9TH ANNIVERSARY
June 23,2012
Saturday
6pm
ART CENTER
IMPERYO
It has been written and said that the popularization of
social realism as a standard formula in some way suppressed aesthetic
development. Although there was a continuous exploration regarding its form,
audiences, generally regarded social realism as “standard form” where the usual
beggars, “inang bayan”, grim faced men and women and squatters dominated the
canvas….There have also been calls to identify the need for current social
realists to move beyond old approaches and to develop and modify their methods
to be concurrent with the period. Having said all that, the multi award winning
artist Max Balatbat is not a social realist artist. He is an abstractionist
with a social realist’s point of view.
If such stark titles such as “TRAPDOR” and “ANG PAG DAMPI NG
BAHAGHARI SA AKING BUBUNGAN” were to be disregarded the composition would
seem to explore bold architectural themes. (Max Balatbat’s father was an
architect, whose floor plans led him to produce a fresh perspective in his art
which he now calls “architectural abstraction.”) There is a dynamic beauty won
from a tension existing between various elements: Balatbat creates a muscular
aesthetic, what with their combinations of angular elements these works which
hint of even a sculptural presence.
The barung barong (shanty) has always been a popular source
of social commentary, thus Balatbat explores other architectural venues
with the same implications. His early creative formation and works took
inspiration from the “International Cabaret”, a childern’s playground by
day and brothel by night where he spent an unusual childhoold. As a profoundly
referential artist, this place reminds of every line every shape and every
color which eventually came out in his works and everything about it has its
own story beyond the glitzy images and the sale of women’s bodies. As the
show’s title “IMPERYO” connotes, entertainment is seen in its present use as a
vehicle for domination. Entertainment is also a victim of rabid
comodification.
But poverty is a constant factor in this alarming trend in
commodification, not only of products, culture, the professions, but humans as
well who stake their own persons and bodies as well.Blinded by the lure of big
monetary rewards and an easy escape from poverty, there are deluded women who
make this risky choice, much to their regret.
Balatbat is not a member of nor associated with social
realist collectives yet this does not exclude the presence of social commentary
in their works.He is one of the movers and shakers behind the art collective
Sininggang.
His art depicts his inventive interpretation of austere
landscapes of torn buildings as modernist abstraction resonating with
undoubtful plausibility. The canvases contain a series of geometric
compositions which juggled color and pattern with equal temerity.
Given Balatbat’s architectural-sculptural feeling for his
social malaise themes, be it top view or front view is always marked by a
certain cragginess, a fragmentation. The buildings are almost ephemeral, and
yet this is the same delicacy that holds the composition together.
Balatbat’s colors are always predominantly on the somber
side of the spectrum by temperament and by Philippine Aevoking the torments of a
world of struggle and uncertainty. Yet his angular forms are without expressionist
angst…
His abstractions reveal a style that has not completely
given up imagery.The artist uses fabric print patterns such as plaid and
stripes(which allude to the dancers skimpy attire),rendered in acrylic, to
build up the surface forms, as well as to bringing rhythm and balance to the
overall compositions. The fabrics are a motif which can be made to carry
various meanings with which he can continue to explore the forces underlying
this form of entertainment. Balatbat's visual interpretation of life among
prostitutes tend to universalize as much as particularize places
To the artist, his art is a registry of the daily events he
encounters in the very place where he grew up. His works are personal
statements inferred from experiences since childhood.
The seediness of the canvases is full of anonymity. The
random fabrics represent the many parallel experiences occuring at any one
moment in the same scenario
The narratives of “IMPERYO” are full of loneliness and the
longing for unfulfilled desires. The states expressed in their work are not
uncommon in contemporary Philippines
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