MACHINAS

MACHINAS
First Solo Exhibit by Brendale Asinas Tadeo

NOVA GALLERY Manila, The Carlos Oppen Cojuangco Foundation, Rogue Media, and Art Cabinet Philippines proudly presents MACHINAS, a solo exhibit of mixed media works by contemporary visual artist Brendale Asinas Tadeo. The exhibit is curated by Ma. Victoria T. Herrera.

The Latin term machinas is often linked with the theatrical device deux ex machinas. Literally “god out of a machine,” it refers to the introduction of a person or an event that provides a sudden or unexpected solution to a problem. For Brendale, however, the role of machines is not unexpected or contrived, at least for the subjects he chose to represent.

Brendale is the first scholar of Art on the Verge, a scholarship program by Rogue Magazine and Art Cabinet Philippines to encourage the artistic development of emerging visual artists from ages 21 to 35 years old, to advance the development of Philippine contemporary visual art to an international level, and to promote Philippine contemporary art and visual artists to the public audience.

Born and raised in the town of San Antonio, Zambales, Brendale grew up learning the value of a good day’s work. Like the buses, jeepneys, bicycles, and tricyles that surround him everyday, he captures the human body as an instrument, a hardworking machine. Vehicles, even the simple pushcart or kariton, are painstakingly saved up for, built, and nurtured, by the bodies of those who operate them. The scenes could not be placed simply from “everyday” as the dripped patterns and textured background triggers a dreamlike setting.

In the Machinas series, Brendale plays on the level of personification that links the vehicle and the human body as one machine. He illustrates the stories of people and their interconnectedness with the machines that help sustain their lives. Layering images of the body and its innards with the machine, he refers to the sustenance they provide each other.

The people linked with these machines are no strangers. They are friends and relations he grew up with. Mana-mana series is a family album of sorts. He begins the series with two women peddling food from flat baskets (bilao) resting on their heads, both surviving from the strength of their own laboring bodies. These square format paintings depict how each family has treasured their old reliable machines like an heirloom. These are passed on to children until they could no longer bear the load of work that sustained a generation before.

Machinas runs from April 29 to May 21, 2010 at NOVA Gallery Manila, Warehouse 10 A, 2241 La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati. For more information on the exhibit, kindly contact 392 7797 and cocartprojectastrid @gmail.com. NOVA GALLERY Manila is open from 11 am to 7 pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays.


Photo credits: Elmer Borlongan