By Amanda Juico Dela Cruz
Days are becoming brighter and longer, a natural indication of summer. People are confining themselves indoors to avoid intense heat. The media has included heat index in their daily reportage. Light and its byproduct have become present to a notable degree in our day to day. Artists used the same elements in their works. Contemplation and meditation were done to achieve wisdom. Different takes on photography were presented. Familiar lived experiences were defamiliarized.
Jomari Caya, Blendo, Rie Martin, Angelica Regala, Matina Partosa, Roxanne Richermoso, Ping Salvador, and Mercedes Cabral. “Here, Still.” Super Duper Gallery.
Growth happens in stillness. The works of art are the artists’ contemplation on their lives at rest, but instead of stagnation, there is movement. These growths or movements are evident in their visual narratives: Turmoil is happening from within the Self. Everyday movements are savored with the breath in synchronicity. Choices are thought of over and over until a decision is made. Wings are cut as a cue for a deep transformation. The artists’ collective realization is a proof that stillness is an integral part of life, not merely a form of escape. In Zen Buddhism, wisdom rises from stillness.
Celine Lee. “The Brightest Part.” MO_Space.
Photographs of the most mundane objects of the everyday—grillwork, walls, leaves, bed—printed onto mirrors. Captured right when the sun reaches the object’s surface, the brightest parts in the photographs are erased with the aid of technology. Arranged at the central area of the space with gallery lights illuminating the works of art, the reflections on the white walls are akin to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The shadows become the reality, or are they really? This question must be asked as these works of art extend from the mirrors to the walls, defying our artistic understanding of space.
Stephanie Frondoso and Pinky Urmaza. “With Kind Regards.” Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery.
The works replicate the experiences of receiving and sending, and of writing and reading handwritten letters. These experiences “solved” by digitalization. Putting together letters by strangers Urmaza bought from flea markets, thrift stores, and Etsy, she owns these collages as her personal intentions are embedded in her organization. These strangers’ artifacts reveal their personality through penmanship and their musings through crossed out words. Frondoso mimics the slow process of snail mail through a cameraless photographic process called chlorophyll printing. Letters sent to her are printed on leaves, reminding her of the falling leaves in her walks looking for a mailbox.
Red Salonga. “Outside, Looking In.” Pintô Art Museum.
An onlooker gets a glimpse of someone else’s life through a window. The onlooker remains a spectator. The glimpse gives nothing but a superficial knowledge of the Other’s life. The window keeps both the onlooker and the subject distant from each other, isolated within the confines of their own realities. Narratives can be written out of the body language of the human figures, their heads a box instead. But an onlooker will never know the truths behind them. If given the chance to know more, these are curated narratives. How much about the Other does one have to know anyway?
Eloi Hernandez. “Take Over.” UP Vargas Museum.
Nature is taking over the abandoned corners of a built environment for learning. Once occupied by buzzing students, the University of the Philippines-Diliman is now filled with traces of nature’s wrath, vines wrapping itself around electric posts and public sculptural works, a herd of sheep roaming around the main roads, a dog slumbering on a quiet corner, and a cat taking over the Oval as if it is ruling the world. It is in the same way that digital photography and Instagram are ruling the world of photography. The photographs were taken through an iPhone camera in the square orientation.
Jessica Dorizac. “Decorative Disposition.” Project Space Pilipinas.
Colors, shapes, spaces, patterns, and textures are engaged through layering, juxtaposition, and organization. Some of these are aesthetic elements found in nature, while some are from built environments. Each work of art in the exhibition is, in fact, a work of meditation on the very stylistic features of the art: how each element stands on its own, how it interacts with other elements, and how it eventually affects the entire composition. The well-thought-out compositions urge the audience to spend time with the works as each piece defamiliarizes us from the sights, tastes, and figures that we are very familiar with.
