Art Fair Philippines 2017
Last February 16, me and my friends decided to visit the opening day of Art Fair Philippines 2017. Here are some of our photos in the venue.
The gallery that I chose to feature here in my account is CANVAS
Canvas is a non-profit organization that works with the creative community to promote children’s literacy, explore national identity and broaden public awareness of Philippine art, culture and the environment. For their this years entry to Art Fair Philippines, they decided to create a gallery showcasing the idea of living in a megacity like Metro Manila. The role of Metro Manila in the history and future of the country, as well as its impact of it to individuals and organizations is obvious and undeniable but it does not actually say that MM stand alone for the Filipino identity. They will never claim that understanding Manila alone is sufficient in order to know what it means to be a Filipino but a genuine and complete understanding of what it means to be Filipino is not possible without having a feel of the pulse and spirit of the megacity of Manila. That’s what this gallery would like to share its audience. Personally, the vibe of the gallery is very realistic and true-to-life since most of the what the arts in this gallery would like to convey is the actual way of life that Manila has for everyone. The artists who contributed in this gallery are John Paul Antido, Arturo Sanches Jr., Daniel dela Cruz, Renz Baluyot, Dante Lerma, Daniel Aligaen, Edrick Daniel, Dennis Fortozo, Guerrero Habulan, Joven Mansit, Jaypee Samson, Pogs Samson, Arcel Antonio, J Pacena II and Liv Vinluan.
Ang Patuloy na Pag-Usad ng Lipunang May Sayad by SANGVIAJE (various artists)
The title of this painting says it all. The painting would like to convey the continuous progression and success of Manila and Philippines despite of its rotten/toxic citizens, controversies, socio-political issues and other problems that it’s facing nowadays. Despite all of these things that our society has to deal with, it has still managed to make even a little but continuous improvements in is system. for example, Philippines is the fastest growing economy in SouthEast Asia by 7% in the year 2016.
Down town by John Paul Antido
This painting shows the usual daily situation or happenings in a typical Filipino neighborhood. Houses are usually very close to one another that’s why residents are also very close and friendly to the person living right next door. There’s the usual teenager who did nothing but to comb her heir and fix herself. There’s an akyat-bahay boy who tries to sneak in one of the windows to steal. In the rooftop, there’s a Juan Tamad lying down while watching his neighbors and there’s an industrious manang vendor fixing his products stall on the lower right corner. There’s a rooster to who’s ready to make chicken noise anytime, a lady picking a fruit from the tree, a mother holding a sandok (maybe cooking their lunch), a guy busy reading the morning newspaper and a half-naked lady on the upper left corner who just woke up after sex.
Sa Sentro ng Imperyo by Renz Baluyot
The subject for the “Sa Sentro ng Imperyo” is the old Malacañang Palace, the center of power of the metropolis from the past until the present. Most people seem to think, mistakenly, that Manila is Philippines. Hence, the phrase “Imperial Manila”. The title of the work can easily be misread from “imperyo” (imperial) to “impyerno” (hell). Based from history, Manila can became chaotic, spiritual, dirty, divine, gritty and gorgeous all at once, of course depending on its leader, its people, the current situation and the timing of experiencing Manila itself. Some may treasure it as gold, some may also regard it as their living hell.
Meanwhile, here are the two Filipino contemporary artist that I chose: WSK and Ronald Ventura
WSK
The theme of this special exhibition is more on showcasing robotic instruments and cybernetic sound machines. WSK believes that art is not merely a mirror, it is also a hammer. It’s underlying foundation principle that they used, which led them to the name “wasak” or “shattered” in english translation. That’s where the name WSK came from. This group’s mantra is to have room for innovation and make space for cross-pollination of science, art and many other fields. This is one thing that I like about WSK — their idea of art is not just only boxed on the artistic concept but they would also like to incorporate other aspects that make up human’s daily life like science. In order to achieve that mantra, they have to break things and remake them. And yes, there are lots of interesting objects present inside this special exhibition. There are revived old video games machine, holographic images produced by a small screen, recorded voices on a cassette which were re-cut into new patterns, records shattered and pressed into mosaics, and discarded devices rebuilt into new instruments.
Wall of Sound
One art work that made this special exhibition very unique is their RELAY Robot Orchestra, the country’s first human-robot orchestra. It’s also known by the art fair visitors as the “Wall of Music”. The exhibitors encourages the visitors to play and touch the metallic wall to produce a robotic sound. Anyone may touch the wall and stay playing as long as he wanted. Most of the people just passing by would get curious and eventually stop and spend a few moments trying to make the wall sound as they see other visitors playing DJs with the metallic wall. The term “relay” carries with the history of technology, as in sending messages where people participate in a continuing specific action. Consistent with its definition, the Wall of Sound involves robotic sounds that showcase different ranges of timbres and sonic interventions that the pieces (made by the different by-passers) incorporate. The rhythms and algorithms that make up each performance and interaction are never repeated that’s why every performance is unique.
I find this exhibit one of the most distinctive since the exhibit that WSK had was very interactive and engaging, compared to other exhibit where you would only look and walk from painting to painting (since visitors are not allowed to touch anything, especially the artworks). The Wall of Sound was actually the center of attraction in that particular exhibit because it was really made to attract audience interaction and captivate full viewer-to-art engagement/participation. This is the kind of exhibit that I love, personally.
Ronald Ventura’s Shadow Forest: Encounters and Explorations
The theme of this special exhibition is inclined more on what are usually seen in the wild/forests (like animals and nature). His chosen theme discussed about human’s animalistic side, life journey, ideals and achievements. All of his art forms are in digital art, printed on Hahnemuhle FineArt Paper. Compared to the other galleries, this one is different and rare because what he has showcased in his gallery is digital art (a photo edited in a computer software) — far from what other galleries would usually showcase like paintings, photographs, industrial art, etc.) I would also like to commend his talent and beyond extraordinary photoshop skills for making and coming up with such realistic photos (as if his works are real photo shots and not edited at all).
Poison 2017
I think the message that this picture would like to convey is the negative idea behind the invention of poison. A human skull with two intersecting armbones below is the logo of poison that we got used to. But in this picture, the human skull was replaced with a dog skull instead because the idea of inventing a poison in the first place is not even humane, but rather evil and animalistic. Humans are usually one step ahead of animals because of its capability to be rational. But there are instances where humans tend to act unreasonably and would only rely on pure instinct to achieve what they need — a characteristic which is always associated to animals. Maybe because people sometimes behave like animals and breach the distinction (like the invention of poison, that’s why he decided to replace the human skull into an animal skull.
Beasty 2017
This picture is interesting because the way I see it, it is divided into two parts. If you try to cover the lower half of the picture, it shows a cute and soft-looking eyes of a fluffy cat but if you covered the other way around, the picture will be emphasizing the sharp fangs and gritting teeth of the cat, eliminating the cuteness factor. I believe the artwork just signifies that every animal or human has his own evil side waiting to be triggered or exposed anytime. It’s all up to the beholder from which angle he would want to perceive things and look at it.
Blacksheep
The message of this art can be similar to the first one where humans are no different from animals too. Because of the way people behave nowadays, they would eventually end up looking like animals since appearances reflect behaviors.
Most of audience attending this Art Fair are students (maybe required by their professors to attend the art fair), professionals (working girl/boy looking pips), foreigners (I thought there was a UN assembly during the art fair) and even actors/actresses (some saw John Lloyd Cruz and Iza Calzado in the fair). All of them seem to be very serious and taking their time while examining the works present in the art fair compared in the National Museum wherein kids would just pass by every painting without even knowing its title. they’re passing I also noticed that the visitors are all well off looking (not everyone but majority is financially capable, I assume). Of course, you wouldn’t be there if you do not have the capacity to buy since the prices of art works there are no joke at all (except for the student who were obliged to do their visit tho HAHA. you’ll know they’re required to do a reflection after it since they never stopped taking pictures at all even before leaving the venue, kahit di naman bumili). It’s my first time to attend such event and I am glad to say that I was able to make it a meaningful experience. I actually had a great time jumping from one gallery to another every few minutes even though it’s tiring since the venue is too far from my home and The Link Carpark is too big to be roamed around for so many times. Compared to our National Museum visit, this Fair is lighter and more enjoyable since the security guards are not that strict and killjoy. Art fair is also more visitor-friendly and engaging compared to the National Museum where you can’t even do a wacky pose. The artworks featured in the National museum are more traditional and historically inclined while in the Art Fair 2017, the artworks featured more creative and out of this world creations. In the art fair, artists can go beyond the limits since they are young and fresh but the artworks in the National Museum seemed to have a formula being followed when it comes to their masterpiece creations and bordered by the art standards before, maybe because of the time difference as well. In the National Museum, the usual audience that they’re having there are elementary kids, together with their parents (those who are having their school field trips). If I were to compare the local contemporary Philippine Art scene nowadays versus the arts I have seen in the National Museum, I must say that it has been transformed and evolved bigtime — from the style, medium, presentation, and even the subjects. Philippines may not have huge artforms like Great Wall of China but we should not be considered left behind because Filipinos are still great in doing small things with gigantic values and one proof of that is our local contemporary art scene today, which is continuously evolving and growing into full blossom.
Other artworks featured:
There goes my Art Fair Philippines 2017. Thank you for reading!
