another context.  That’s just my opinion, of course. It obviously will not make a difference to the collectors who have snapped up everything, down to the last rubber snake.

Concurrent to this, Lara joins a group show in Kuala Lumpur at Richard Koh Fine Arts.  Towards the end of next year, she’s planning another solo exhibit at Finale’s Upper Gallery.

Installation View

A Graveyard of Half-Baked Ideas runs from 7 to 28 November  at Green Papaya Art Projects, T. Gener St., Kamuning Quezon City. Or visit http://www.greenpapayaartprojects.org or http://papayapost.blogspot.com

Lara de los Reyes, "These Sensations Make Me Feel Pleasures Of A Normal Man"

Lara de los Reyes, "We've All Time To Sleep"

Lara de los Reyes, "As I Keep Dreaming, The Dust Keeps Settling", dust particles bound together

The Sacred And Profane for Peewee Roldan

This October and November, Norberto “Peewee” Roldan brings his works to KL and Singapore, to the spaces of TAKSU in

Peewee's smaller-sized assemblages

both cities.   Six weeks ago, the weekend before Typhoon Ondoy forever changed our definition of calamity, Peewee mounted a preview for both these shows at MO’s Space.  The preview only ran for five days, and I had the good fortune to catch it.

Collected brass purses and plastic compacts interspersed with vintage photos

Detail

These days, we recognize Peewee as the soul behind Green Papaya Art Projects,  the bastion of cutting-edge, experimental art in Manila.  It takes these shows in Taksu to remind us that Peewee is himself a practicing contemporary artist. I first saw one of Peewee’s assemblages at the Ayala Museum in 2005 when it featured Filipino art from the permanent collection of the Singapore Art Museum.  I had the chance to see the same pieces on exhibit at the museum itself.  How lucky for art collectors in Malaysia and Singapore to have this opportunity to see his new pieces.

Antique brass compacts

Stampitas and medallions

A former seminarian, Peewee channels his fascination with Christian, animist, and pagan practices into his art pieces.  He integrates abubots he has collected for years with curios he finds during forays into places such as Quiapo.  He installs his baubles in small compartments, like shallow pigeonholes on a pharmacy shelf.  His bigger works have metal and brass purses and cigarette cases or plastic compacts interspersed with old sepia photos framed in wood.  He has a collection of religious stampita combined with small medallions,   plastic rosaries with amulets from Siquijor inside glass bottles,  or black and white wax effigies the size of one’s hand.  He lines his frames with vintage wallpaper, old publications, or fabric to add another layer of texture and detail to his work.

Stampitas, rosaries, medallions, and amulets inside glass bottles

For his smaller assemblages, he combines his toy collection, robots and action figures, with religious icons and memorabilia.  In his biggest piece, he even cut up a family heirloom, priestly vestments he had inherited from an uncle.

Detail

An interesting series has him using cigar boxes to house more of his miscellany.  Another brings back work originally done for a 2003 show in Australia, Pleasure and Pain. For this, he displays trinkets that give pleasure or induce pain in boxes with glass lids that we see in emergency exits for first aid kits.

Assemblage from a family heirloom

Using vintage cigar boxes to house his curios

I enjoyed seeing a body of Peewee’s works hanging together.  You get a better sense of what he is about, this immersion in folk religious beliefs.  I see so many pieces nowadays that I can’t help the ennui that occasionally sets in.  But when I get that feeling of wonder and amazement, like how I felt after catching this preview, then I know why I snatch time off in the middle of a working day to view art.

From his "Pleasure And Pain" series

Everything Is Sacred runs from 22 October to 21 November at Taksu Kuala Lumpur.  Profane Is The New Sacred runs from 26 November to 20 December at Taksu Singapore.  For more information, visit http://www.taksu.com

Detail

An assemblage with Peewee's toy collection

Making use of black and white wax effigies

Profiles of Courage: Juana Change Portraits at the UP Vargas Museum

You gotta hand it to Mae Paner.  First, she creates an alter ego that fearlessly takes on the political issues of the day.  As Juana

Mark Justiniani, "Parting"

Change, the obese and vulgar personality she adopts on You Tube broadcasts, Mae has

Winner Jumalon, "Supercalifragilisticespialidocious"

created  a cult phenomenon.  Now she publicly challenges herself to lose weight, to take on a healthier lifestyle.  But not before allowing 36 artists to document her in all her voluptuous glory.  She lets it all out—stomach folds, cellulite ripples, Rubenesque buttocks and arms—naked, for  all of us to see.  The exhibit notes say that we should expect the artists to mount Part II sometime before the May 2010 elections.  Mae will then reveal her, hopefully, much more svelte self.  In the meantime, let’s enjoy her hefty proportions while we still can!

By Winner Jumalon, detail

By Kawayan de Guia

Two untitled pastels by Charlie Co

As with exhibits of this magnitude and variety, I can’t help but choose my favorites.  Kawayan de Guia’s photograms top my list.  He prints them on metal, and when viewed from different angles, his images distort like holograms.  He frames his pieces in a sunburst pattern from cut  oil cans (literally Baguio oil!) which seem reinforced with wood underneath.  His frank, grotesque, in-your-face treatment of Juana induce just the right amount of cringe that I look for when deliberating on art.  He piles on the humor too.  In one of his pieces, he juxtaposes a stretched out Juana against a sweatshirt that reads “Physical Education”.  Another shows a pensive Juana perhaps dreaming of  her beauty underneath the blubber.

Benjie Reyes, "Ng Nakalabit"

I also loved Mark Justiniani’s pieces.  No one works with pastel the way he does.  His oil on canvas piece, Parting, is vintage Mark.

The show also aims to raise funds for Mae to continue her You Tube productions. What a great way to do so!

By Julie Lluch and Kiri Dalena

Pangatawanan Mo Nah! runs from 5 to 15 November 2009 at the UP Vargas Museum, UP Diliman, Quezon City.

At The Entrance

Brenda Fajardo, "Angel's Wings"

Lee Paje, "Ang Bote-buti Ni Mae"

Into The Woods With Yasmin Sison

Yasmin Sison, "Delicate Earthquakes"

Yasmin Sison, "The Bird and the Fox"

Blink and you discover that you’ve missed around five good exhibits.  At least that’s how I feel after returning from a short trip and finding myself swamped with so much work that art had to take a back seat for a few days.  It seems I have so much to catch up on.  I decided to make my first foray back into the art scene with the most high profile of shows, Yasmin Sison Ching’s Into The

Yasmin Sison, "A Fistful of Impermanence"

Woods at the SM Art Center.

Yasmin spent seven months preparing for this show.  And you can tell the amount of work she put into it not just by the number of pieces she completed, but also by the quality of her pieces. She has paintings, installations, and collages.  Her concept takes off from the writings of Joseph Campbell, from his Hero Of A Thousand Faces. He essentially says a hero needs to journey into the darkest recesses of the forest as a prerequisite to coming out victorious.  Yasmin also ties in the idea of a forest with her continued preoccupation with myth and memory. A childhood spent immersed in fairy tales make us associate going into the woods, getting

Yasmin Sison, "Huffs and Puffs", "Spoiling For A Fight", "The Confrontation"

lost in the woods, or meeting a fascinating character in the woods with our favorite childhood fables.  In her words, “Images of forest, children, children in animal masks, and animals, are constantly used in the exhibition as a metaphor for my personal journey into the mythic woods of memory and remembrance.”  She depicts children intent on going on quests, their own forays into becoming heroes.

Yasmin Sison, Thumper"s Song Collage Series

I love her series of collages, Thumper’s Song.  She creates them from books of Bambi that she has chosen to deface.  Her fondness and identification with children come out very evidently in this show, given perhaps that she has been a pre-school teacher  for the past few years.  Her family, nieces, nephews, and her son, posed as the subjects to her pieces.

Detail,Thumper's Song Collage

In her wall-bound installation, Telling Tales, she takes inspiration from the work of Meret Oppenheim’s fur-covered tea cup, saucer, and spoon.  She wraps a miniature chair in yarn, and hangs this with embroidered children’s names still attached to embroidery hoops.  For her other installation at the center of the exhibit’s space, she casts shed antlers in ceramic, transforming the hardy deer horns into fragile objects.  The shedding of horns marks a milestone, another childhood passage.  She calls this Fiddles Pulled From The Throat Of Sparrows.

View of Telling Tales Installation

Into The Woods runs from 30 October to 15 November 2009 at the SM Art Center, SM Megamall, Pasig City.  For more information visit http://www.finaleartfile.com

Yasmin Sison, "The Owl And The Pussycat" and "Billy Goat Gruff"

Gilda’s Wondrous Whimsical Watercolors

Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Biyaheng Pinoy"

(This piece comes out in the November issue of Town And Country Magazine.  In the course of writing this, I spent an exhilarating afternoon with GCF.  As an added bonus to the great conversation, she allowed me to wander through her art collection.  I am sharing pictures of her pieces in this post.)

Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Adam and Eve's Botany Lesson"

We started our meal with dessert, chunks of refreshing buko pandan still crunchy from the freezer, made right in her kitchen.  But then, this was midafternoon, neither lunch nor dinner, and by her admission, Gilda Cordero Fernando doesn’t do too well following rules.  So as we sat in her bedroom, where she received me, it seemed perfectly natural that after dessert came pasta with fried oysters, followed by salad, and finally, bite-sized lumpia of chickpeas, her own recipe of a treat from the 1930s. As we dipped the crisp rolls into garlic-infused vinegar, she told me that the late Larry Cruz had appropriated this dish for his restaurant, Abe.

Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Historical Float"

We chatted beneath Elmer Borlongan’s mural; dwarfed by the urban denizens he had painted to span the entire wall. Gilda sat across from me, dressed casually in chic white capris and a printed tee.  Her closely cropped hair lent her an elfin, mischievous air.  I thought her eyes danced as she spoke and that her youthful features made her seem twenty years younger.  I found it difficult to believe she would turn 80 this year.

Beneath Elmer Borlongan's piece in Gilda's bedroom. She commissioned this in the 1990s, when Emong just started to make a name for himself.

Perhaps I seemed rude, but I couldn’t help ogling this room filled with art.  Olan Ventura had depicted life-sized likenesses of

Olan Ventura's life-sized depictions of Gilda's household helpers on her cabinet doors

Gilda’s household helpers on the four panels of her closet.  When lit from within, Gerry Leonardo’s fiberglass sculpture doubles as a lamp.  By the bathroom door hangs a charming painting by Spanish artist Jose Maria Ovejero. Later, as this visit progressed, I discovered that the rest of the house held just as much treasure, its rooms filled with pieces as quirky, unconventional, and priceless as its mistress.

Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Let Them Eat Cake!"

This month, Gilda opens her third solo show at SLab, the gallery for paintings of Isa Lorenzo’s Silverlens group.  Pilipinas, Oh My! Philippines will showcase her works in watercolor, Gilda’s medium of choice, in this, her latest incantation, that of a visual artist.

She started painting in the late 1990s, when she was almost in her seventies, at the studio of Araceli Dans.  Before that, we knew her for decades as an award-winning writer of fiction, and then through her essays that came out in the Sunday papers.  She also spent time publishing Filipiniana, under GCF Books, putting a team together that would bring out well-written, beautifully-designed volumes.  “I wanted books I could hug, cuddle, dance with” Gilda reminisces.  I get what she means.  I own one of her books, Household Antiques and Heirlooms by Felice Sta. Maria.  I have had it for years and I still find myself perusing it now and again, rereading portions, and learning something new.  It is a book that I live with, not consigned to the dust in my shelves.

Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Urban Rich"

Alongside the publishing came her theater productions, Jamming With An Old Saya and Luna: An Aswang Romance. Somewhere in this list of past lives is a stint as a proprietor of an antique shop, dealing with and trading wonderful knick-knacks.   

These last two years, Gilda has focused on her watercolors.  She paints from midnight until about two in the morning.  She brings forth whimsical, casual, colorful images of Philippine life and history, paintings filled with her joie de vivre. Gilda deals with social realities lightly, treating societal ills with wit and humor. Her works follow no accepted precepts of perspective and composition except her own.   But by no means is her talent left unguided.   She relies on a formidable group of friends to critique her.  Or at least lend tacit approval to her technique.  “I visit Danny Dalena with pancit, then I ask him to look at my pieces” she says with a laugh.  “The first time he saw my paintings, he told me ‘Ikaw Gilda, huwag na huwag ka mag-aaral ng art’” she recalls, chuckling.  He wanted her pieces to remain fey, as untethered to accepted mores as she herself.

In her dining room, a tableau of a harried housewife by Julie Lluch and two Onib Olmedos which Gilda remembers acquiring for P15K each

Another buddy, sculptor Roberto Feleo, passes on advice.  “He showed me how to do image transfers” narrates Gilda, “so easy pala!  But first I had to buy him chicharon.”

Gilda Codero Fernando, "High Life and Low Life"

When she finds herself in need of even more help, she seeks it from those who have passed on.  One night, confronted with blank paper and with no idea what to do, she meditated and summoned the spirit of old friend Onib Olmedo.  “I saw them, the yagit,” forlorn faces peered at her from inside two glass cylinders, features so characteristic of Olmedo’s paintings.  She incorporated these images into two of her pieces, Let Them Eat Cake and High Life and Low Life, for this show at SLab. 

I marvel at how effortlessly Gilda has moved through life, gliding through her transitions as suavely as the steps of the freeform dancing she loves.  She shares that she never had qualms about blazing trails and trying something new.  “I just knew that as a pioneer, I wouldn’t make any money.  Ako ang taya.” She credits Marcelo, her husband of 57 years, for providing well for their family, thus allowing her to be.

A bust of Gilda's husband, Marcelo Fernando, by Julie Lluch

While she hasn’t gotten the hang of the Internet, and still writes in longhand, she keeps pulse with Manila by going out and experiencing its cultural life.  She makes the rounds of art galleries and art events, keeping tabs on her numerous artist friends.  She watches movies and tries out new restaurants, even by her lonesome.   Gilda shrugs when asked what she sees for herself after this show.  “I don’t know. Iba naman.”  She’s all set for the next adventure.

When darkness had fallen completely, we took a tour of her house which National Artist Lindy Locsin had built in the 1960s.  Soon after, I took my leave. I had had my fill of Gilda’ delectable food, engaging art, and inspiring conversation.  As I made my way out, through the pebbled paths of her husband’s garden, I thought to myself:  when I grow up, I want to be like Gilda Cordero Fernando.

Wall-bound piece by Roberto Feleo

Pilipinas Oh My! Philippines runs from 21 October to 14 November 2009 at SLab, 2f Yupangco Bldg, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City.  Phone (632)816-0044 or visit http://www.slab.silverlensphoto.com

Kitchen cabinets painted by Karen Flores

Roberto Feleo mosaic at the guest bathroom

Detail of Ann Wizer installation on Gilda's living room wall

Andy Barrioquinto Turns Japanese

"Realms Of The Senses" and Andy Barrioquinto

I had always been drawn to Andres Barrioquinto’s faces, especially the monochromatic ones of recent history, rendered almost flat, in tones of blue.  They exhibit horrified expressions, quite compelling, as they stare out from empty sockets. He’d paint them alongside cubist patterns, remnants of an earlier series that had

"Realms Of The Senses", detail

become his signature. This past year, though, Andy’s paintings took on a different style.  To be honest, I did not really enjoy the purely photorealstic direction his narratives had shifted to.  They felt a little too familiar.  We’ve seen them before from others.

Andres Barrioquinto, "Eden"

In this show, The Gods of Small Things, Andy experiments yet again.  I think he’s produced his best work yet.  He turns to Japanese paper prints, silk screened or stenciled Chiyogami and Katazome-shi. He takes patterns based on traditional kimono designs, their bright colors and images from nature,  and applies them in

Andres Barrioquinto, "False Face"

detailed layers onto stylized portraits.  Cranes, chrysanthemums, leaves, and swirls intermingle with unsmiling faces.  His subjects look out—vacuous, sombre, forbidding—beneath ornamentation rendered repeatedly, akin to tattoos, over their visages. If his faces drew me in before, now they positively transfix.  He combines the photorealistic with the graphic, decorative elements

Andres Barrioquinto, "Forbidden"

that evoke placidity and balance fuse with the strong and disturbing.  What potential for an interesting series!

By Andres Barrioquinto, "Mirror of Deceit" and "Dust In The Eye"

For the show’s catalogue, Andy had good friend, writer Dave Lock (the subject for Realms of the Senses), compose short verses for each of the pieces on view.

Andres Barrioquinto, "The Maker"

The 34-year-old Andy has exhibited in more than 20 shows.  He’s had his ups and downs as a painter too.  He tells me that without consciously being aware of it, he’s recently found his stride.  He mustered the discipline to paint everyday, keeping to a working schedule that pushes him to create as he paints.  He’s discovered a love for his craft that’s made him meticulous, almost obsessive even, with all the aspects of his work, from the condition of his canvases to the final finishing touches on his pieces.  He doesn’t discriminate, both small or large-scale paintings receive the same dedication and attention to detail.  It certainly shows.

Andres Barrioquinto, "Twilight Madman"

View of exhibit installation

The Gods of Small Things runs from 17 October to 7 November 2009 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong.  Phone (632)752-0032 or visit http://www.blanc.ph or visit  htttp://www.barrioquinto.multiply.com

Super Sungdu-an at the National Musuem

View of Sungdu-an Installation

While other countries regularly mount their biennials or triennials, our Sungdu-an is the closest thing we have to a nationally

Christine Sicangco, "Thou Son's Cranes"

organized visual arts event.  The term sungdu-an comes from Waray and means confluence. This coming together of artistic expressions from four regions, Luzon,

Michelline Syjuco, "The Vengeance of Our Childhood and Old Age"

Visayas, Mindanao, and the National Capital Region, began in 1996 as a project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).  This fifth edition, mounted at the National Museum in Manila, carries as its theme Current:  Daloy ng Dunong.

I highly recommend a visit to the National Museum to catch this, a must for all contemporary art lovers.  The pieces are super, the artists well chosen, the materials imaginatively utilized!  I wish, though, that the NCCA had provided for a catalogue or brochure that could give us a better understanding of the artists’ intentions and processes.  Perhaps next time they can find a sponsor from the private sector?  What a pity for all the effort to go undocumented.

Michelline Syjuco, detail

Of the twenty works on view, my favorites are two installations,  Thou Son’s Cranes by Christine Sicangco and Vengeance of Our Childhood and Old Age from Michelline Syjuco.  Christine’s use of fiber optics to change the colors of her hanging paper cranes totally charms.  The colors mesmerize. Perhaps the piece may be considered a bit derivative, but who cares?  Michelline’s work deals with globalization as both boon and bane to developing countries such as ours.  She embellishes a large wooden horse, globalization as a Trojan gift, with the embossed steel decor of a kalesa. The horse tramples on an enlarged

Hanna Pettyjohn, "DFW:SOS"

Amorsolo image of an idyllic Pinoy scene.  All around her space, she scatters discarded bits from an antique carossa.  Through the strategic positioning of  light she creates shadows, an allusion to illusion.  A revolving disco ball throws its reflections around the piece, giving it movement.

Another view of Hanna Pettyjohn's "DFW:SOS"

In a room off the main gallery, Hanna Pettyjohn installs DFW:SOS, a prequel

By Hanna Pettyjohn

to experiences she relived for her SLab show, American Sweet.  In that show, she looked back at a period spent in Dallas, a time of alienation and loneliness in an American suburb. For this piece’s focal

Keiye M. Tuazon, "Terrestrial Platforms"

point, she uses a large painting of a house under construction.  She lived in this house during that stay in Dallas.  She takes off from the painting, integrating her images of gravel with actual gravel that almost covers the room’s entire floor.  Amidst this, she reprises from that previous

Another view, exhibit installation

show scattered cast plaster replicas of this house to illustrate the monotony of the architectural landscape in that neighborhood.  She also uses the terra cotta owls that made up her previous body of work. In the room’s small foyer, she installs the man-sized birdcage which has become a signature to all her shows.

Guttierrez Mangansakan II, "Requiem 2Moro", detail

As you enter the gallery, you see Requiem for 2Moro by Gutierrez Mangansakan II, a video and mixed media installation.  Adjacent to it hang Keiye Miranda Tuazon’s photorealistic paintings of desolate spaces, Terrestrial Platform, Disruptured Happenings I and II.

Rodel Tapaya, "The Great Flood"

Rodel Tapaya, "Changing Landscapes"

In keeping with the exhibit’s theme on the flow of knowledge, Rodel Tapaya uses his space to reflect on oral traditions as the means to imparting knowledge.  His diorama, Changing Landscapes, and his

Rodel Tapaya , diorama detail

accompanying painting, The Great Flood, seem oddly prescient.  The painting recounts the revenge of the god, Lumawig, on people who do not care for their land, sending a great flood in which no one but two children survive.  To expound on this, his diorama speaks of mythical gods who control water and life forms affecting water elements.  He dwells on water as both giver of life and dispenser of punishment.  Little did Rodel realize the aptness of his concept.

Kiri Dalena, installation detail

Karl Aguila, "The Bridge Project"

Karl Aguila’s The Bridge Project and Kiri Dalena’s Found Figures in Stones Translated by Pakil Carvers (Ka Noe and Ka Sally) occupy the gallery’s central space.  Karl constructs his bridge from recycled wood and installs

Oscar Floirendo, "Pinagdaanan, Pinagdadaanan, Pagdadaanan"

this above a river of brown sugar. He has poured sugar on the bridge’s joints just as a mason would use cement to seal gaps. He works from Dumaguete and this piece reflects on sugar as both the lifeblood of Negros as well as its curse. In reaction to the show’s theme, Karl muses on the bridge’s dual role.  As it subverts one from the current of water beneath, it also propels one forward, connecting towards one’s  goal.

Kiri uses wood and discarded wood chips for her installation of two cowering, recumbent figures, as beautifully done as her award-winning piece from the Lopez Museum exhibit earlier this year.

Errol Balcos, "KaPOSoh"

A few months ago, I went to a small gallery in Don Galo, Parañaque.  They featured artists who work in Cagayan de Oro.  Two of them, Oscar Floirendo and Errol Balcos, have been chosen to represent Mindanao for this Sungdu-an.  Oscar uses his holograms from his Philippine Art Awards piece.

Errol Balcos, "kapaMEALyah"

Errol shows oil paintings in black, white, and red.  Errol also made the short list of the 2007 Philippine Art Awards.  With these paintings, you can see why.

Still another view of the installation

Rommel Pidazo, "Found Objects", detail

On one wall, Rommel Pidazo installs his pieces

Errol "Budoy" Marabiles, "Tester"

from found objects, mostly refuse set for the recycle bin.  Errol “Budoy” Marabiles comments on the brouhaha over the selection of National Artists with

"Tester", detail

Tester. Hidden speakers blare out details of the Hello Garci scandal.  Across it, Goldie Poblador mounts terrariums and

Goldie Poblador, "Terrariums: TheTwo Phases of Our Intentions"

aquariums.  She fills one of her tanks with janitor fish

Terrariums, detail

lifted from the street, brought in by flood waters from an overflowing Marikina River.  On the branches of  bonsai atop one terrarium, she hangs small glass vials like tiny Christmas ornaments.  She calls these vials fruits.  Remove the cork stoppers from the vials and they reek of fuel. Indeed fruits borne by a polluted environment.

Sagada artist Brian Uhing hangs Angels/ Anitos .  Produksyon Tramontina Inc. displays the video installation Nature Vs. Nurture. Rey Bollozos does a mixed media installation Lantang.  On the gallery’s far end, Mark Salvatus creates a green, plastic garden behind a slit in the wall, a reference to a secret garden cultivated by inmates from a Quezon City jail using makeshift tools.

CJ Tañedo also chooses to bring out paintings, one of which is a relatively large one called Ode to Lazarus. Margaret Kathryn P. Tecson does a lovely hanging fish-shaped soft sculpture, Kina-Iya, constructed from fabric culled from ukay-ukay.  Talaandig Artists created paintings on canvas using soil (yes soil!) as medium.

Kudos to Sungdu-an’s project team headed by Patrick Flores and to the curators who worked with the artists:  Chit Ramirez, Dennis Ascalon, Irma Lacorte, and Cris Rollo!  Congratulations!

Sungdu-an 5 Current:  Daloy ng Dunong runs from 30 September to 15 November at the  North Wing, 4F, Museum of the Filipino People, Finance Road cor Agrifina, Manila.  For inquiries on the museum’s hours, call the Museum Foundation at (632)404-2685.

Artists for Sungdu-an 5 are Karl Aguila, Errol Balcos, Rey Bollozos, Kiri Dalena, Oscar Floirendo, Gutierrez Mangansakan II, Errol “Budoy” Marabiles, Keiye Miranda Tuazon, Hanna Pettyjohn, Rommel Pidazo, Goldie Poblador, Produksyon Tramontina, Inc., Mark Salvatus, Christine Sicangco, Michelline Syjuco, Talaandig Artists, CJ Tañedo, Rodel Tapaya, Margaret Kathryn Tecson, Brian Uhing, Noe Vanzuela

Brian Uhing, "Angels/Anitos"

Brian Uhing, detail

Brain Uhing, detail

Produksiyon Tramontina Inc, "Nature vs Nurture"

"Nature vs Nurture", detail

Mark Salvatus, "Secret Garden"

CJ Tanedo, "Ode to Lazarus"

Margaret Kathryn P. Tecson, "Kina-iya"

Rey Bollozos, "Lantang"

Bright Clouds Over Boston

Rodel Tapaya, "Espiya ni Pedroso"

The first day of the week brought in the sunshine, a welcome balm to a city reeling from images of misery and destruction.  Later in the day the rains may start pouring again, pounding relentlessly on bodies and belongings that haven’t recovered, still not inured to another onslaught.  I thought to seize the best of the day, to take a few hours break from dismal reality.  I headed north, and after

Rodel Tapaya, "Tumana"

seeing Boston Gallery’s current exhibit, knew I had made the right choice.

In 2002, a group of friends, barkada, Fine Arts students all, came together for the group show, Toys, at Ayala Museum.  Soon after that, they started their artistic careers in earnest.  As  what usually happens as occupations flourish, schedules get more difficult to reconcile. It took seven years for the group to reunite for another exhibit, but what a good show they have put together.  Cloud Cuckoo Land brings us to a place of fantasy, where imagination reigns,  from sweet fairy tale longings to dark and grisly fears.

Rodel Tapaya, "Tamang Asim" and "Kwentong Barbero"

Rodel Tapaya shows four pieces that feature his usual folk tales.  This time though, he veers away from his norm,  adopting looser strokes, allowing for drips, making his images less distinct.  Rodel also experiments using black as his base, piling lighter colors atop, rather than the other way around.  His paintings here feel eerier, more fantastic, spectral. His figures look pale and ghostly.  I love them! I love it especially that even with relatively smaller works, Rodel surprises us with the unusual.

Marina Cruz, "Mirror Mirror On the Floor"

Marina Cruz also moves away from the series of  interior scenes that she has been showing for the past year.  In keeping with the concept, she deals with the imaginary world of children’s stories, albeit choosing to take off from less innocuous ones.  In Where The Wild Things Are, she portrays a goblin-like doll from the goblins that

Marina Cruz, "Where The Wild Things Are"

join Max in the book’s adventures.  Mirror Mirror On The Floor shows a little girl swept up in a world of fables, caught up with her reflection on what seems to be an infinite black hole.

By Paulo Vinluan

Paulo Vinluan’s works have always dealt with the ludicrous and surreal.  He sticks to his narratives told through images rendered in the manner of comic book illustrations.  Butch Estandarte’s lone work is a digital print of two atomic bombs, fuzzy and unreal

Butch Estandarte, "The Greatest Discovery of Mankind"

under smoke glass.

Lea Lim installation

Both Troy Ignacio and Lea Lim show beautiful pieces from opposite ends of the spectrum.  On the one hand, Lea’s dainty and romantic pieces, installed as a triptych in the upper gallery’s long wall,  hark to her girlish hopes and dreams.  She uses bright

Lea Lim, "But The Winds Beckon", detail with origami birds and gesso wave patterns

pink as her focal color, softened with tones of gray.  Lea applies gesso and white paint in patterns that add texture, like marzipan,  to her

Lea Lim, "I Tried Keeping Still", detail with hanging swing

images.  On the extreme right, she hangs a white swing of twine and wood.  You can imagine the endless hours spent weaving daydreams on a swing such as this.

Lea Lim installation detail

Troy deals with imagination of the macabre variety in his oil on paper paintings.  He exhibits strong and powerful works, a dark and menacing series he calls Silent Witness.  His figures grip you, a haunted manse, a slaughtered cat, a trickle of blood, all peppered with the evil eye.  Troy’s four works

Troy Ignacio, "Silent Witness 1 and 3"

portend an impressive comeback for this former Ateneo Art Awards finalist.

I spent less than an hour taking in Cloud Cuckoo Land,  immersed in the alternate reality of six artists, just long enough to clear the mind and prepare for the next deluge.  Sure enough, on the car radio, they spoke of storm clouds brewing over the Pacific and strong winds making its way to our shores once more.

Troy Ignacio, "Silent Witness 2 and 4"

Cloud Cuckoo Land with Marina Cruz, Butch Estandarte, Troy Ignacio, Lea Lim, Rodel Tapaya, and Paulo Vinluan runs from 6 to 21 October 2009 at Boston Gallery, Boston corner Lantana Streets, Quezon City.  Phone number (632) 722-9205.