Seemingly mundane objects when layered with meaningful elements could become a statement. Objects from the past curated for the present audience could mean something for the future.

Written by Amanda Juico Dela Cruz
Images courtesy of the galleries
April 27, 2023

Seemingly mundane objects when layered with meaningful elements could become a statement. Objects from the past curated for the present audience could mean something for the future. While things from the present could be reimagined to warn, envision, or mourn for what the future could be like. Exhibits featured this month travel in different temporal realities to make a statement of what the living generation must do. 

Antoni Muntadas, “Muntadas: Exercises on Past and Present Memories”, Ateneo Art Gallery.

By the entrance is a map of the Philippines showing the critical points in its colonial history. Then, ceramic plates manufactured in Seville are the center pieces of the first project. On it are illustrations of invasive plants alluding to the effect of colonization. Next, are coins and medallions fabricated in Seville to pay homage to the unnamed migrant Filipinos. Last are mantóns de Manila embroidered in Lumban depicting key events from Philippine history. These goods were in demand during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. Using these goods and layering them with elements from history, memories from the past are relived.

From left to right: Malas Hierbas Wall from Muntadas: Exercises on Past and Present Memories at Ateneo Art Gallery (2021 iteration). Photo by Clefvan Pornela; Exhibition Shot of “Portable Monuments to Anonymous Emigrant Filipino Workers” from Muntadas: Exercises on Past and Present Memories at Ateneo Art Gallery (2021 iteration). Photo by Clefvan Pornela.

“Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth”, Installation Shots, 2023. Photo courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.

Patty Chang, Agnes Denes, Josh Kline, Lui Medina, Issay Rodriguez, Derek Tumala, Deniz Tortum, Kathryn Hamilton, and Bartolina Xixa, “Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth”, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design.

The flooded world in Josh Kline’s film is not a matter of if but of when given the scientific data. Deniz Tortum and Kathryn Hamilton’s film essay on peopling the world again could be the answer to this planetary crisis. Artists suggest adaptations while remembering one’s oneness with Earth: Patty Chang cleans a dead whale with care.  Issay Rodriguez records sound data of bees working. Lui Medina memorializes her reimagined landscapes.  Derek Tumala warns through his sculpture of an open-pit mine. Bartolina Xixa goes back to indigenous knowledge. Agnes Denes shows how commitment can save what can still be saved.

Clockwise from top left: Agnes Denes “Tree Mountain — A Living Time Capsule — 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years”, 1992–1996, 2019–2022, Single-channel digital video, 4:27 min. Produced by The Shed, New York; Patty Chang “Invocation for a Wandering Lake, Part I”, 2015–2016, Two channel video (color, sound), cardboard bifold panels, 12 min 48 sec. Courtesy of the artist and BANK/MABSOCIETY; Derek Tumala “What Looks Like Burning is Not Really Burnt, 2023, (detail) Papier-mâché, 61 x 76.5 x 37 cm; Lui Medina “Untitled (Bobbio II), 2021, (detail), Digital C-print, 112.45 x 168.8 cm; Bartolina Xixa “Ramita Seca, La Colonialidad Permanente” (Dry Twig, The Permanent Coloniality), 2019, HD video, color, sound, 5:07 min. Courtesy of Maximilano Mamani/Bertolina Xixa; Issay Rodriguez “Song of Increase”, 2023 (detail), Hive recordings, sound terminal; Josh Kline “Adaptation”, 2019-2022, Single-channel video projection, 10 min 45 sec. Courtesy the artist and 47 Canal, New York; Deniz Tortum & Kathryn Hamilton “Our Ark”, 2021, Digital Cinema Packaging (DCP), HD, 12 min 35 sec, color, language and subtitle in English. Courtesy of the artist and Firat Sezgin for Institute of Time, Ecegul Bayram for Institute of Time.

Jonathan Madeja, Mac Eparwa, and Maralita, “Martsa”, Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea.

At the center of the exhibition space is an installation of books that seem to be balancing on metal rods which foundation is a cemented block. Theses are often seen in parking space as poles for chains or as makeshift cones to avoid the space from being occupied. On one wall are  familiar depictions of human experience—the punishment prevalent in public schools. On another wall are paintings of haunting surrealist scenes of human fate. And then there is a painting of a human figure in school uniform riding a carabao wearing a sort of mask of the US flag.

“Martsa” Installation shots. Courtesy of Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea.

Jan Balquin, “the song of a bird that fell in love with its cage”, MO_Space.

A triptych is connected by a roll of canvas. The series of paintings depict the roll of canvas in the same exhibition space as it unrolls from right to left. The first one shows only the rolled canvas. The second shows the canvas unrolled and the first painting. The third shows the canvas further unrolled and the first two paintings. The result: the image of the object and the object of the image. By deconstructing its essence—adding dimension with the roll of canvas—it transcends being a painting. But to expose this is to go back to painting it.

“the song of a bird that fell in love with its cage” installation shots courtesy of MO_Space

Rocky Cajigan, “The Culling of The Flock”, ArtInformal.

A shirt reminiscent of the one worn by Mindanaoan indigenous peoples hangs from a stainless steel rack. Nothing out of the ordinary except that butcher hooks are used to hang the clothing piece in the orientation that confronts the viewer, mimicking an open-arm gesture. Locks of human hair are sewn on the hems of the clothing piece that is actually made of Guatemalan ikat textile, similar to Cordillerans’. There are wood-carved hands peeking through the shirt sleeves. Wooden hands, human hair, and butcher hooks are recurring elements in the exhibition. Elements of indigenous cultures are also embedded in each work.

“The Culling of The Flock” installation shots

Ronan Cruz, Red Salonga, and Siegfred Mendoza, “Seeing Through the Haze”, White Walls Gallery.

There is graphite on board work of a short-haired woman turning away from the viewer. One can get a glimpse of her lashes. Half of her hair is tied up. On the wall adjacent is a series of oil on canvas depicting half naked human figures with blue-tone gray skin. They have rocks as heads instead. In two works, these figures are conjoined forming a single rock. The last series of works are acrylic on canvas depicting human-like figures wearing traditional Japanese clothing. In one work, tree branches emerge from the clothing piece. In another, fire rises from the fabric.

From left to right: Red Salonga “Help Me Understand I”, Ronan Cruz “Harken”, Siegfred Mendoza “Otherself”