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[a] History of and [some] Trends in Contemporary Art in the Philippines1

This paper is an attempt to present a reading of Philippine contemporary art. The title requires us to define three disparate concepts but somehow commonly used together. It is so common that it already has a connotative meaning in the colloquial mind of Filipinos.

For the purpose of this presentation, we define the Philippines as the people who are Filipinos by virtue of race. And to make our discussion more specific, we will discuss only those who are based in the Philippines at the time of writing. This has to be clarified, because like many Southeast Asian people, we Filipinos also have had our share of diaspora.To include Filipinos practicing art in other country countries would somehow force us to read their work in their present context. That will then further require us to discuss too many cultures beyond Southeast Asia.

Art is both a product and a process of a creative decision of an artist in his or her attempt to be involved in a dialogue and to articulate his or her motivations for creation—be it the medium, style, subject, form, etc. To affix the term contemporary is to limit the discussion within the chronological sphere of the “now.”

I would like to limit the scope into the decade when I was born, which is the 1970s. The ‘70s is historically, a cultural turning point for the Philippines. It was when art institutions were built by then First Lady Imelda Marcos (same institutions that we have until now, or at least some of it); it was the time when conceptual art entered the Philippine art scene (a “movement” that a good number of artists today adhere to, to emphasize their contemporary-ness versus the traditional); and it is part of the art history that people can remember because they saw it happening or was part of it, and did not just read about it in books or other documentation. And on this note, I would like to begin with Shop 6.2

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1 Presentation draft prepared for Silpakorn University School of Fine Arts and Painting Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 2014. This essay must not be published without the author’s permission. 2A group originally formed by Yolanda Laudico, Joe Bautista, Rudy Gan, Fernando Modesto, Boy Perez, and Roberto Chabet.

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Shop 6 was a collective of artists organized “by chance.” It was not a formal group;

instead the “grouping” sprung out from an exhibit that was reviewed as objectionable (emphasis mine).”3 This was in 1974. The show was later moved to a shop in Taft Avenue (another downtown district of the earlier era).

From then on, they opened shows every Friday, mostly featuring installation art and found objects. One Filipino artist-curator, Ringo Bunoan, described Shop 6 as “fireworks.” She said, “Although they lasted only a few months, they were enchanting when they were there.”4 Perhaps the key to this is laden on a statement by one of its members, Yolanda Laudico: “We are not posing […] we are not making a stand primarily to be against something, but we are looking for something to inspire and to excite our sensibilities.”5

Aside from being controversial (at the time that they were) they too were considered experimental artists as they brought a movement that is different from the forms of expression familiar to the art-viewing public of Manila. Instead of figurative and expressionist abstracts, which by that time (or should I say even to this day) are more familiar and preferred in Manila, they fostered an avenue for conceptual art—or simply idea/concept as art, and not entirely the object.

In addition, according to Joe Bautista, one of the members, they simply planned to hold a show every Friday, they did not talk about what to exhibit. This professes a very strong subscription to treating art as an organic matter. This is against the common practice of planning what an exhibit will look like or at least what it will contain in the spirit of cohesiveness. It could therefore be noted that they are not only “experimental” in their choice of expression. They were “un-usual” in many other aspects of their creative practice.

But then again, what is art but by nature a sort of experiment. At any rate, I choose to start my survey of contemporary art with this group because as history would have it,a good number of Filipino artists in the past thirty years attribute their creative philosophy to this group.

There are other movements, collectives and groups. But in the same way this paper delimits the scope of Filipino artists to discuss, the purpose of delimiting the scope of contemporary art into this pseudo-bloodline is done to maximize the discourse, rather than the items on the survey. WHAT ART?

A paper I wrote twenty years ago during my undergraduate explores the etymology of “art” or what we locally call sining. Encoded in WordStar, it was an undergrad paper that has long been buried in a mountain of other papers. Had I known that I will be doing this presentation now, I would have kept it, not because it would shed more light on our discussion. On the contrary, I would have wanted to show you that defining art is an old story that still awaits its ending, as far as Philippine Art History is concerned. Not because we don’t have definitions, but because we have too many, and they are too complex that assigning only one meaning would not be enough. 3According to curator of the show, Roberto Chabet recounts on an interview. Published in Patrick D.Flores’ article entitled “The Art of the ‘70s, Missing links, Burned Bridges,” in Pananaw, p. 58. 4Based on an interview with Bunoan for STPA London in 2010. 5From an interview with Yolanda Laudico. Published in Flores’ article in Pananaw, p.58.

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For the purpose of this essay, here are some themes that might help us wade through this murky water: Art as object. As an object, contemporary art can be viewed in two ways—it can be owned; or it can bring awe and encourage viewers to wonder. It should be noted that these categories require one thing: there should be a receptor for the art object. An object to be owned has to have physicality or be tangible; it has to be movable, or at least can be reconstructed if the work was built on site; and space adaptable. In a recent solo exhibit, BUENVIAJE, AN ODE TO A GOOD VOYAGE6, [SLIDE3] Anton del Castillo illustrates how “art-ifying” can evoke a contemporary sentiment even through an ethnographic icon. In this show, Anton deconstructed a cattle caravan, a traditional mobile store drawn by a cow. He transformed the aged-cow into a sturdy metal corpus, bejeweling its contents and painting the bamboo merchandise with gold. The image appears like an anachronistic combination of two eras—the European Byzantine period meets the Philippine countryside during the 16th century.

More than a critique, the artist used this mobile trading mechanism as a theme to illustrate the crossings of cultures in the most unusual avenues. The work now resides at Pinto Gallery in Antipolo owned by Dr. Joven Cuanang, one of the country’s most ardent art patrons (not just collector).

Somehow, moving the object from the museum to the outdoor gallery did not defeat the intention of the artist to place the caravan in a different context.

Art as awe or object of awe. Art as awe and art as object of awe are two different ideas. The prior assigns art as an emotional or a sensorial response, while the latter maintains the idea that art is an object. To illustrate, I would like to use recent works of Ian Carlo Juacian and Tengal Drilon. Both are young artists who have a strong inclination to use technology as media.

In the exhibit CAUSALITYat a gallery in Manila called 1335 Mabini, Juacian’s work dealt with a substance called golabulos. A golabulos is a protein substance in its intermediate transitory state that can be manipulated into something like an intelligent gelatinous media. Juacian’s display is a laboratory: one area uses vials and beakers arranged in a shelf, perhaps to

6Buenviaje, Ode to a Good Voyage is Anton’s solo. U.P. Vargas Museum, 25 April to 20 May, 2013.

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show that it had been (or is still being) used; on a table is a dish with liquid and a specimen golabulos that viewers can interact with using a magnet or their voice; a door pasted with drawings, computations, and other cryptic message; blinking light sips at the bottom of the door, where a black substance looks like it was spilling out (or crawling in); finally, a small video monitor is affixed on the little corner of the gallery. [SLIDE4] It was quite obvious that the artist intended the audience to take the setup as the work. The audience could appraise that art could manifest in their aesthetic appreciation of the details of the setup (i.e. drawing, video, installation, etc.); it could be in the creation of a narrative as one piece; or it could be the enjoyment of the multi-sensorial experience one gets as one enters a zone with multi-triggers. This is what I mean by art as awe. It is not focused on the object nor the set-up, but on how it strikes the audience.

It is slightly similar, but fundamentally different, when we say art is an object of awe or wonder. In the exhibit LISTEN TO MY MUSIC, at the Vargas Museum, Tengal Drilon together with electrical and electronic engineer Niko Torcito and sound engineer Gene Kogan refitted a card-catalog cabinet into a live sound archive. The cabinet was borrowed from a music archive from the University of the Philippines.

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When the drawers of the cabinet are drawn, sound will come out instead of catalogue entries. “Finding music” instead of cards is a treat for the audience. Although the main materials for the work are familiar objects, the audience is left to wonder how the whole thing works or even how the artist thought of doing so.

This work is an example how awe and wonder of viewers are concentrated on

encountering the object, which does not require them (although they could) to go beyond the work’s physicality. Art as subject. A subject is commonly equated with narratives; or a response to the question, “what is the art work saying.” For the purpose of focus, I would like to use instances instead of narratives. Narrative is almost always equated with a series; while instance/s could just be one, fleeting, abrupt or lingering occurrence.

Young artist Dave Lock is one of those who harvest instances from introspective meandering. In his exhibit EQUILIBRIUM POISONING in 2012 at ArtInformal, Lock presented a series of paintings of screaming faces veiled with black and red ooze. Floor pieces echoes the two-dimensional works as the pedestals are populated with severed doll heads and mannequins with the same black and red ooze veils. One can easily assume what the show is all about. In summary of the artist’s statement, the darkness of the show is a “staging of his waking hours” which embody long scary nights and equally long and uncertain mornings.

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A more inclusive subject can be seen from the works of artist-activists Renan Ortiz, Kiri Dalena and Mideo Cruz. The subjects of their work may be deemed responsive as they directly converse with (an) issue(s) in society.

Renan Ortiz, in his installation work EXERCISE OF FUTILITY, brought forth the irony

of food politics in the Philippines, particularly the issue about the country’s rice-supply shortage. In one video monitor, we see a fat person doing exercises. On another monitor, a farmer goes about his planting routine. These two monitors stand in balance on a beam held by a big metal pot used to cook rice. Without further explanation, the audience instantly recognizes that Ortiz decided to focus his statement on the irony that some people exert so much labor so they could

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have something to eat, while others exert much labor to burn away the excess of what they ate. [SLIDE7]

In a different line but same issue, Kiri Dalena’s video work TUNGKONG LANGIT, is a

non-linear documentary that follows the story experiences of a girl who survived Sendong, one of the most devastating typhoons that ever hit Mindanao. In this work, Dalena stayed with the survivor for many days. She interviewed the girl, and documented her playing and going about her daily affairs after the tragedy. It was interspersed with a creative shot of a floating log and wading body of a young child—this is a recreation of how the girl survived the flood. While Ortiz’s work “staged” the instance; for Dalena, she was able to “capture” instances as it they was when the girl (subject) recalled them during set interviews, candid quips, and as an idea passing. Dalena’s work is also different from Ortiz, as on the latter, the hand of the artist is obvious; on the previous, the heart (or the direct involvement with the subject) of the artist cannot be denied. [SLIDE8]

Other artists are more reflexive in their subjects. In 2011, Mideo Cruz’s POLETEISMO

was plagued with controversy. It was an old installation work that was re-staged at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Cruz used images of celebrities from politics, showbiz and other enterprise; images and icons of religion; sculptures of phallus and condoms; and mirrors and text. Conservative Catholics were angered by his choice of images, or more precisely, how he put together the sacred and the profane on the same canvas. [SLIDE9] But the bigger story happened when the media hyped the issue until it blew out of control and proportion. As in any other media frenzy, the steam soonfizzled out, the religious went back to kneeling, and the artists went back to their studios. Cruz on the other hand, soon after, came out with a series of works entitled PRIMETIME. He painted patterns similar to Victorian wall rugs or wallpapers, and placed different animals or human forms suggestive of their power and allusion to media. Visually, Cruz’s series after the “storm” was almost cute. But according to the artist, the event was so traumatic he had to exorcise himself by reflecting on how the controversy is not about Catholics, his work, or art in general, “but about media having a feast while the carcasses are still fresh.”

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Art as medium. “Art as medium” is one of my most favorite topicswhen dealing with art. It is the most challenged and the most explored by contemporary Filipino artists. Physical –There are artists who obviously work with the physicality of material to create different forms of expression. Leeroy New, among the youngest artists in the country, have captured the attention of many audiences, including those outside art circles. New uses light industrial materials like plastic hoses, plastic ties, and metal studs to create creatures and characters that are stories within themselves, was used as fashion markers and sculptures or elements of installation. [SLIDE10]

In the same materiality but different motivation, Mark Salvatus created his C-RAFT, a raft made out of empty water bottles, wheel interior and other floaters, accented with crates, boxes and beach umbrella. These kitschy pieces of sculpture took its inspiration from DIY vehicle that people of Manila created and use as transportation during monsoon season, where flooding can also be expected. [SLIDE11]

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Sensorial –In 2013, Ringo Bunoan, another Filipina artist created IN ADVANCE OF THINGS WE CANNOT SEE. It is an exhibit of smell, wherein she lights incense before the gallery opens, do it again the next day, and let the audience experience “the work”. Even at the time the exhibit has been “uninstalled” the “work” lingers. This is not exactly about the scent of incense but what the artist associates with it. This work was a staging of hoe she was reminded of her journey in Nepal and Thailand and how that trip allowed her to reflect on her spirituality. In this view, we then reflect that senses can extend beyond or could go deeper within the body. It could be an ethereal manifestation, or something known beyond physical but still within the self. [SLIDE12]

There are many Filipino artists who work with sound and taste. However, I am reserving a discussion exclusively on sound for another essay; while artists who work with taste is something that I have not sufficient research yet, but are already on agenda in the coming years. Conceptual or quintessential–Two of my current favorite artists, Yason Banal and Eisa Jocson works with the brain or concept as a medium.

In the 1990s, while we were still students at the University, Banal walked around the U.P. Campus wrapped with what seemed to be lard and plastic wrap. Much later in practice, actually just last year, Banal developed interest in indigenous textile. His exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, titled A BLANK STARE DEAR ABSTRACT, on the surface, looks like a cross between a modeling portfolio (where good looking young artists modeling the indigenous textile in an unconventional fashion) and a textile display, comparable to an edgy ethnographic exhibit. In this show Yason borrowed the language of glossy magazine and made it to communicate with the ethnic material culture aesthesis. The agenda is obviously not adaptation nor to contemporize.

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I appraise that the intelligence of this work lies on the ability of the artist to create a visual gibberish (and I use this term in a good way) and not to apologize about it. [SLIDE13-14]

With a different inclination from Banal, but with somewhat a similar presentation, Eisa Jocson for several years now has been workingon the culture of exotic dancing/dancer. Her most recent was an exhibit; workshop and performance at the Vargas Museum called PHILIPPINE MACHO ACADEMY (PMA). The show was comprised of illustration of macho dancer steps, dance notation, paraphernalia for dancing, a video where she is filmed dancing. She performed and gave a workshop on “how it is done,” on scheduled dates of the exhibit run. This is a multi-layered work. It has used the acronym PMA was an intended allusion to the Philippine Military Academy, which is the bastion of machismo in the country. Hence, hints that the work awaits discussions on this line. On the one hand, macho dancer is part of something called “the service industry”. The Philippines, being an ultra-Catholic state, categorizes this type of industry as a sinful, taboo, illegal and profane. On another hand, amongst those who are within this industry, consciously or subconsciously they build their own aesthetics, a concept of expertise, either for the purpose of advancement or survival. This work therefore is not about dance or movement; it maps out the politics of the body and excavates the layers of the systems where it operates. [SLIDE15-17]

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All artists work with concepts. But these two latter do not only use their concept as an inspiration, as subject or motivation. The concept is their art. When their exhibits are dissected and viewed in more traditional gaze, it might still work. Each piece may still be considered art, but it was not what they are communicating. They are communicating a whole system of thought. HOW ART? The survey stated above is based on the principle of three hows: It is art by how it reaches the audience. For example, in Lyra Garcellano’s comic series ATOMO AND WEBOY, the familiarity to the medium draws the audience to recognize the work and to put it conveniently in the box labeled as art. Her portraits, wherein Garcellano cos-plays pop fashion (i.e. K-Pop, J-Pop, P-Pop, HipHop, nerds, etc) the association is a bit more difficult because this particular series should be treated as a conceptual work. Then again, since the medium is photography, it can well be placed in the box labeled as art. [SLIDE18-19]

This reading should never be confused however that Garcellano’s work are neither easy nor superficial. Garcellano’s works are issue laden and reflexive. While the rest of the so-called “smart art” alienates the audience by making them feel that “art is something difficult to understand” Garcellano capitalizes on wit, humour and playfulness that lend a semblance of inclusiveness, with a strong undercurrent commentary.

It is art by how it affects. I would like to use Kat Palasi THE LAST PINE TREE, wherein she documented the Cordillera in photography to show how our summer capital, which used to be a city forest, is no different from the concrete jungle we have now in the metro cities. The series is obviously a critique and it is meant to trigger an action-reaction or at least awareness-reaction. [SLIDE 20]

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Cian Dayrit created the fake-mythology he called BLABLA. He created maps, “artifacts”, textual reference and timeline that “reconstructed” the lost civilization of BlaBla. The narrative is so complete that often argument of the authenticity arises. It is a topic of argument that should not happen in the first place because BlaBla is a made up civilization, therefore altogether not authentic. Nonetheless, these arguments show how audience was affected by the work, so much as to believe that they were real. [SLIDE 21]

The final degree of how is more exclusive to the artists. It is how the works are made or the process of creation. There are Filipino contemporary artists who consider the process of creating as part of their work.

Jose John Santos III is perhaps one of the most well-known artists of his generation. I

had the privilege of curating his most recent solo titled CONFERTUM, COLLECTING CROWDS. For the show, Santos expressed how he would want the audience to appreciate the process that his work has gone through. He wanted the decisions he made manifested in the works. For the artist therefore, art is not just the art (output) but the whole process. The work here is not simply a painting of staged subject. This photo came from an actual cabinet. When he moved things in his studio, he saw this exact image. Creation, for Santos, therefore is in recognizing possibilities for production and making decisions on which to include and which to ignore. [SLIDE 22]

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Another interesting example of this is Buen Calubayan’s un-exhibited RACELAPS.

Calubayan started logging his numbers (time, plate numbers) of his transit from his house to the National Museum of the Philippines where he worked as a researcher. While that day job forced Calubayan into taking a hiatus from painting, he considered the logging as his artwork. It is a process of movement. At the time of writing, the artist is still exploring on how this artwork will ever end; how it will be exhibited or presented if it will ever be. [SLIDE23]

WHY ART THOU?

This is perhaps the most complex of all the questions because it combines the who, when and where of contemporary art. It could be over-simplified by saying: it is art because they said so or because we say so. “They” and “we” are operative pronoun of entitlement that is usually reserved to very few sectors, namely, the acamedia or schools, the market or galleries, and the creatives, which includes an assortment of artists, curators and writers. For the first two sectors, weeding is easily reasoned—for academia, if it becomes part of the lessons, then it is art; for the market, if it is sold, then it is art.

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In the recent past, perhaps just a couple of years, a new trend became acceptable and famous for the Manila art scene—commercial art galleries are partnering with established museums. Don Salubayba’s final show at the Vargas Museum is a product of this partnership—between the university museum and Tin-Aw Gallery; Santos’ recent solo with ArtInformal, also at Vargas Museum; Roberto Robles with Gallery Duemila at Ateneo Art Gallery, etc. [SLIDE24]

I will not go as far as critiquing this trend. In contrary I would like to expound on how

this system generates more art at present. Commercial galleries have resources and network; established museums have machinery and imprimatur. Ideally, this ideal set-up leaves the artist and his curator with one task, and that is to create art, instead of worrying about other stuff (like funding, invitations, etc.). The ideal does not always happen, but it resembles a certain type of order that is so far accepted by a good number of practitioners in the country because the system persists unchallenged (at least not openly).

The challenging part of finding the why of art is when we try to explain coming from the perspective of practitioners. Thinking on this line, in the past 4 years, Bunoan (the same artist curator mentioned above), has been working on the Chabet Archive. It is a digitized archive under HongKong’s Asia Art Archive that documents the work and life of Roberto Chabet. I thought about it because somewhat archiving or archive brings a certain sense of terminality or at least a denouement. I am just thinking now, or maybe further proposing, that if the peers consider your work, thoughts, ideas, documentation of process, among other things is worth keeping, maybe that is the why of art, because it only means you are relevant now, and beyond your own now. [SLIDE25]

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WHERE’S THE ARTIST? …AND WITH THIS I CONCLUDE MY ESSAY

This long narrative is not just an attempt to present a new survey. My essay also proposes a new way of reading through the contemporary art as a movement that is not a cause but an effect—particularly an effect of the artist’s intention to participate in dialogues that are happening in societies. I refuse to confine the discussion within the realm of culture, because I feel that more than cultural actors, artists are social being, social characters that have long been a puzzle to many.

In a heated forum that happened in 2011, from the same controversy that tried Mideo Cruz, a member of the Catholic legion said: “You people…”. And the rest of his oration was a blur, and actually irrelevant to our present discussion. What is striking though is that he refers to artists as people outside his own kind. It is a very short loaded phrase that had all the layers of mapping the place of the artists in our present society. One might argue that that person who spoke might just be one of the many, but it can be counter argued that the context of the occasion birthed the analysis that I just articulated.

The long and short of this is that in the Philippines, contemporary art may be deemed more than just a parade of exhibits or performances. It is an ongoing movement that brings together people of different generation, persuasion and motivation in connection to society. And while I limited the sampling within those who practice within the archipelago, it is worth noting that these artists have transcended geopolitical boundaries. Most of them, if not actually all of them, have had experience residencies, exhibition, performance, and talks in other countries, more than once. They continuously build and nurture relationships with artist and art beyond the Philippines. And the best part is, artists are rhetorically immortal (or at least they think so). An opportunity to do art in a place where Philippine government has political dispute, environmental tragedy, economic turmoil or whatever unchartered territory, is an opportunity to do more, learn more, to challenge self, and perhaps come up with a punchline that has not been delivered before.This says so much that artists are not just image-makers, they are committed to this conversation, we call society. DayangYraola Curator, Philippines dyraola@gmail.com 16 June 2014