Two worlds: Exhibitions in November 2023

Exploring two different worlds could require grappling with their differences all while locating the intersection of the two.

Words Amanda Juico Dela Cruz
December 1, 2023

Photo from Silverlens Galleries

“World” is used to refer to the very space where humans live. It could also mean the temporal reality, as in the era that contained a life very different from the lives lived during other eras. It could mean the division between the gods and the mortals, between the waking world and what is entirely in the unconscious. The exhibitions featured this month grappled with two different worlds: The Philippines and the United Kingdom. The antiquated and the contemporary. The divine and the mundane. The dream world and the real world. The world where violence exists and the world where healing happens. The flora and fauna, and the urban spaces and the people. The artists grappled with their differences while locating the intersection of the two. 

“Parallel Histories: Moving Image from the Philippines and the United Kingdom”

Artists: Nick Deocampo, Angel Velasco Shaw, Tad Ermitańo, Poklong Andang, Bea Camacho, Tito & Tita, Alia Syed, George Barber, Rachel Lowe, Grace Ndiritu, and Margaret Salmon

Curator: Erwin Romulo | Metropolitan Museum of Manila

Photo from Metropolitan Museum of Manila

Works by filmmakers from the Philippines and the United Kingdom are juxtaposed to exhibit how the two countries grappled the dawn of the twenty-first century. Both were dealing with their political situations in the 1990s—the Philippines, still bruised from the Martial Law, was managing their newly-recovered democracy five years after the People Power Revolt; while the UK was adapting to the changes caused by Margaret Thatcher’s resignation after eleven years of leadership. In August of 1991, the World Wide Web was launched, creating a lasting effect globally. The works are testimonies to the confusions and imaginations of the era.

“Sip Slowly”
Artist: Arianna Bongato | White Walls Gallery

Photo from White Walls Gallery

Using geometrical shapes to censor certain elements in the paintings borrowed from the antiquated times has become her signature style. She makes statements through those erasures.  For this show, she referred to paintings by Frederic Soulacroix’s and Vittorio Reggianini’s romantic scenes with women as subjects—women who, as one can imagine, have their own beautiful tea rooms where one basks in afternoon sun while sipping slowly. The artist sets up in the exhibition space a tea table with beautiful tea pots and beautiful teacups, transforming the space into those scenes in Pinterest, a platform of today’s consumption and image manipulation.

“Women Meeting at the Sacred Grove”
Artist: Jill Paz | Artinformal

Photo from Artinformal

On the wall are pieces of gesso primed cardboard of Balikbayan boxes put together to create a whole image. Framed. The work, the image of which was carved by laser light pulses, shows what seems like the entrance of woods with tall trees towering over a group of human figures entering its density. The title suggests they are women and that the woods is sacred. Within the exhibition space are ceramic sculptures of female anito figures, as suggested by the breasts shaped in the sculptural works and by the titles. One is green-shino glazed, while the other is brown glazed.

“Dreams”
Artist: Manix Abrera | Galerie Stephanie

Photo from Galerie Stephanie

There are ghosts lurking around in a graveyard floating amidst the vastness of space. There is a door at the mountaintop where a figure is descending the steps. There is a character watching a blood moon projecting a silhouette of a pair of devilish wings. There is a spaceship containing a realm of urbanity—a “Writers Camp In Space,” its title said. These are some of the scenes from the artist’s dreams, but they are not in surrealistic depictions. Topsy-turvy settings and spirited characters, the magical and fantastic world of the artist is rendered like cartoon scenes or comic strips.

“Pagsulong: Breaking the Silence, Healing the Wounds”

Artists: Aba Lluch Dalena, Anda Montenegro, Carissa Pobre, Cheenee Buenaventura, Ciarra Flores, Danah Tatoy, Daryl Leyesa, Dietrootbeer, Donna Grimaldo, Elaine Lopez-Celemente, Elsie Dela Cruz, Gale, Grace Corpuz, Hazel Ramirez, Ja Turla, Julie Lluch, Kodak Babae, Laura Fermo, Len-len, Lilay, Lorna Lovelace, Mariel Sandico, Mika Perez, Ruth Elynia Mabanglo, Sandra Torrijos, Steffy Tad-y, Vida Soraya Versoza, Yana Ofrasio, Yllang Montenegro, and Yunis

Collective works: Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, Rural Women Advocates, and Gantala Press

Performers: Zeke, Ezabanda, Adri of Four Limbs Six hands, and Switchbitch

Anima Art Space and The O Home

Photo from Anima Art Space

Works of visual art, collective works, and performances by women artists and women-centered advocacy groups are curated in a show to support the cause of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The works refract women’s lived experiences of violence and fear. But the works also offer depictions of strength, resilience, and healing that come from breaking one’s silence. The show is a strong statement of the urgency of ending any form of violence against women. The show is an invitation to the guests to contemplate, empathize, and engage in initiatives, conversations, and stories of these women.

“A Tree is Not a Forest”
Artist: Geraldine Javier | Silverlens Galleries

Photo from Silverlens Galleries

Portraits: Maria Sibylla Merian for her scientific illustrations’ artistic merit and contribution to natural science. David Attenborough for taking the humanity to the most remote places of Earth. Jane Goodall for her intimate work with apes, locals, and environment. Leonard Co for curing plant blindness among urban settlers. Ecoprints: being an artist-farmer, she experimented with transferring the colors, shapes, and details of leaves and flowers onto fabric or paper. Embroideries: human skeletons rendered in lace-like patterns co-exist in the artist’s canvas with species whose death caused by human settlement. Fiction: the artist played god in creating futuristic flora and fauna.