Romeo Lee's Stylistic Ancestry ?

Romeo Lee has stylistic ancestry and it's Jaime de Guzman! I noticed this on this painting (directly above, center) hanging in the dark 4th floor hallway of the CCP. I don't know what it meant, it's pretty much symbolic, yet it looked like either a punk or a metal album cover. The strokes are quite similar - fuzzy , the figures both looking like they were lifted from Tales from The Crypt, only Lee's more vividly colored and more fantastical. It's a whole new way of looking and liking this quickly- dismissed-and-vaulted-into-the-SR-folder painting of Jaime de Guzman. though I wouldn't know about his other works.

Much Ado About Crap

Much Ado About Crap

People will always tend to over-react moreso if that stems from an extreme disdain from a certain voice. Not meaning to distill and delude popular opinion, it will probably help a great deal to first read between the lines of a review or perhaps go over and around some certain terms that were used. Take for instance the word "abject". Abject is defined on the MSword word search as " 1)miserable - allowing no hope of improvement or relief; 2) humble - extremely or excessively humble, for example in making an apology or request; 3) despicable - utterly despicable or contemptible; its synomous to the ff: hopeless, miserable, wretched, dismal, horrible, utter. That was how one reviewer wrote of LC's work which is actually quite apt. There's nothing sublime about B-movies, scatology, jeepney graffix and porn. (although how he wrote it, he's like shocked himself, but there's nothing to be shocked about it really if one's surrounded by such stuff everyminute of one's existence).

I would think that LC is even more SR than most SRs would claim to be even if he won't admit it or even adamant to even realize it himself. Horror vacui is so very Pinoy. LC is just describing in graphic detail that cramped, horrid feeling. He's just painting from the gutter. And he doesn't really care and doesn't even pretend to aspire for trascendence. Sometimes, his symmetric compositions still end up looking like vomit. But what of it? MO paints shit and even alludes his painting process as an excretory exercise. AAT once conceptualized a show about her dog's poop preceding a show about cakes. JO's paintings oftentimes end up looking like shit. Painting itself is very much like shit anyway. Manzoni canned his and sold them to the moneyed gullible.


For all these pandering on the low, he's the one laughing all the way to the bank. People like to live vicariously off these things really.

*For more reference about LC get a copy of Giant Robot issue # 43 yr 2006 and if you can get hold also of a rare copy of Lunar Landing issue #i forgot, the punk issue.

Literally Missing From The Cranium

An unsolicited text message from somewhere :

"Staring at Nona Garcia's film noir coated paintings (west gallery) is like visiting G. Richter's 'Betty', portraits on 'Go big time' size while gigantum catastrophic scene & vast blue sky on miniatures. Familiar simulacrum retrofits strangely formats.Strangely familiar - mimicry vis a vis monumentality."

I haven't been to Nona's show so it made this all the more alien to me....

Maybe the texter meant :

1) Nona's photorealist style is as impeccable as Richter

2) That while having the talent for such ability, literally anything can be painted with as much pathos as a strand of hair backlit by a photographic solar flare

3) Such paintings are really a total display of skill, much more if it's done large scale, hence, the greater the drama, the pathos....

4) Hence, there's more to be raked in.....

5) or it's all just chuvaness.....

Sheessshh......that's why I equate art criticism even the seemingly harmless art review as an assassin's job - nobody wants to do it but someone has to do it for the ff reasons :

1) so no one would think that he/she is an utter genius.

2) so the market would know what kind of art to buy

3) so everyone would know what the hell he/she is doing with their own lives, like is it really worth it at all or not at all (but still everything that one reads should not be taken as gravely nor as lightly)

4) so your mom and dad would see that all your loafing around means something ....

But even if I saw the said exhibit, I still would be scratching my head saying d...uh?!...and then forget all about it....

Everyone's prodding me to go write about this and that show, or seriously consider writing art reviews but I hate theory as hell. Sure I've read some of it, some I slept through and just forced myself to read them, even just the text, even reading them out loud attempting to imbibe comprehension...in the end, they just mask with fluttery jargon what is already obvious....art is what you make of it, either through ass lickin or through faux naif heroics...especially now when metaphors can just mean whatever....

No Sense in Hiding (Material Gain)

These are but random babblings....

My cover's blown. what else is there to do but expose myself? but so what? Just for a few mysterious text messages from some creepy hound - I sure hope they have a life.

But since that unveiling shall I write about the recent CCP show? In a few words - maybe ....

1) There's actually a good mix of art involved from your usual SR paintings to conceptually pedigreed objects, otherwise readymade or just so touched by hand, to pristine craftness to downright lowbrow... although a bit tweaking of the layout would have enhanced even more the viewing of the other works especially those of Valdezco's (if not laid out like a museum tableau or if some of her objects were actually scattered on the floor), Coquilla's (if not cramped in a corner wall) and even that of Ching's (if his objects would have been more or laid out more organically or laid out on a lighter surface). Oh well, it was the exhibit designer's prerogative but what if.........

2) This may be faulted as well to the main gallery's very structure which is very awkwardly rigid - which lends any and every exhibit a "tiangge" look with those alcoves. And an entrance foyer with a lost post in the middle blocking a part of the wall. When will they ever renovate that space and update it once and for all? Like totally tear down the wall separating the entrance foyer to the main hall, make the walls in the main hall forming the alcoves be moveable panels instead, and make the ceiling higher. S. as an architect should know ....maybe, maybe not.

3)The heck the times we go to this place can be counted in one hand, why bother....but then......

4) Postponements diminished the alcohol. Or is this intentional to give business to the bars lining the bayside?

5) Being drunk is enough and being a couple of wads richer, of course.

6) I should add Lyra to my list of pinoy idol painters

7) Therefore, I should try painting again.

8) Why not? Maybe in a bigger studio - but when will that time comes when we can move to a bigger place?The table should suffice, the cabs would accommodate whatever comes out of the desktop. I should be happy with such arrangement.

9) A simpler life is what we're all aiming for...but as an artist?

10) A bottle at hand, a check on the other is how simple it is.

Speculations

These are but random thoughts while pondering on a new exhibit I've to install in a week or less :

1. More galleries, art spaces are being opened or are soon opening and these are all legit, amply financed by patrons, foundations, merchants, new collectors. And these spaces are open and greatly encourages big, large, ambitious, edgiest art projects from artists. -

a)what does this entail? Is this like laying the groundwork for a greater chance for Philippine
contemporary art to be recognized internationally? Hopefully yes!
b) will we see more publications focused on Phil. contemporary art? That will be great!
c) is the public more receptive now to Phil. contermporary art? - Should be but what kind of
public again - the AB privileged types? not bad because they're the ones who support the arts*
d) Will artists be a bit spoiled by this kind of opportunity? -wow, that would be a bit of a pitfall for them for their works will be the ones which will suffer the most if this situation reached to complacency and just being about hip.
e) Will artists-run-spaces, primarily established for this initial lack of spaces to exhibit, will be on
their way to obsolescence? especially as more younger artists learn to be more proffessional
and enterprising or rather be more careerists? - I think this is what's been happening now. The economic situation drives them more to individual gain - the prize of succes - media coverage, awards, grants, trips abroad, steady stream of collectors, designer furniture, slim body, nice clothes - who wouldn't want these things? It's becoming crazy, yes, but not the art. It's hard to be inspired now. I say good luck to still surviving spaces like FP and the Cubicle and Green Papaya, hopefully these spaces won't be swayed much by such and to be reminded constantly of their reason for being.

*on this note, why communism would utterly fail here is because art and culture is inherently elitist and bourgeouise. The common masses would never ever understand the complex system of aesthetics while their brains are being grinded into simplemindedness, and that includes sloganeering and didactic pictorialism. And art can not be without its vice.

2. There are more students enrolled in the fine arts program in various universities, more short term courses on art being offered yet there's only a handful of them that can be considered as serious or who really has it in them to be an artist. A majority of them, after 5 years of college life partying, boozing, drugging, pleading for their grades will be found stuck with earphones and PC monitors in office cubicles, in hospital rooms changing bedpans of white old geezers, or fiddling from their PDAs in between power lunches with their corporate clients.

I saw a notable drawing earlier in the day by Obi Mapua - dickmen vs. an army of scissors. hmm?
LA is an unshakable feeling.

3. What do these names signify?
- Dr. George Soo
- Charlie Laurete
- Koan Jeff Baysa

4. What does it mean to have a solo exhibit anyway? Are you creating a grand statement by such? What is hoped to achieve by a solo exhibit? Are these all done for pure vanity? To exhibit skill? ego? Bravura? By what certain parameters can a show's succes or failure be ascertained? How will a solo show affect the greater public? How can collectors or buyers be moved by it? How can a solo exhibit account for the whole world? Or is this just mere accummulation of trash?
........uggggghhh.........

5. Old school vs. new school
old school new school
- all black - plain white shirt, levi's, vans or chucks
boots
- James - Daniel Johnston
taylor
- mercedes - vespa (still think it's juvenile to covet one when you have a child to take care of)
benz

(yet to be completed)

Extended Lunchbreak

This List is not The Soundtrack of Your Life

Volume 1
1. "The Gun is good. The Penis is Evil. ...." from Zardoz, that cheesy-cult film of Sean Connery
2. Francois Hardy - si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
3. Belle and Sebastian - Serge Gainsbourg
4. Belle and Sebastian - Your Cover's Blown
5. Laika - Martinis on The Moon
6. Los Super Elegantes - Shalala
7. Los Super Elegantes - Panadero
8. Los Super Elegantes - Por que te vas?
9. Los Super Elegantes - Je Suis Bien
10. Los Super Elegantes - 16
11. Don Caballero - Temperature Lounge
12. Holly Golightly with Billy Childish - Upside Mine
13. Holly Golightly with Billy Childish - Demolition Girl
14. Green Sweater Collection - You Shoulda
15. Solex - Shoot Shoot
16. Solex - Good Comrades Go To Heaven
17. Solex - Oh Blimey
18. Persephone Bees - Photo Album

Volume 2
1. Deerhoof - Spiral Golden Town
2. Deerhoof - Green Cosmos
3. Deerhoof - Holy Night Fever
4. Deerhoof - L'Amour Stories
5. From the Esopus compilation CD - Behind The Monkey House
6. Animal Collective - Slipping
7. Animal Collective - Grass
8. Animal Collective - Who Could Wire A Rabbit
9. Boredoms - Super Are
10. Boredoms - Super Good
11. The Styrenes - Drano in Your Veins
12. Erase Errata - Delivery
13. Erase Errata - Tongue Tied
14. Stereototal -Wir Tanzen im 4-eck
15. Yo La Tengo - You Don't Have To Be So Bad
16. Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War
17. TV On The Radio - Freeway

Volume 3
1. Go Team - Panther DAsh
2. Go Team - LAdy Flash
3. Go Team - Bottle Rocket
4. Go Team - Get it Together
5. Go Team - The Ice Storm
6. Electrocute - Keep On Loving you
7. Drop Nineteens - Mandy
8. My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine
9. My Bloody Valentine - To Here Knows When
10. My Bloody Valentine - Soon
11. My Bloody Valentine - Blow A Wish
12. Slowdive - track 1
13. Slowdive - track 12 (Some Velvet Morning)
14. Primal Scream - Some Velvet Morning
15. Air - Planet Vega
16. Air - Kelly Watch The Stars
17. Double Zero Squance

Thanks for these things

Art making was so much better and easier and sleeker for these things :

1. Photoshop - it's mostly how one get's inspired or where one can jerk off - instant gratification - but if one is constantly using such, why still paint? or another form of collage?

2. Fake wood grain contact paper - but somehow one gallery reviewer seems to condone its use being a sign of "unoriginality", but hey it's there why not use it rather than spend hours smoothing out a plank of wood then varnishing it, it will still produce the same results anyway.

3. Archival printing at OWG - our latest find, thanks to Louie.

4. Primed canvas - shortens the painting prep process by 50% and it's all guaranteed to be gesso-layered already, cutting down also the need to finding the right mixture of emulsion and semi-gloss paint and glue to produce a surface that's halfway smooth and half-way absorbent to the proper degree of oil pigments.

5. Cheaper oil paint alternatives such as Korean brands and the classic Marie's

6. Deovir - your all time one-stop art supply store

7. Wikipedia

8. Googlesearch

9. Papemelroti

10. Ace Hardware and Handyman

11. Bluemagic

12. National Bookstore - I'm thinking of organizing a show based on the materials you'd find here. I guess you can make everything here really, except food of course.

The Chip of Ye Olde Blue Eagle

"The season comes and goes.... but here we are failing to bend to it......for the wind blows hard, harder, the mothers will talk loud, louder.......we hope to become wiser for it"

Actually, there is a lot that is very questionable about this so-called (AA Starbucks awards) which I have pointed out before in a letter I've sent to L last year. (all the quotes in parentheses are mine)

a) judging works a year after they were exhibited, you don't even know if the jury have actually seen them when they were still exhibited. maybe not for they all have to be dragged in a coaster to galleries where these were shown. But of course, what will they expect but a different show as it's already been a year ago. Or they go to the artist's studios, go perhaps to the source to see the working process. but according to P. the way they conducted it was like giving a thesis dissertation. It's pointless, really. They could 't see the whole picture, they can only see the bits and pieces and try to reconfigure them in their minds. Basically, the works are being judged in virtuality.

b) No funding or installation allowance for artists who especially have to re-install their works, especially if they are ephemeral in nature.

c) the works will be exhibited in a mall, a posh mall that is not commonly frequented by me or my friends, or even a general portion of the artists nominated such as rockwell. The works will be hung on panels that will line a part of a lobby of said mall. Is this their definition of bringing art closer to the public? But what kind of public? why couldn't they have hung it in a proper gallery instead and just let the people come and view the works in such a venue? Are they trying to equate the price of a Prada bag to an oil painting?

d) now, they have a 'taster's choice' award. Their vain effort still in bringing art to the public ?

(tie-up with Smart, public can text their choice of winner during show at Rockwell. They're giving a ('taster's choice') award. Only Smart subscribers eligible. Only 2.50 per text. You can also download pics of artists works for wallpaper and audio of explanation to work. some may probably be used for wallpaper, i think.)

e) if the nominated artists have gainfully agreed on their works being used for such marketing gimmick, are they also waiving their copyrights? to what extent will their works be used by Smart in line with this gimmick? Will they even be paid for royalties? Will the amount be enough? What will winning the 'taster's choice' award really entail? What will be the actual effect of this gimmick to the public?I asked CC of Ateneo re: this and this is what she texted me back :" ...Artists will be paid royalties sa image ng work pero I just got off the phone with content provider now lang and asked them how much. sobrang liit lang, nashock nga ako, 3% lang daw pero standard daw yun?! Irk. Sa contracts, wala pang ginawa ang content provider at smart pero i-follow up ko na lang. Magpaparticipate ka ba sa MMS program? Kasi tied up yan sa (taster's choice)....."Hmmmm......

f) Fernado Zobel is the supposed honorary flame, seed for such award. But what is his real significance in the development of Philippine art aside from giving a large endowment to Ateneo Gallery. Why is he important in the growth of modernism here? What is his lasting mark on contemporary artists such as on our generation?Or are these all just window-dressing? Or is the experience of Phil. Art history totally different from UP than in Ateneo? Why this is so is because, as someone texted me, ".. we are nationalists at UP....... but Zobel is also a nationalist.....", a Spanish nationalist, but for whom?

(an aside : do the bulk of their collection comprise mostly of reproductions?)

I'm disappointed with MC, one of the nominees and a strong contender for the residency prize, for not taking a stand on such issues nor even having the gall in questioning all these. It looked like all his seemingly radical political declarations are but vain posturings. It's all pathetic.

Where In The World Could I Find A Pirate Wifi Signal

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More Evil Twins

1. Nonoy Zuniga & Gary Pastrana 2. Cos Zicarelli, Kreskin Sugay & Benjamin Bratt

A vs C

It seems written on stone that neither the two shall be allies even for the great big cause of Art. A chicken or egg debacle with the artists getting the upperhand mostly for being the reason why there are curators. But why are there curators really? Are they the misfit frustrated wanna-bes who didn't get in, who didn't get the grade? or were they the wandering flaneurs content with being dandy and bourgeoise lining up for movies, lining up for shows, lining up for wines, for the cocktails, lining up for the accolades and hell writing about all these things. At times even appearing snootily irritatedwhen they smell of freshly coated paint, quering even why so and so artist is using such and such brand of paint, why the canvas in not as closely knit, why it's not even framed. All these whys and what of the artist who have slaved away for the night for a smattering of spitum from these Cs.

Let us define then their similarities and difference and where each aces up against the other :

1. Artists get to travel on grants via residency grants or being invited to do work for a show which is very seldom.
Curators get to travel on study grants, seminar grants, fellowhsip grants, being part of the exhibit entourage, on a research grant. Plus they have more access when they want to go to different biennials, triennials, etc in the guise of being in the selection committee while the artist would have to be a) wealthy already to be able to afford these kind of trips or b) pretty thick-skinned to swallow all pride to plead to a curator to brown-bag him to these trips.

2. Artists, most of the time, are not good at writing sponsorship letters so he/she can go these kind of trips because he/she would rather do his/her own art project as it's his/her own very medium.
A Curator's skill and talent seem based on the gift of gab and glibness. Proposal letters, sponsorship letters are like toilet papers to them which they can fax away to anyone who'd care. They can even recycle these papers for a similarly-sounding project and still get away with it.

3. Artists read, read a lot of books and magazines, hear and tell stories for their works or to lay the foundation for their works. And they're very frank to say something as bullshit or crap when they something as that.

Curators read a lot too, including exhibit catalogues, letters, proposals. I'd think they read a hell lot more than artists as they usually are the ones who write the texts for exhibits. But they use instead a lot of jargon and theoretical terms to describe something that's crappy to them.

Hence, to curators, artists are dumb not to know such and such terms; to artists, curators are arrogant show-offs for spouting needlessly such and such terms.

4. If the dynamics of the art scene can be translated into a pyramid where the artists form the base, and the curators are at the tip, who do you think is more vital to such a structure's stability? Who has got more the upper hand? Who benefits more from such a dynamic? Is such a scheme conducive to a symbiotic relationship?

Peripheral Vision

Comatosis exhibit,
Future Prospects, Marikina Shoe Expo, June 2006


The way two of Carlo Gernale's paintings were hung (picture on the right) encapsulates where they lay and sizzle. Uncannily the wall stares back at you unflinchingly thence you notice at the opposite corners of your eyes, the works, much later, much much later. A deft illustration how peripheral vision works.

Then there are the messy papers of Cos Zicarelli. I think he was more effective here (picture on the left) - messy but quite systematized but at times redundant for their text, literalness. Or was that just me? The walls beckon to be stared at even more.

Maybe it's the reality of their generation, maybe not. Maybe saying too much is not worth all the paint. Maybe repeating history is just repeating history for one's own ends. A slip of ye olde Juxtapoz poster boys?

Perplexing Oxymorons

Perplexing Oxymorons

They exist for whatever reason conjured for the sake of its being one.

1. Christian Death Metal - ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Abstract Social Realism - as conceived by C. Tejero. Ask him yourself what he means by it.

3. Heroic Sexism - I have a friend who's in a band and who has bandmates, most notably their vocalist who's known for being this side of the earth's greatest nymphomaniac but you couldn't tell straightaway if you'd just go by looks alone but he's married with 2 kids but still he goes on bedding every skirted lass night by night. But this friend would often sneak in his admiration for that guy for his being sexist. He says that if not for the likes of him, the world wouldn't be in a rightful balance as it were.

4. Tropical Gothic - more like Topical Gothic
I've seen some black-clad, fishnetted, kohl-lined lassies dragging their cigarettes at some corner in every party, man how cool they are no one talks to them. Like you offer them drinks and they wouldn't even nod a reply, they must have incredible focus to be transporting their minds to the British Isles, a mind over matter feat of turning sweat into icicles.

5. Benign Satanists - self-sacrifice by suicide. hmmm, I seem to also carry the same principle in matters of earthly survival but why would they have to associate the principles of humanism with Satan when Satan himself wasn't even human, he's an angel, a supernatural which no atheist would even believe in. And how can spreading negativism be beneficial for all of us?

6. Budget Fashion and Value meals - popping 500 bucks diet pills for that slinky 20 buck shirt or popping 500 bucks of virgin coconut oil for the grease feast with the free wind-up toy.

7. Indie pop - more than ever now. Pop had always been about the business, nothing more nothing less. Herd mentality.

8. Underground pub in Makati - everything doesn't fit unless it's a house of some ultra-scenester which he/she has transformed into a bar that's so exclusive.

9. Public art in Ayala Museum - but which public ? certainly not that pedestrian, if pedestrians means being at a spitting distance from the nearest Prada.

10.Wholesome art -

11. NCCA - as an agency for funding art

Inauguration

The map on the website of mag:net café shows a red triangle from Mag:net’s three established locations – the one at the Loop at ABS CBN, the one at Paseo in Makati, and the one at Katipunan. The first two were the only ones which had galleries for exhibitions before and the café was only about performances and selling books and other stuff. The art comprised mostly of paintings and other works on the walls and tables of the upstairs café, the framed collages almost shrieking down for attention from the endless rows of magazines. But all these has been revamped for the completion of Mag:net’s art triangle. The Mag:net café Katips has recently renovated its ground floor to accommodate a gallery for changing exhibitions. The gallery was inaugurated last Feb. 13 with a show featuring works by Ronald Achacoso, Gus Albor, Juan Alcazaren, Poklong Anading, Pablo Biglang-awa, Lito Carating, Roberto Chabet, Louie Cordero, Pardo de Leon, Rock Drilon, Nilo Ilarde, Jonathan Olazo, Jayson Oliveria, Bernardo Pacquing, Gerry Tan, Nestor Olarte Vinluan, MM Yu, Alvin Vllaruel, Regyuson. Nilo Ilarde who curated this show, had to do last minute hangings that afternoon as some of the works were still also trying to get the hang of it, to the newness of the space, giddy-nervy for the future shows to be held there. Almost everyone came early, even having had the chance of watching Anading removing the glass from the recessed box just outside the door and replacing what used to hang there - a yellow shirt with “This is what a destabilizer looks like” printed on it with his video installation. It showed shots of a performance where he, dressed as a magnet staff, asked guests to sign/write in air with a paint brush with a small camera attached to it. It was like reclaiming space with one’s signature. Or since it was installed in said white box, Anading somehow is also defining space for the literary set – the poet’s alcove.

At the gallery’s end, passing by two neatly paired desks which serves as the office and purchasing counter, are the books, also neatly pared down to columns of shelves tucked away at the walled corner, giving more privacy when perusing these books, and as I also found out that night, a perfect nook for a couple I chanced upon sneaking kisses. Hmm, well the books are always there to be perused and or purchased for the next couple of days anyway. So maybe next time I’ll look through them. But of course, Mag:net is prioritizing books by Philippine authors and by local publishers. You may also visit their website where they have a book/magazine list and an order form ready for downloading and sending.

Going for a pee at the upstairs cafe is a maze through bewilderment since the restroom was turned also into an exhibit space. The CR gallery, as it’s called was actually been opened last month by Mag:net’s prime mover Rock Drilon’s swirling serpentine brush strokes. Now, it’s being developed for more engaged and critical art projects with this month’s featured artist Gerry Tan. For his project, entitled Stripping, he had asked people to take pictures inside the toilet during the past gig nights he has attended. “The collected photos of walls, floor, ceiling, the urinal and body parts are installed horizontally at eye level around the walls of the café and runs over bare walls, speakers, glass panels, wine bottles and paintings. The work includes a small monitor inside the toilet showing a dvd loop of the video “strip” of the café where the pictures are installed.” Though the photos and the video installation are seeming documentation, they instead frustrate what may be seen in an otherwise private space, hence confusing the divide between public and private space, divulgement and concealment. Some photos were blurry you’d wonder if they were bare breasts or something else or just the alcohol’s effect on you – “The Ice will play tricks on you” as it says on a San Miguel Strong Ice napkin holder.

I didn’t get to watch the performances by sound artists Pow Martinez and Ria Munoz, electronica-based Drip, and drum and bass ensemble Nyco Maka that night as everyone’s so boozed out, the café so packed, the tables and seats all occupied. Oh well, there’s a month and a quarter year to catch them anytime at Mag:net café again. Just take note of the weekly schedules of performances posted on the website.

As the night wore on, tables and seats were ever being warmed by a round of new occupants. The steps leading to next door International Exchange Bank offered alternative seating which was way more open for moon gazing or waving to blissed out friends groggily hailing a cab and unto another night, another opening, another gathering, to this new-found haven for wondrous enchantment/engagement.

Explications, explanations

Texts to the works
(but I believe they're already incorporated in the Powerpoint portfolio but still my views of them might have changed now)

1) AAIMLN -

Maps are also presupposed to have that documentary tincture hence, their capacity to convincingly depict an otherwise imagined entity. Nonetheless, they’re accorded value as like all other documents.
Art further tenders such accorded value in that, it mediates how such objects are to be perceived and re-acquainted with, most notably in comprehending histories which are the assumed content of documents, thence invoked in memory which, as Walter Benjamin had written of as “ the true measure of life.”
Documents ,more often than not, conceal rather than reveal actual facts as they’re most influenced by the quality of its source and the subjectivity of their gatherer. As such, information gathered can precariously dangle between fact and fiction despite the weight of documents evidencing them. They can not fully claim certainty. But they manifest how we remember things and what we really truly remember.

Alternate version 2006 : Heck, Nothing is true. Maps are businesss ventures for urban developers. Or I'm a frustrated architect.

2) Search and Destroy Missions


a wall-bound installation featuring coke vending machines reduced to its miniature versions scattered around densely populated areas of Manila and some parts of Quezon City
why, what’s the bother to search for and document them? . . .ahm,. . . aah . . . ‘tis believed these are all part of a conspiracy, an invasion from an otherwordly body with the sole objective for world domination . . .. . .. yeah, right! . . . .but, oh! look at how they glow, how they blaze with an iridescent light that beckon and render pedestrians zombie-like before them ----- with the flicker of red, green and white, making everything around it so strange and cool!. . . . .. . are you sure you wanna do this? . . . . . . . . . .i think they’re teleporters or transmitters of secret information about planet earth. . . . . .gee,whiz! Get out of here!. . .. . . .. . . ..ever noticed why they’re near police stations? . .. .no and i don’t care. . . . .it’s to spy on them and to implant tiny transmitters in their belly when they drink it and then they’ll start acting strange also especially when they have taken in lots and lots of it. . . . . .Aw, gee, you’re just being paranoid because you’re seeing too many of ‘em. . . . .that’s the point, there’s too many of ‘em. how did they become that, how did they landed here and why do they glow only at night????. . . .. .why don’t you let it rest? here, have a drink.. . . .you won’t let me.. . . . .why not?. . . . . they’re strange

strange or not, these vending machines have been our new-found landmarks in a city that’s constantly besieged by changes that can also be considered barometers of our culture and which makes it ever so contemporary and dynamic to (yeah) the times. It’s advertising, it’s merchandising, it’s economics, it’s mass-based consumerism, it’s pure pop, but it’s there – unblinking and real and oftentimes taken for granted. It’s not always seen that a large part of the city is rooted in this which marks it as a bustling center of exchange and trade. Though it’s a trademark, it’s a public property because of how it has been used and placed in the city serving as repositories of pleasures and needs (thirst quenchers), aside from its being a landmark with trademark (Coke) sharing a great deal of identification with place name (where machines are located). The confluence of these two distinctions (trademark and landmark)as they blur at some point and gradually destroy each of their differences (at least, to my system of documenting and identifying them) is the point of all these. And it’s all so strange because it’s my own way of naming and locating things and places.

so, this is an installation about systems and lists and obsessions. No big deal, actually.
so, how did you go about it? . . . .simple, i searched for them on foot, then when i saw one, i shot it with my videocam, then listed it down where i found it, then went on about it for nth times, shot them again with a still camera, have them developed in to slides and labeled each of them following carefully my list, then made tiny boxes for them with little lights, put them on top of an enlarged map of Metro Manila, kind of like retraced my search for them machines and miniaturized everything, like creating a certain space, a very subjective one at that, like my city, my own city.

Alternate version 2006 : I want to be God without the corporate greed.

3) Terrible Landscapes


The title of my show is “All That Heaven Allows”.
There’s an old movie by the same title but I haven’t seen it. I just came upon it on a video listing. It sounded so aaaahhhh …….. lovely and divine, he he. Later you’ll see the connection when I talked about my work.
The images were reproductions of, or approximations of disaster images culled from clippings.
I have been quite obsessed with food ever since I started work on the puzzle set meals (exhibited at Plastique Kinetic Worms in Singapore and at Picture This at the Art Center some time). Maybe I got influenced by my sister who's constantly dieting, and my mom who ceaselessly worry about what we're going to eat everyday that she usually ends up buying a lot only to end up as moldy leftovers stuck at the bottom shelf of our refrigerator. I so hate such sight! That at times I’d argue with my mom when she asks me to cook. I'd sometimes refuse for reasons stated above. So, I developed a love-hate relationship with food. I would love to cook but I would hate it if they're left uneaten. I would love to eat but would so much loathe to get fat.


Originally, these images were meant to be painted. I so wanted to make ravishingly good landscape paintings in oil, masterworks. But I got limited by space and thought of using food as a medium. Also, I want to train myself as a food stylist because I heard that job pays well. But it's real hard work. With this work, this show, I’m trying to hit two birds with one stone – to get rid of the piling leftovers in our fridge and do work and to spend time at home with my mom. (still I refuse to cook for her.) Also, I notice in food styling and food photography that they use a lot of fakeries in presenting what is delectable that most of the time they're not actually edible, they just look so.
Delectability is also a quality much desired in the painterly oil paintings (think Elaine Navas, Wayne Thiebaud, Dutch still lifes & landscapes, Constable etc.),that an oil painting is only good, exceptional when it displays such painterliness. It's the romance of paint.
But why disasters ? In the same way that painting, masterworks should be sublime, to display nature's potency, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just as the absurdity in food plating, as they also vainly invoke nature, as they're tediously made and constructed only to end up as one big mush in the tummy or as waste after digestion.


The disaster images were taken from my collection of clippings accumulated through the years since ……. 2000? I compiled them by year and put them in handsome black boxes. These collection were meant to be just studies for future work but every week as I scan through the papers, I became more ardent in hunting down images and news stories that interest me. Usually they are hidden underneath the headlines – veering towards the banal, the incongruous, the outright silly or petty or utterly strange – gruesome murders, suicides, wanna-be Guinness- records-lister, missing persons, wanted suspects, cartographic sketches, printing errors, scientific discoveries & anomalies, misplaced bodies, espionage evidence – all these and perhaps more, including disasters and accidents of some sort, any sort. (This collection is entitled “The Labor and Delay of The File 7 vols.”, not entirely finished as I’m still avidly collecting clippings.)

or the Alternate version 2006 : gourmet cooking = painting in the sublime

4) The Making Of A Bad Copy


The video was based on a seminal 1970s film entitled “Mga Uod at Rosas” (Of Worms and Roses) about an artist (played by Johnny Delgado) struggling to find success in his career which he did quite dubiously or uncertainly at the end with the cunning wiles of an artist model (played by Lorna Tolentino) whoring herself for such similar goal. This despite the shame incurred and the sacrifices in which Nora Aunor’s character has actually done for Delgado’s sudden claim to fame and fortune. It was seminal since as there has never been a movie made in the Philippines about an artist although what it presented was quite hysterically romanticist and yet quite parallel to what’s happening in the art scene today. But still thankfully, I have never heard of anyone dying or committing suicide soon after being told that he/she is not a real artist. (That’s actually the piece de resistance of the whole film and where I mostly built my video on.)
Being an artist myself and moving around within such circle makes me feel that I’m in such a movie. Though what I presented here is a parody of it all. Guess it’s a reminder to all my co-artists that though they’re living it, they’d have to remember that it’s just all art, so better quit down the drama and start to laugh at one’s self sometimes or better yet work and let people keep on guessing.

Alternate version 2006 : Maco-kuchen sink drama

5) Fillers


My aunt from Canada gifted me a Sony Video8 some 4 years ago and since then every copious mundane event in our household were caught on tape. (Later I soon tired of it and just wanted to relish more being in the scene than holding the camera and peering through that teeny-weeny view hole.)
Fillers was an accumulation of such. It was shown on a one-night exhibit only called “Satellite” curated by Ringo Bunoan at then Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation at Cubao in 2004.
Viewing through all these home videos and being a video junkie, it made me wonder what difference they made when you watch them just to kill time, and viewing them actually takes place in real time, especially when you screen them to a roomful of strangers. Which is just a mere filler and which is the main feature presentation? Or (did I just want to bore them with my own domestic drama? (he he he)

Alternate version 2006 : More of the tear-jerkies

Eating Traps

List of crappy places to eat out in Manila

1. Tokyo Tokyo - tries to justify their value-for-money offering to the people by serving more free rice, to start with, their food is blander than ever. So while you're at it, try asking also for more soy sauce.

2. McDonald's - it's all the same greasy stuff to me, all chicken and fries. I have kinda developed a theory that bratty kids are born from soggy fries.

3. Chowking - it's just terrible. like fried dumplings. You'd get more of the stuff for 70% less from your freewheeling cart vendor. Their noodle soups - are like water from their mop cleaners.

5. Silver Lake - they just have very rude sellers. They might have even puked on all the food they're selling.

6. Pizza Hut - all branches - and what's with the crust with the filling? I remember a real bad time when I had to wait for someone at the gateway mall by the garden. And Pizza hut was just the food outlet which kinda hogged all the floor space that passers by are readily victimized by their callow barkers that I'd dare them eat all their pizza they can handle.

7. Italianni's - because they keep hogging all pedestrian spaces with their faux-Italian fresco dining tables. It's as if their restaurant is always filled up with diners that they have to extend to the sidewalks. Talk about a lot of chutzpah. They don't even come close to Bellini's or Amici's.

8. Starbucks - I'd say you take out all these starbucks branches and all Ateneans would die, also their wanna-bes. And many say their coffee is not even fresh and thus acidic. So next time please prefer Figaro instead, at least they serve local coffee beans.

9. Bagi or our neighborhood carinderia - Day in, day out their menu would only constitute the ff: Chicken adobo with toyo, chicken afritada which sometimes double as chicken curry, fried hasa hasa, pakbet nearly cooked or ginisang ampalaya barely sauteed you can taste its real bitter dewyness. When they had an Indian tenant, they used to serve biryani rice, lamb massala, choleh, shawarma and a lot more. The lady of the house kept changing business and tenants and cooks. So their cooking and carinderia I'd surmise is more like a hobby or as corporal punishment for delinquent renters.

10. Chunky far flung - sorry I have to include you in this list but I just don't get the idea of serving sandwiches with oishii. It's just so not it.

*Maybe more to come

The Best Places To Eat Out in Manila

1. Green Daisy - all organic, all fresh, all new, all free but only open to friends or what she terms as mga 'kapuso'

2. Amici - a canteen for Don Bosco school in Makati but serves authentic Italian dishes limited to PAsta, Pizza and gelato. Quite reasonable too. A whole pizza, as the crust is thin and soft and very malleable can serve one very hungry customer or maybe shared by two who's also sharing a plate of pasta. They observe the Catholic friday diet, so they don't serve meat on such days. And the gelato is real summer treat.

3. Bellini's - because it's conveniently placed within the quaint district of Marikina shoe expo that I could have all my appointments set there. Plus, the owner Sr. Roberto is very hospitable that he would even let us order even if they're about to close.

4. Jollibee - because they have meat pies, soup, salad, mais con hielo, shakes, daing na bangus,fruit salad anything and everything that McDonald's doesn't have.

5. JT's Manokan -

6. Brother's Burger

7. The kitchen of a friend who likes to cook - particularly Jet's, Poklong's, who else. . . . .it's more fun eating while drinking and experimenting on the cooking because whatever is produced you'll have to eat anyway as the alcohol dictates you to.

8. Cafe Ysabel - perfect date place, everything's made here. And having worked with Mr. Gene Gonzales amplified more the magic in cooking.

9. North Park - comfort food
10. Cafe Mediterranean- comfort food

11. Jamaican patties - comfort food especially when taken with chilly granitas.

12. Country style - the cheaper soup-sandwich alternative to soup kitchen - chicken sandwich with asparagus soups and their servers are equally polite , esp Alimall branch. Is this the reason why Gary also likes to have his coffee here?

13. Marikina shoe expo canteen - for their singular Tapsilog because cocktails are almost non-existent at FP.

*More to come

A Look Back At History

Surrounded By Water

With a name euphemistically speaking for its original location and all its attendant context , Surrounded By Water was founded in 1998 in Angono, Rizal a town known for having a citizen full of artists and where national artist Botong Francisco was from. Wire Tuazon, full fledged resident of said town gathered batch mates from UP Diliman - Yasmin Sison, brothers Jonathan and Mariano Ching, Katrina Miranda, Mike Muñoz, Amiel Roldan, Erick Sausa, Geraldine Javier, Paul Eric Roca, Mike Adrao and later on Lena Cobangbang - to work this thing out. Prior to this they were just organizing among themselves group exhibits at university galleries, the Australia Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and at Hiraya Gallery when Bobi Valencia was its curator.

Nestled between a lotto betting station and a mami house, SBW in Angono in its first year was very experimental and fun, actually as people were not yet familiar with artist-run spaces that some local media has clumped together similarly-operated spaces as "alternative spaces" or because it was a very 90s thing to do. SBW had a lot of firsts in its first year - the 1st ever Sound Art Festival, the first Zine convention, the first DogShow, the debut exhibits of emerging artists from our group - Alice and Lucinda holding a vintage clothes-sale way before it burgeoned to a sari-sari store-like industry, Lirio Salvador nearly fasting for three days and performing by one of Angono’s rivers, Bulacan-based artists opening their show with soot-covered performers, Jayson Oliveria seemingly carpeting the gallery floors with his diptychs ill-measured for the walls, Kreskin Sugay punching out one of his paintings, Jose Beduya painting the main road white and nearly being run-over doing so, Manny Migriño, Paul Mondok boring a hole through a wall and installing a surveillance camera, Chico Beltran, Louie Cordero, Gary Pastrana, Alvin Zafra, Ronald Anading’s guinea pigs, Katya Guerrero’s puzzling drive by sightings work, Vic Balanon, Ferdz Valencia, Bandoy and Lakay Ranjo. Well, that’s in between snacking goto in nearby Scrapyard and the boys carousing by the videoke bars just across the highway.

Then there's this sudden realization that we have to have money to fully operate this thing. With the help of older artists Gerardo Tan and Jose Tence Ruiz we held a fundraising raffle. This coincided with a kindly couple, Mr. And Mrs. King who owns the Pied Piper Place in EDSA to turn over said space, a former bakeshop cum cake school and music school, and convert it to another branch of SBW. This was in 2000.

However, juggling two non-commercial spaces all at the same time is quite handful, so we all decided to stick with just the EDSA branch and give up the Angono space.

Anyway, SBW in EDSA lasted for two good years and we had more members coming in at that time like – Chiristina Dy whom Yasmin Sison met while facilitaing art workshops in Ayala Museum, Eduardo Enriquez, whom Wire met at an art congress in Palawan, Lyra Abueg Garcellano and Louie Cordero who has consistently been exhibiting at SBW and with the group for exhibits curated by mentor Roberto Chabet.

But again, as the case always with such spaces and due to a multitude of factors, SBW has to up and move. It was also the time when Katya Guerrero is re-envisioning her family’s printing press in Cubao as an artist community. So she offered us a space in that compound in 18th avenue for a minimal fee. Barely surviving in that space for a year, we finally called it quits by 2003. This demise coincided with Furball, the production house, expanding and taking over the space where SBW was.

That commences the story of Surrounded By Water. This may have been slightly different with other artist-run spaces but that the struggles are more or less the same because the people who man these spaces are primarily and essentially artists. As such, there would always be a finiteness to these things. Nonetheless, these spaces taught numerous artists how to better manage their own careers. Is this the reason why business school AIM is now offering seminars on art management, ditto with Ateneo de Manila University ?

More FYI! FYI!

MORE PROFILES THAN YOU CAN HANDLE (pilfered from Cubicle files 2005)

RONALD CARINGAL
A self-taught artist who believes art can save us all and whose works are largely influenced by Pop Art. He started painting seriously in 2000 and decided put up his own gallery, The Cubicle in 2002. He had been part of a couple of group shows and did his first solo show last June 2005. He incorporates sarcasm and comedy in tackling serious subjects. He tries to make sure that entertainment is a huge part of his art. He believes that his artworks should stir emotions and thought. And for him, going to an art exhibit should be as exciting as going to the movies. He hopes that his works serve as a light sigh or bring a sense of comic relief for his audience. With everything that is happening, we all deserve a good laugh.


CLINT CATALAN b May 10, 1980 in Makati City
An artist by heart and a designer by trade. He took up Bachelor of Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Combining art and fashion, he was able to put up W.O.R.M.S. (Wearing One Really Makes Sense) – a line of bags and accessories in 1999 – definitely not for the faint-hearted. Having done a series of group shows and recently held his first solo exhibition last May 2005, he still continues to express himself in all sorts of ways – venturing in the movie and music video industry, cutting his own hair in all sort of ways, fortune telling in birthday parties and “spiking” things up.

ASTRO
A grafitti artist from Hamburg City, Germany – Astro visits the Philippines yearly to fuse art and grafitti. He did his first one-man show at the Cubicle last March 2005 with photographs of his “bombings” on trains back in Hamburg from the past years, Astro still continues to search the real meaning of life, with beer in his hand and house music in his ears.

BRU b September 18, 1978, in Makati City
A graduate of De La Salle University, major in Advertising Management, Bru is a pop culture junkie who writes and illustrates for a non-MTV MTV music magazine in the Philippines.She likes soft shapes, scraps of paper and sinking depths.

MIKE CRISOSTOMO b.August 12, 1975 in Quezon City
Most of his works deals with formalistic approach. He usually did automatic and expressive works in different types of media. His concepts intertwine with ringing sounds in his ears that create vast fusion of art forms. The play of mediums in Crisostomo’s works does not hinder his color blindness in creating art forms.

REINIER “BEMBOL” DELA CRUZ b the 2nd of June 1976, in Manila
He graduated at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts- Major in Painting. Bembol uses different kinds of media and does not only focus on a specific style. His works come from the polarity of representational to non-representational art-forms. For him, “art is conceptual because art only exists conceptually”.

RANELLE DIAL b. July 2, 1977
Completed her degree in Fine Arts major in Visual Communication at the University of the Philippines. Ranelle utilize a wide range of mediums and installation. Her keen interest in expressing art-forms deals with time and space. For her the thematic approach communicates the logic of time in a given space and form.

CARLO GERNALE ( B. 1979 ) BFA Painting Major, Institute of Fine Arts and Design, Philippine Women’s University [undergrad].
He participated in various Group Exhibitions around Metro Manila. Most of his work depicts issues of understanding, way of thinking, and behavior of common individual influenced by their surroundings.

MARCUSHIRO Born February 11, 1975, in Lucena City
A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, BS Fine Arts - major in Advertising Arts.A graphic designer by day, Marcushiro moonlights as a children's book illustrator and takes pride in collecting junk from countless thrift shops. The pastiche-maker extra-ordinaire believes that red is the color of Monday, just like Kris Aquino.

JUCAR RAQUEPO Born February 11, 1973, in San Fernando, La Union
Has done several one-man shows and several group shows in Manila and has recently opened “Art Work Detailing” at the Cubicle July 2005. His shows of the past years featured abstract forms with graphic qualities, with just one genre of art that he does, he manifested yet another agenda in his art making and picture making, the freedom to do multi-faceted, diverse, and non-linear directions and intentions in art. Among others he has done and would like to continue to do are installations, mixed media art, and even realistic paintings of landscapes and still-life.

EUFEMIO RASCO, IV b 6th of June 1981, Studied at University of the Philippines, Fine Arts major in Painting.
He looks up at human figure as a basic form and shape. Whenever he paints, he treats it as a problem. That’s within the process and execution challenges him to find the solution. In his works, the child-like rendition of figure and almost non-recognizable images that quietly communicate a range of emotions or state of being from painful loneliness to introspection, whim and bliss.

COSTANTINO ZICARELLI Born in Kuwait City, Kuwait on September 15, 1984, raised in Italy
the Italian – Filipino finished BS Fine Arts and Design – Major in Advertising Arts at the University of Santo Tomas. He recently finished a two-man show with artist Allan Jay Balisi last July 2005 at Big Sky Mind Gallery Café. His art is very experimental and tends to shift from one art form to another usually with non-commercial subjects. The basis of his works are studies and sketches on paper using ink depicting his thoughts on god and the devil among other things before the actual canvas work begins. He has participated in various group exhibitions around the metro and was also a finalist in major art competitions. He is currently working on short films.

FYI ! FYI! FYI!

For Those Who'd Like To Know Who These People Are

Poklong Anading

His works are seeming documentation of accidents and forbearance for the physics of materials – be it sound, movement, dust, lines, light, bodily secretions – as to probe and capture their very essence despite their invisibility and primal quality. All these he translates to crisscrossing media of video, performance, painting, drawing and photography, as well as collaborations with other artists like Ringo Bunoan for the 4th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea and Ernest Concepcion, Jose Beduya, Tado Jimenez (for Gitaw) and all other willing conspirators, even blind street musicians in the name of intuitive music. While being a resident-artist of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation in 2003-2004, he has spearheaded the setting up of Cantin Plate, a time-based photo-gallery/art hub for discussions and which doubles as commissary for the inhabitants of the compound during the day. One of such event inaugurated there was Food Pest, a bi-annual thing commemorating the significance of September 21 with a real gastronomic feast featuring artist-concocted dishes. He is also affiliated with Furball productions and earns his keep by doing designs and art directorial work for various productions for TV, films and other commercial firms.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Award

Argie Bandoy

Despite having earned his degree in advertising at the University of the East in Caloocan, Bandoy appears to be more attuned to the guttural poetry of the streets producing works that are but his esoteric meanderings petering on the visionary. This may have probably owed to a life enmeshed in the underground punk-metal-core scene with a band called D’ Squatters and enduring alliances with Victor Balanon, animator-illustrator that can lick the hell out of Raymond Pettibone, and Ferdz Valencia, a skater-ramp/obstacles/board designer who also founded the skate group and company Incubator. In the late 90s they released the 4-issue Quatro Comix of visceral urbanness. Bandoy scavenges material, text or whatever it is he may find on his way to work as a freelance grahic and web designer. He has held solo exhibits at home in quasi rural-industrial Cainta, Rizal and one in Mag:net. He was also among the 2nd batch of resident artists of BSM for 2004-2005.


Mariano Ching

His paintings, prints and illustrations are enriched by his training as graphic artist and by his experience growing up in the heart of Manila, weaving narratives of such existence and other probable realities hidden beneath the grime and squalor. He was a Mombusho-Japanese Foundation scholar attending Kyoto University in Japan as a research student of printmaking and ceramics for 2002-2004. He was also among those short-listed for the 2005 Ateneo Art Awards and has won illustration awards for children’s books Mayroon Akong Isang Puno and Bakit Matagal Ang Sundo Ko, both published by Adarna books. He’s husband to artist Yasmin Sison and their newly-born son Haraya.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards

Louie Cordero

A multi-awarded painter and creator of underground comics Nardong Tae which has already achieved cult-classic status. He is a graduate of CFA in UP Diliman and has been one of the recipients of the Ateneo Art Award in 2004. He was a resident artist of Big Sky Mind’s residency program from 2002 to 2004 and of the Vermont Studio Center in 2003, and has shown his paintings and drawings in Studio 3 in Japan, and in One Mina Art Gallery in San Francisco. He’s currently co-managing Future Prospects with Gary Pastrana, Cocoy Lumbao and Erick Encinares.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.

Christina Dy

If her works bespeak of a propensity for the vainglorification of fetish, tis perhaps her means of coping with the psychological and emotional hazards of her work as an art teacher, designer, stylist and contributing writer for local fashion glossies and for one publication which has a predominantly male readership – FHM and newly-launched Pump Magazine. Yet this only demonstrates the industry with which she handles these multiple job descriptions and interlocking networks from fashion, music, film and publication. Accordingly, she is rewarded for some – for best production design for 2005 Cinemalaya Film Festival entry Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros directed by Aureus Solito and Michiko Yamamoto and produced by UFO Films. With partner and associate Jugs of the pop rock band Itchyworms, she manufactures a line of plush sex dolls and faceless teddy bears upholstered in black leather and/or lace. Her training and induction to art consisted of a 16mm film making workshop at Mowelfund in 1998, art workshops at Ayala Museum and at her alma mater Ateneo de Manila University, and joining SBW in 2001. Since then, she has been actively exhibiting with a group or by her own and concocting related projects.


Jed Escueta

The lomocam may have been a phenomenal hip fad accessory which soon faded out as soon as it conked out from overtly “shooting from the hip”. Nonetheless, Jed has pursued on “shooting” and never seems to miss a “hit”. Diaristic, ominous, and habitual is as he treats his photography, the camera his visual proboscis. His team up with Leo Saño have produced a series of short films starring the action figure JC in parables reconfigured for modern times i.e. JC Kicks Alien Ass. This was screened in Sp*t sa Pinilakang Tabing, a film festival organized by Arkipelago last 2003 in NY. He has been a resident artist of BSM for 2003-2004. He’s currently finishing his fine arts degree at University of the Philippines in Diliman, QC, at the same time fine-tuning production of a DVD with Jet Melencio where his photos of blurred skies and foliage was used as a compositional device for sound artists Mizuki Endo, Rubber Inc. and Melencio himself.


Lyra Abueg Garcellano

Has degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Fine Arts earned from the Ateneo de Manila University and at UP CFA Diliman respectively. As an artist-in-residence of Cemeti Art Foundation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2002, she has worked on themes concerning land and property. These are symptomatic of and/or issues adjunct to societal and cultural definitions of territories – a consequence of how these cultures ordain values and identities to certain groups. She presents these power-culture dynamics in her postcard A Filipino Girl. Though traditionally garbed, she poses defiantly to such representation. These postcards has also traveled with Judy Freya Sibayan representing Scapular Gallery Nomad in the 4th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea in 2002. Lyra’s prior works finds her attempting to break these boundaries and reclaiming what was once denied or forbidden. This as seen in a serial photo of road blockades, broke-in vaults, and re-weaving the history of a maligned queen whose conquests were thought to be improper. Lyra works as a professional illustrator for numerous publications, including children’s books. She has also created the comic strip The Adventures of Atomo & Weboy the Buddha Bear syndicated in the Phil. Daily Inquirer. She’s a long time member of Ang INK (Ilustrador ng Kabataan).

Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 artist awards.

Robert Langenegger

Inspite of all the ailments plaguing this third world resident, he manages to produce art with a little help from certain medicinal plants. His enlarged liver continues to overwork itself for art’s sake. He wanted to take up ethnobotany in college but found no such course so right now he’s studying the next closest thing, Fine Arts in Kalayaan College in Marikina City. He is an expert at any medium including amateur custom tattoo performed under unsanitary conditions. On a lighter note, air and noise pollution in his street is pushing him to the brink of insanity. What will happen to our children’s children ?
Also the painter to look out for this century.

Paolo Martinez
He had briefly studied Visual Communication at the University of the Phil. College of Fine Arts but soon transferred and continued similar studies at Kalayaan College. His works range from paintings, installations to sound experiments particularly that of ambient and noise. He also reconstructs such sounds from pre-recorded material using improvised gadgets and electronic toys.


Jet Melencio

He comes from an older batch of artists from UP College of Fine Arts who did such characteristic marvelously thick paintings. But he is never to be singularly categorized or solely named, having ventured into stage design for the musical Paulit-ulit na Paikot-ikot na Pag-guhit ng Bilog directed and choreographed by Paul Morales; art administration as an erstwhile curator of Ayala Art Museum in Makati in the mid 90s and having a hand in establishing art space/cafe Big Sky Mind with Katya Guerrero and Ringo Bunoan; performance as playing one of the leads in the musical Lean, a musical detailing the heroism of the legendary Fil. Activist of the 80s; and as lead vocalist of now-defunct but seminal bands of the 80s and 90s Sonic City Zoo and Poppy Field. This is reflective of his relentless foray into various media, format and materials in pursuit of highly affecting visuals. His photographs of Alimall mannequins is the result of of an art seminar project where Robert Chabet has instructed to take photos of sites of “shallow graves” around Cubao.


Jayson Oliveria

He approaches paintings as dilettante investigations into the linguistic games of clichés cannibalized from found materials, oftenly his past works. He identifies most with the slackers and wily jesters of art. He was awarded in 2004 the Ateneo Art Awards and was an artist-in-residence of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation for 2003-2004 and at Art Space Tetra in Fukuoka, Japan in late 2004 and where he has also exhibited. He’s currently awaiting the opening of his solo exhibit this August at The Art Center of SM Megamall, his nth one since his last held at Green Papaya Artists Projects, Mag:net Art Gallery, The Drawing Room, Theo Gallery at Saguijo Café.

Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.


Gary-Ross Pastrana
An artist/curator who now manages Theo Gallery, a small art space in Makati City that has shown works by Jayson Oliveria, Juan Alcazaren, Louie Cordero and Alfredo Aquilizan. He is also a graduate of the UP Fine Arts program and has had exhibitions in Thailand at the Bangkok University Gallery, and in Japan at the IAF Shop in Fukuoka. He also works as a production designer for stage and television.
Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards

Stanley Ruiz
His extensive experience with industrial design in various trading firms based internationally speaks forth for his installations and objects he exhibits as though these ‘works’ are prototypes of a mass-produced product or rather mere ‘interruptions’ from such serial kind of production. Mostly works with sound and has capitulated on the compositional possibilities of the ensuing chaos of engaged modern tools – batteries, carpentry equipment, old speakers – leading him to produce his own sound instrument called the Skonto. His punk history which consisted of independently producing albums for his band the PutangInas/P-I-NAS and customarily publishing his own zine Voice Out from 1993-1996.
Despite having earned his Industrial Design degree at UP CFA, Diliman, he has just recently enriched them with electronic media courses in the School of Visual Arts and Product Design at Pratt Institute NY.

Don Salubayba

He had largely been exhibiting since his teens at the Philippine High School for The Arts in Mt. Makiling as a Visual Arts major and even after graduating from UP CFA in 2000. Serving as artistic board member of the ANINO Shadowplay Collective, he has directed several of its production staged at CASA San Miguel in Zambales and at the Abelardo Hall of UP Diliman. He has also represented ANINO in the 1st Intl. Shadowplay Festival in Patras, Greece. He has been awarded several grants last 2004 by the Mowelfund Film Institute for their Film Animation Workshop and by the Asian Cultural Council for his art residencies at the Intl. Studio and Curatorial Program in New York and in Headlands Center for The Arts in San Francisco. He works as a visiting faculty of his high school alma mater and conducting workshops and staging productions of ANINO.


Yasmin Sison

She has earned her bachelor’s degrees in Humanities and Fine Arts, and a certificate in Professional Education all at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
Her paintings, collages and drawings deal with images encountered in popular movies, fashion magazines, pulp romances – which she manipulates to create another fiction. This she has extended with a series of collaborative works with another artist Lena Cobangbang as Alice & Lucinda respectively, investigating myths and procuring identities running parallel with their actual lives. They have also worked together in publishing the fanzine Lunar Landing which had a 10 issue run from its inception in 1998. Adjusting to a new life as a wife and mother, she shuttles between painting and teaching pre-school kids in the Montessori way. Her works having integrated images from archaic pre-WW2 grammar books somewhat reflects these concerns.

Also this year's recipient of CCP's 13 Artist Awards.

Keiye Miranda-Tuazon

Her photographs, Underwater Scenes, compiled through the years as studies for her large oil paintings reveal an interiority quite foreboding. Her prior series of domestic spaces has more apparent undertones o f such unease. Hailing from Angono, she with her siblings, was nurtured earlier on to a life of art. This she passes on to her students and to her daughter with whom she balances parental duty with husband Wire Tuazon.


Wire Tuazon

He works with a wide gamut of format – painting, collage, sound, performance, video – including collaborations with other artists for projects which transforms into communities and/or networks. No project for him is to be so differentiated from the other as each one is a venue for discourse between the artist and the public. SBW may be considered as one of them. He was also instrumental in mobilizing the art scene in Angono from an idyllic tourist trap to a more dynamic scene via Neo Angono which handles activities during the town’s feast day. Being a former vocalist of ska band The Neighbors may have imbibed in him the same DIY fervor propelling him to such deeds.
In 2001, he was granted an artist residency Ashiya City, Japan by the Japanese Foundation. He was also a recipient of the 13th artist award given by CCP in 2003.


MM Yu

She lets her paints drip all the way down to the edge of the canvas, whereas her subjects – church steeples, fast food logos, bridges – in her series of photographs entitled Holding Someone’s Hair Back are similarly forced out of the frame by the wide expanse of sky as though playing hide and seek, pushing and pulling for exposure and obscurity. She has recently participated in 600 Images/60 Artists/6 Curators/6 Cities, a photo exhibit curated by Judy Freya Sibayan. This is simultaneously held in Lumiere in Makati, Bangkok / Berlin / London / Los Angeles / Manila / Saigon. She has opened 3 paintings exhibits locally and was among the 1st batch of resident artists of Big Sky Mind Artists Projects Foundation for 2003-2004. She works part-time as a photographer for a commercial studio in between preparing for shows and collaborating with Poklong Anading for their book projects. She’s a member of IRIS, a photography organization based in UP College of Fine Arts in Diliman, QC.