VINTAGE VITALIS

REDISCOVERING MACARIO VITALIS

Manila connoisseurs and collectors have long known Macario Vitalis (1898 – 1989) for his pointillist paintings. The Alliance Française de Manille’s Total Gallery presents an exceptional exhibition of Vintage Vitalis drawings and paintings of the 30s to the 60s, curated by artists Ofelia Gelvezón-Téqui and Claude Tayag. Gelvezón-Téqui and Tayag, who knew Vitalis personally, felt that the creations of this period, relatively unknown in the Philippines, merited to be exhibited and appreciated.

Vitalis never kept a “stock” of his own works. The paintings and drawings presented by Alliance Française de Manille in the Vintage Vitalis exhibition are mostly drawn from private collectors who had, over a number of years, patiently sought them out in Flea Markets and auctions in France. The exhibition is not a retrospective but a select collection of works from this rich period of Vitalis’ life. The majority of the works are from the estate of Camille Renault, an important art patron who circulated in the French art circles and had recognized talent in Vitalis.

What is new and interesting in the Vitalis works of this period is his artistic evolution as he reacted and responded to the social and intellectual climate of France during the years before and after World War II. There are lyrical portraits and still lifes of his early period, as well as prismatic compositions and vibrant colors of the later years. The Vintage Vitalis exhibition portrays the many facets of Vitalis as he explored different artistic expressions until he arrived at Pointillism, familiar to us all.

Vintage Vitalis opens with an artist’s reception from 6:30 pm to 9 pm on Tuesday, March 1, 2011, at the Total Gallery of the Alliance Française de Manille. The exhibit runs until March 31, 2011. For high resolution images of the artworks and more details about the exhibit, kindly contact Mr. Earl Parco (AFM Cultural Officer) at 895 7441 / 895 7585 or email cultural@alliance.ph, or visit the AFM website at www.alliance.ph.

25TH ASIAN INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION HOMECOMING

LOVE LETTERS

Love Letters

Catalina Africa, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, Costantino Zicarelli, Lui Medina, Maria Jeona, Maya Munoz, Nikki Valenzuela, Paola Germar, Patricia Eustaquio, Ronald Caringal and Yasmin Sison

12 February – 27 March 2011

Is love something we still find necessary to articulate through the written word and how, in the 21st century do we communicate the complexity of this human emotion? Do thoughtful arrangements of language convey more eloquently the profound nature of love? Love letters, themselves, provide a trace of one’s intensions as tangible surfaces to handle and understand. As time passes this object d’art of affection can quickly transform into a treasured memory revisited with fondness or resentment as relationships unfold, change or end. As such these quotations from love stories past and present remind us of our humanity and the intrinsic need for passion, companionship and friendship. However, as handwritten letters become increasingly rare in today’s virtual society with communication reduced to casual words through emails, text messages and social networking platforms, what are the new forms of communicating love?

To once again celebrate this subject Manila Contemporary presents Love Letters, an exhibition that shares the visual languages of love as negotiated by contemporary art. A selection of artists have been invited to share their most intimate experiences and thought processes involved when expressing love for another person. Lifting moments from their personal and imagined autobiographies what emerges are alternative visual strategies that can be direct and intense or abstract and ambiguous. Statements that anticipate the poetic and romantic or sexually base and conflicted will potentially emerge. By playing with text or creating its own alternative visual structuring the exhibition brings together the commonalities of human love across diverse voices and media.

Sentiments of nostalgia and romance as well as longing, frustration and obsession are revealed in the first of a new trilogy of shows that looks at how artists visually communicate the language of three fundamental human emotions: love, hate and faith.

Further exhibitions in the series include Hate Mail, 2 July – 13 August and Confessions of a Sinner, 17 September – 9 October 2011.

Concurrently opening in the second floor gallery at Manila Contemporary is the solo exhibition Raptus: Lui Medina. Lui Medina will also be presenting work in Love Letters.

TOPAK

The University of the Philippines Vargas Museum will open Topak, all in the mind on 22 February 2011, Tuesday, 4 in the afternoon at the Basement of the Vargas. Participating artists include Riel Hilario, Simkin de Pio, Anton del Castillo, Elmer Roslin, Jeric Sadullo, Sherwin Coronado, Jerson Samson and Julius Samson. Artists in this exhibition find common ground - each has suffered anxiety, depression, stress, or trauma in the past seven years, disrupting their artistic practice. This psychological disorientation is topak.

The project provides an alternative space where artists can dialogue and where experiences can converge. With the process of artmaking and exhibition as platform, episodic experiences of topak are recounted to confront the social stigma attached to it.

Drawing on the complexity of the emotion, participating artists work on images that represent their struggles and negotiations during such an encounter. While translating their struggles in visual form, the project reflects on artistic process as psychological, cathartic, and to some extent, spiritual.

Topak runs until 15 March 2011. For more information, please contact the Vargas at (+632) 928-19-27, (+632) 981-85-00 loc. 4024, (+632) 928-19-25 (fax), or e-mail vargasmuseum@gmail.com. Please visit www.vargasmuseum.wordpress.com for more details.

SINING AT KALIKASAN

Isang makakalikasang pagbati po sainyo!

Earth Day Network Philippines (EDNP) is a network organization with a total membership of 2,032 organizations nationwide from government, LGU’s, business, church and civil society organizations. It is, by far, the largest environmental network that works and collaborates with the public and private sector to effect change particularly on areas where the environment is affected.

On the other hand, Earth Day Network Philippines, Inc. (EDNPI), a duly registered NGO with the Securities & Exchange Commission, supports the administrative work of the EDNP. It coordinates the annual Earth Day celebration in the country and acts as a liaison with Earth Day International. Moreover, it is responsible for partnering with government agencies particularly the Department of Environment & Natural Resources which has accredited it as one of the boda fide NGO in the environmental advocacy.

February marks the celebration of the Arts’ Month in the country. In line with this, EDNPI is having a fundraising event entitled “Sining at Kalikasan”. The goals of the said auction are 1) to support the environmental advocacy of Earth Day Network Philippines, Inc. and, 2) to become an instrument in the promotion of the arts and artists who support Mother Earth. It will feature artworks of well-known artists like Hernando Ocampo, Lee Aguinaldo, Prudencio Lamarroza, Manny Baldemor, Juvenal Sanso, Jonahmar Salvoza, Heber Bartolome, Manny Garibay to name a few as well as contemporary and young artists.

A week-long preview with Silent Auction shall be held from February 21 to 25, 2011, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at No. 43 Hillside Loop, Blue Ridge A, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City; while the Art Auction shall be on February 26, 2011, Saturday, 6 p.m. also at the aforementioned address. We would like to be included in your magazine's listings of art events. Thus, I have attached with this email the event's Media Release (inclusive of a teaser catalog, the auction programme and a PR blurb) in pdf format for your reference and perusal.

If you have questions and further information, please feel free to contact us through the details provided below.

Thank you and we hope for your positive response.

Marie Charmaine S. Alvarez
Secretariat Staff
Earth Day Network Philippines
National Ecology Center, East Ave.,
Brgy. Central, Diliman, Quezon City
(+632) 332-6030
+63915 971 0128
www.earthdayphilippines.org

ART IN THE PARK

Ready to go on a treasure hunt for some cool art work at a price you can afford? See you at ART IN THE PARK! Save the date: February 19, Saturday, at the Jaime Velasquez Park in Salcedo Village from 2PM to 10PM. Lots of interesting pieces await you!

LENORE RS LIM – FULL CIRCLE

Lenore RS Lim - Full Circle
A Retrospective Exhibition
On view at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Main Gallery
February 17 - April 24, 2011

Opening Reception: February 17 6:00 PM


Internationally renowned artist Lenore RS Lim, a Filipino printmaker based in New York & Vancouver will present a twenty-year retrospective of her art.

The major exhibit of more than 70 pieces of work will include her early prints crafted from carborundum, collotypes, solar etching, monotype from plexiglass markings, xerography transfers, etchings, serigraphy, to solar intaglio, computer processing, inkjet enlargements, lithography, chine colle and giclee works based on her nature & nostalgia series. Lenore’s most recent work with images using brushes and ink on rice paper will be also on display.

Lenore has a long history of experimenting with ways to expand her horizons as an artist, particularly with technology not necessarily intended for use by artists. This inclination has led her to new formats for the output of her work. This move towards experimenting with how the flatbed printer, digital color correction as well as hanging work unframed, and transporting it in scrolls has allowed her to think beyond the traditional processes.

Among the art pieces, a number were done in collaboration with Master Printmaker Devraj Dacoji and colleague Ana Golici of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop as well as with graphic artist, Wally Rodriguez and digital print technician Paul Plaine of Plaine & Chamberlaine Studio in White Plains NY Lenore, however, has found herself most comfortable and most successful using more traditional printmaking techniques which are reliant on craft and the use of the press. She is a committed printmaker and fully respectful of the laborious origins and purity of printmaking.

Highly regarded in the Philippines, having received the Presidential Award, specifically the Pamana ng Pilipino Award, for Filipino overseas, for her accomplishments in the arts, Lenore enjoys a growing audience of collectors in the United States, where she was awarded a prestigious Jackson Pollock-Lee Krasner Foundation Grant, among other honors. In addition to showing at galleries and museum worldwide, Lim represented the Philippines in OPEN, the International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, in Venice, Italy in 2002, alongside other representative from other countries including Yoko Ono, Marissa Mertz, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Mari Jo Lafontaine.

Her work is included in the U.S. Library of Congress and the private collection of Agnes Gund, among others. Ms. Gund penned the foreword to her monograph Profound Afterglow: The Prints of Lenore RS Lim, published by Reyes Publishing in 2005. Anges Gund, Chairman and President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan commented: "Rarely does one in the art world have the opportunity to discover an artist who is as pure and as talented as Lenore RS Lim"

SALUYSOY: ROBERTO M.A. ROBLES RETROSPECTIVE

The career of ROBERTO M.A. ROBLES (b. 1957) spans thirty years, during which time he has exhibited in the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, and the U.S.A. A Retrospective is an important milestone in an artist’s career - a time to look back over their work and give due credit, but more importantly, to define their place within art history. It is an honor granted to only few artists, and recognizes their immense contribution to the culture of a nation.

This retrospective titled, Saluysoy, which literally means “an eternal spring / where the stream starts” in the Southern Tagalog dialect, captures the spirit of Roberto M.A.Robles’ abstract sculptures and paintings and offers a point from which we too can grow in our appreciation of his unique language of abstraction. Showing at the Ateneo Art Gallery through 23 April 2011, the exhibition has been curated by the international art writer Gina Fairley, and has been organized in collaboration with Galleria Duemila, Inc.

The retrospective includes 80 artworks by this outstanding artist, from large outdoor sculptures to intimate assemblages from Robles’ early career. What makes this exhibition different from most survey exhibitions is that one third of the artworks have never been exhibited publicly before. They are rare treasures from the artist’s archive shown for the first time by Ateneo Art Gallery, and broaden our understanding of this complex and mature artist.

The curator has designed the exhibition to take viewers on a journey - one that starts as a “Sculpture Walk” in the gardens surrounding the Rizal Library Special Collections Building, and then moves through the various genres of Robles art making, from his boxed assemblages that won him the prestigious Grand Prize for Mixed Media in the Art Association of the Philippines Open Art Competition in 1986, to his pure minimal paintings and sculptures often referred to as embracing a Zen aesthetic, to Robles’ bright abstractions that excite through their playful use of color, gesture and material. It is a diverse and surprising journey. As the curator says, “The exhibition leads viewers to a place where they can consider their own definitions of beauty and meditations on nature. It is both humbling and energizing.” Saluysoy promises to be an extremely sensitive and thought provoking exhibition.

What sets Roberto M.A Robles work apart from the many artists of his generation is his embrace of experimental techniques - to constantly search for new visual languages by using unconventional materials such as cardboard, thread and jute; in the blending of industrial painting with acrylic, oil and oriental ink washes or the notion of 3-dimensional drawing in his stone sculptures, deceivingly simple in their forms they are technically very difficult pieces, some taking up to a year to sculpt. Robles is a Master of many mediums with unbelievable focus.


Often perceived as raw or “unfinished”, the art of Roberto M.A Robles has a lot to teach us. He is probably one of the least understood artists of our times, despite inspiring a generation of younger artists. This exhibition offers an opportunity to unravel the enigma and to better understand the place he holds within the tenants of Philippine Abstraction.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published with the assistance of Vibal Foundation. The opening reception will include a program of talks and performances of traditional Korean and Japanese musicians. All are welcome.

The Ateneo Art Gallery is located in the Second Level of Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. Gallery hours are from 8am-7:30pm on weekdays and 8am-6:00pm on Saturdays. For more information, please contact Ian Carlo Jaucian at +6324266488 or visit our website http://gallery.ateneo.edu/.

ENIGMATIC FANTASIES

THE ESSENTIALITY OF POLYSTYLE SYNCRETISM TO A MULTIPLE PERSONALITY ARTIST IN THE 21st CENTURY

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Essentiality of Polystyle Syncretism to a Multiple Personality Post-Modern in the 21st Century is my first solo show in the Philippines since my show at the L.A. Artcore- Union Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, California in 2008. For this show, I'm continuing my strategy of 'Syncretism'- the merging of opposing art principles and ideas. The very obvious 'take-over' of different artistic personalities in each of my work or even in a single painting has been characteristic of my work from the start. This tendency may well make me a 'multiple personality artist', for my interest in this creative process is only kept piquant and inspired when each piece becomes a new journey of discovery.

The other technical innovations that I offer for this show are the ideas of the scroll-type or “tapestry paintings" (which I started in 1990 for the CCP 13 Artists Awards Show and have returned to recently), and the "cluster paintings", wherein several paintings are assembled together to comprise singular pieces.

Lastly, but not to compound the reading of the works, is the ingredient of 'pareidolia' - the psychological phenomena of seeing recognizable images in abstract patterns- that I call 'Alucinari', and which I welcome as part of my art. But 'Syncretism' and the other innovative offerings I've made within and outside the painting tradition are just a portion of the story, for the content of the paintings are quite another, and I leave the latents narratives and symbols for you, the viewers, to read into- not to spoil your fun - happy viewing!



After years of hiatus, artist Roy Veneracion embraces the Manila Art Scene once again as he stages new works for his show “The Essentiality of Polystyle Syncretism to a Multiple Personality Post-Modern in the 21st Century”. Composed of new pieces denotative of his skill and mastery in Syncretism, Veneracion constantly reinvents art by merging two or more art principles in order to discuss and elucidate environmental, ecological, racial and cultural issues.

The exhibit runs from 17 February to 11 March 2011 at NOVA Gallery, Warehouse 12A, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Don Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.

For more information call 392-7797 or send an electronic mail to gallerynova@gmail.com or visit www.novagallerymanila.com

FEBRUARY 16 SHOWS AT Silverlens | SLab | 20SQUARE

Feb 16 Shows at Silverlens SLab 20SQUARE
Show Dates: February
16- March 19
Opening Reception: February 16, Wednesday, 6-9pm

Up next in Silverlens Gallery, are three new shows opening on February 16, Wednesday. We have a two-man show with Poklong Anading and Gary-Ross Pastrana, new works by SLab artist Mariano Ching, and solo show by young artist Dexter Fernandez.

Poklong Anading and Gary-Ross Pastrana’s show, Between Signs is a coming together of sorts. For more than 10 years, they have exhibited together in countless group shows both in Manila and abroad, but "they never really looked deeper and attempted to articulate… certain intersections of themes, concerns and imagery" That is, until now…

As a first for Anading and Pastrana, the show "embodies this semblance of correspondence or likeness, with a tacit attempt to blur the distinction between who-made-what." With photographs, sculptural installations, and mixed-media presentations, Between Signs is project of two artists who "follow similar maps but still go in very distinct journeys".

Mariano Ching is known for his characteristic style, look and ideas. In his upcoming show, Even Bad Days are Good, Ching presents four large paintings that yes, are uniquely his, but also full of surprises. The works are a series of portraits of human-like beings, whose faces have a world of their own. Beyond imagination, Ching’s works mix the strange, grotesque and ugly with the natural, funny and bright.

Dexter Fernandez’s second solo show is entitled \m/ . The title is the emoticon for “rock on”, symbolizing the hand sign normally reserved for rockstars and the coolest of the cool.

Fernandez’s show is a different take on worship, idolizing, and icons. He takes a look at the image of Jesus Christ, who Fernandez always saw as a “stereotypical rock star, revered and loved”. Christ’s “long chestnut hair, thick beard, aura” have parallels with the idolization of rockstars today. Rockstars have their own following, and are given their own “altars” of posters.

“This show is not anti-religion or anti-rockstar in any way. It's basically anti-norm”, Fernandez explains. With sculptures, Fernandez questions today’s definition and corruption of worship and its dependence on the “image”.

NOSTALGIA

HULOG

The Crucible Gallery takes great pleasure in presenting “HULOG” , an exhibition of recent works in acrylic on canvas and watercolor on paper by Alfredo Liongoren.

From the mid 1970s until the present, Liongoren had been painting abstract themes and landscapes, which explore the medium of paint: oil, acrylic, and watercolor. And after years of exploring abstraction Alfredo Liongoren turns to realism and figurative art with his finely balanced interpretation of a much touted historical event as seen in a contemporary perspective a quarter sa century later, and he dares say:

“The EDSA REVOLUTION is 25 years today. It is a failed revolution. What went wrong?

With warm memory i reminisce with Hulog and reflect on the nature of true change. “

“HULOG” is the key work of the show, alluding to Amos 7:8 where the Lord tells the prophet that he will use a plumb line to judge whether his people is “straight” by his standards.

The message of the show is conveyed not only in the artist’s painterly abilities, but also in the intellectual rigor in which he confronts his chosen issues. “PASANIN NI JUAN” is another key work, this time, against the overbearing weight of the cold stone slab whose surface bears an emergent image of an exaggeratedly voracious crocodile’s head, tomb like and silent, are the “every men” whose postures are determined by their circumstance. As human beings with an inescapable reality, they are caught between stillness and movement. Elements such as the stone become signifiers of the inhuman, the oppressive- coming into contact with the vital, the human.

“I believe that all revolutions are not revolutionary enough.” Liongoren continues, ” indeed true revolution is not instituted by power not by might, but by the spirit of god. All systems come and go, but ultimately, the system that reigns with love shall remain.”

And this message of hope can be seen in “MUNTING SISIDLAN 1, 2 , 3” and 4” all reflecting on the right values that should be contained in jars (transposed with images of children of various Filipino ethnographic groups). Alluding to 2 Corinthians 4:7 wherein a most costly jewel is encased in an earthenware jar: the treasure of the gospel continues to be entrusted to our country’s future generations of children.

Liongoren studied fine arts at the University of the Philippines and a British Council Scholar grantee in 1977-1978 at the B’yam show school of Drawing and Painting in London, UK for his post diploma.

Alfredo Liongoren has also been a consistent awardee from the Art Association of the Philippines from 1964 to 1972. He has had various awards from the Shell National Student’s Art Competition from 1963 to 1970.He was a Thirteen Artists Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1972.

“HULOG” will open in Crucible Gallery’s SM Megamall on February 8, 2011 and runs until February 20, 2011.

For further inquiries please call Crucible Gallery at 635-6061.

WE WAS THERE

We Was There
January 13 – February 12, 2011

We Was There is a continuation of Reflections, an international exchange residency and exhibit between young Korean and Filipino artists in South Korea last May 2010. The initiative brought together four artists from Korea and four from the Philippines, who—after spending time together in both countries and exploring each country’s cultures—attempted to reinterpret their views on society based on the similarities and differences of their cultures through contemporary art.

The exhibit showcases individual and collaborative works by Filipino artists Michael Alvin Adrao, Carlo Gabuco, Leslie de Chavez, and Christopher Zamora, and by Korean artists Che Jinsuk, Kwon Jayeon, Lee Soyoung, and Koh Byungsung. On display are paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, and photographs previously exhibited in Reflections, as well as created after the exchange residency.

We Was There is on view until February 12. The Yuchengco Museum is located at RCBC Plaza, at the corner of Ayala and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenues, Makati City. Museum hours are from Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For more information, call 889-1234 or e-mail info@yuchengcomuseum.org.

PASINAYA 2011

Dubbed the biggest one day multi-arts festival in the country, PASINAYA 2011 opens the National Arts Month festivities with a harvest of performing arts productions. On Sunday, February 6, from 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening the public can choose from over 120 performances from the nation’s different performing arts groups at a pay what you can, see all you can scheme.

More than two thousand artists from dance, music, theater, visual arts, literature and cinema will be taking part in the festivities and will be led by the resident companies of the Cultural Center of the Philippines the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the UST Symphony Orchestra, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Tanghalang Pilipino, Bayanihan Philippines National Folk Dance Company, the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Ballet Philippines, Philippine Ballet Theater and the winners of the National Music Competitions for Young Artists.

In a whole day of preview performances, the highlight will be a tribute to national hero and artist – Jose P. Rizal at the Peoples Gala in the evening to commemorate his 150th birth anniversary. A one thousand voice choir will be performing Rizals Mi Ultimo Adios which was set to music by Maestro Ryan Cayabyab. Among the featured choirs are award winners Imusicapella, Tarlac State University, Our Lady of Fatima University Chorale, Hiyas ng Pilipinas Children's Choir, Sta. teresita PArish Chorale, Woodrose Chorale and the Quezon City Performing Arts Dev't FOundation, Inc. (QCPADFI) Choir.

Every possible venue at the CCP will be used theaters, lobbys, hallways, promenade areas the alley beside the Production Design Center and will beœzoned according to the genres of music, theater, dance, film, literature, visual arts, children and family, variety and the artists market.

The event also features crash workshops (Learning How to Sing in 15 Minutes with the Madrigal Singers) , activities for Children and Families (Instrument Petting Zoo with the UST Symphony; Storytelling), an Artists Market (Sining Butingting: Artistic Knicknacks), multimedia exhibits (NET25 television programs about the CCP) and an Opening Parade. 50 percent discounts coupons to selected upcoming shows at the CCP will be offered during the day.

More than 6,000 people are expected to attend.

A limited number of Priority Passes will be on sale for Php100 each. For more information, please call the Performing Arts Department at 8321125 local 1600 1607.

OUT OF ORDINARY SPECTACLES

Film Showing: A World on Display

Out of Ordinary Spectacles by Eric Zamuco is a series of black and white photographs, which reflect his search of what it means to belong. Zamuco, UP Fine Arts graduate and recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Award (2003) and Ateneo Art Awards (2005) has been working with photography for the last twenty years. This show puts six years of his life into a different perspective. With Out of Ordinary Spectacles, Zamuco makes sense of his own “displaced experience as part of the Filipino Diaspora.”

Having lived in the United States since 2005, Zamuco has known and felt the Filipino-American community’s sense displacement and detachment. The relationship between cultures may be familiar, but it too can be odd.

Zamuco reflects on this mismatch by creating his own mismatched images. In his photographs, he captures the unfamiliar places he found himself in the US, such as a granary mill or a giant parking lot with SUV limousines, and puts these everyday American settings with something in the foreground that doesn’t fit. Ordinary things are deliberately out of place.

As a related gallery event, Eric Zamuco will have a film screening of A World on Display on February 5,Saturday, 3-5pm in Silverlens Gallery.

The film is a documentary of the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, where two thousand indigenous peoples from all over the world were put on display. Displaced in a foreign land, the indigenous peoples were made to “recreate” their lives. Misunderstood and treated as specimens, many of them suffered. The film, like Zamuco’s show, explores themes of displacement, ignorance, curiosity, power, and invented truths. The “world on display” was not as the world truly was.

Out of Ordinary Spectacles by Eric Zamuco runs simultaneously with Flux by Jon Pettyjohn in SLab; and Cut Felt by Ryan Villamael at 20SQUARE from January 19 to February 12,2011.

For inquiries, contact Silverlens Gallery at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816- 0044, 0917-5874011, or manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am– 7pm and Saturdays 1–6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

DYSTOPIA

RANDALF DILLA’S DYSTOPIA

Dystopia – derived from Ancient Greek words- means a”bad place”, or a”bleak landscape.” It is a vision which has degraded into a state of repression and lack of expression under the guise of goodness which is its opposite- Utopia. Dystopias embody the suppression of individual freedoms and self-expressions. It is characterized by a constant state of struggle if not violence. A person in Dystopia lives in a deep dark nightmare which he would rather abandon. It is a forlorn state where man often finds himself imprisoned.

In “Green Eye”, Randalf Dilla transports the viewer to Dystopia. The vision of Dystopia is seen thru the eyes of a person. Dilla’s composition challenges the viewer with its rich images and symbolisms which provoke profound thought. “Green Eye” is surely not the sugary vision of the Emerald City in the famous “Wizard of Oz.” In this work, the viewer is compelled to explore layers of details- contorted human figures, grim expressions in the faces of men showing destitution, pain and fear. A prolonged viewing on this masterpiece creates a vicarious experience of suffering, fear and anxiety. It stirs an urge to escape from such a horrible, complex state.

Dystopia – the repression of individual expression…

In “Brain Failure” Dilla paints a man crawling in agony as though resisting with all his strength strong forces that frames his thinking and his entire being. Only when he surrenders his fight to these forces would he succumb to a sad state of conformity and repressed silence- a state of lack of self-expression and freedom. In “Execution,” his treasured faculty of intellect is purged by fire. A similar theme of “human cleansing” is portrayed in “Melting and Burning.”

Dystopias often explore the theme of man’s genius going too far if not awry, of technology creating quasi-monsters and consequently, man individually and en masse abused by science...

The “Cryonics Patient” is the icon of man in the modern era. The person here is not a cadaver sustained by low temperature and other elements in the hope of being resuscitated by future miracles of technology. The cryonics patient is alive! He is connected and sustained by high technology, powered by gadgets but seemingly dead in his humanity, un-connected with persons and with life itself.

Science seems to have perfected the process of creating one’s alter ego in “Human Surrogation.” The surrogate is such a perfect copy of a person who consequently loses his identity and worst of all, his dignity. In viewing the other four works - “Genes” , “Robot”, “Retransformation” and “Superhuman” – the viewer will find each of these easy to relate with one another because of their common theme- of man and his nature being manipulated and abused by science today. In “Retransformation,” science has confused the sexes. Which is which? Unfortunately, the pursuit of new breakthrough in technology has often created monsters and has been accompanied with a perverse use of persons and their humanity.

Deliverance. One is always tempted to ask- What does the future bring? Is there hope? Will goodness and man triumph over Dystopia? The works masterfully crafted by Dilla leave an uncomfortable feeling and no easy answers. But man will surely not remain in this bleak state without his own choosing. In “Ritual to Modernity” the viewer may find a hint to this future which is expressed in a very subtle manner. Man in the end will reach out for his deliverance!

Dilla’s works show mastery of photo-realism technique and these are blended with profound and obscure themes. The theme of his works does not show common or pretty images of man. These are often textured with details and symbols which suggest subtle if not complex meanings. His compositions draw the viewer to look beyond the visual elements. Through his art, Dilla engages his viewers as in an intellectual dialogue. When asked about his inspiration for his works- he commented that he has a penchant for themes on man who is essayed in a different or complex dimension as in a dream. In this collection of works aptly called “Dystopia” this interest is strongly manifested. All eleven works in oil on canvas are imposing not because of their massive dimensions but due to the complex themes and images they show.

PAGTUROK