DIGRESSIONS

An art exhibit featuring the latest artworks of
Allan Alcantara
Aaron Bautista
Carlos Totong Francisco II
Isidro Jon Santos

Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 6:30pm
Galerie Anna, 4/L, Artwalk Bldg. SM Megamall
Mandaluyong City 1605 Philippines
Will run until Sunday, August 15, 2010

In this show, four artists from Angono probes into the concept of straying away from the normative constraints of society and culture itself. “Digressions” is all about setting foot on a different path, and eventually giving birth to a new shape of perspective in thought. According to the artists, this concept of exploration and enlightenment is very essential to oneís development because without it, we remain fixed into a repetitive system of beliefs and further denies the existence of growth and philosophical maturity inside oneself. Our country, for example, has always been known for a traditional and conservative nature with regards to viewing everything, including art. Years of colonization had brought us superstitions, conventionality in clothing, especially for the women, religion, and even art itself. This is what the new breed of new Angono artists are trying to break, or perhaps penetrate, setting a hole which leads toward what is beyond. “We only want to make a statement on how we view the concept of art-making in a new perspective, retaining its familiar picture, but offering a new standpoint on how things should be understood and perceived” one of the painters explain. For all we know it, art has been invaded by formulas, a system of sellable styles, and even an outlook on how beauty and repulsiveness is judged and separated from each other. There are times when paintings are being measured by their decorative value as an architectural piece of design, or maybe restricted to mediums which should be used and employed. However, these are but rules set by man, and therefore, can also be broken by man himself. This is what the artists trying to breach, and through their own art, present a new angle on the presentation of such things. Itís all about testing the limits of something and breaking it repetitively, until it eventually shatters into an infinite form of pictured possibilities. And from these possibilities another set of standards would be born, which we must in time break into infinity again. It just simply proves that the metaphysics of evolution itself is strongly inspired by failure, experimentation, and straying away from what has been. The cycle goes on into an expanding circle until man reaches the end, or if there is an end.