Manila Curatour

EXHIBIT REVIEW: Ateneo Art Awards 2015

1:40 AM

Frank Callaghan's Deadends

Ryan Villamael's Isles

Charles Buenconsejo's Unending Void

The Ateneo Art Awards is an annual event held by the Ateneo Art Gallery that showcases nominated works of artists not older than 36 years old. This is in accordance to the credo of the first modern art gallery in the metro. As such, the award-giving body aims to help the artists create a name for themselves in the art industry through acknowledging their works, giving art residency grants and laying a springboard for the mid-career artists in general. Although lacking in years, some of the shortlisted artists do not fall short of the expectation.

The underlying theme most evident in this year’s shortlisted works was that of exploration in science and technology. Some dealt on the play of lights in a photograph while others illustrated raw images of life and its beginnings. It is interesting to note that this year’s line-up was consequential in concept in which you can expect the climax to be the biggest winner of all.

Science can owe its success to its discipline, preciseness and methodological process. It has been thought of as contrasting to art at times since art leaves room for expression and creativity. Art’s subjectivity has made science a far unreachable alliance. This year’s featured works is a testament of the inevitable merging of both fields. Drawing from science’s manipulation, the works are relevant to our society nowadays.

Art and science also deals with the same question but in different ways. Their search for truth and meaning has anchored them in man’s pursuit for everything under the sun. The former focuses on the internal forces at work in the search while the latter focuses on the external forces acting on the subject. They present two facets that certainly link them to each other.

The artists shortlisted this year used the preciseness of science to validate their artworks as such. Their medium and content bring art to a whole new era again.

Veronica Pee and her work entitled, “Pocket Universe”, was a crowd pleaser amongst the youth. Pee, with her precise illustrations has been both visually appealing and unifying. She has crossed demarcations on science and art. Although celebrated, her illustrations are but reminiscent of a biological image most medical students deem worrisome. Her stance on it though open up another world that we only can look from a single angle thus arousing in us a full-on curiosity. This curiosity allows us to use our imagination, a coming back to art.

Frank Callaghan has put photography in a whole other level. His works evoke longing and solitude with corners being his usual subject. The execution of the artist is a paradox of what he is trying to convey. The termination of solitude is seen as but a turn in the corner. The title, “Deadends”, is literally what the work’s form is. He experiments with light to create the illusion of isolation.

The big winner for this year’s Ateneo Art Awards is Ryan Villamael. He has been anticipated with his extraordinary usage of resources and his meticulous skills in paper cutting. His work entitled, “Isles”, is nonetheless the climax of the whole exhibit. Enclosed in vitrinas, Isles is worthy of adoration and worship. The sacredness of the art resulted from the wholly other skill mastered to execute this. His use of cartography begs the idea of a land and its physical form. The aspect of its two dimensionality however allows it to still proliferate hidden realities. Ryan Villamael proved his ingenuity and originality in this year’s awards.

Charles Buenconsejo, a resident shortlister of the Ateneo Art Awards, has managed to complete residencies abroad through the gallery. His works all throughout the years have ripened and matured that made him a regular in every art patron’s conversation. He has made himself a who’s who in the Philippine art scene. All are eager to know what this artist is going to do next.

Buenconsejo has proved time and time again that his works are commentaries on the immediate trends we are experiencing. He does not bat an eyelash as he unleashed another set of pessimistic works that will make his audience think twice. His work entitled, “Unending Void”, is a repetitive video almost seducing you to a light, a path that you believe is redemption.

Ian Carlo Jaucian explored science and engineering as he created a mobile robot. The task of employing circuits and other kinetic materials is not new in Jaucian’s repertoire. This time his work enjoins the critical issue of human ways and its complete disregard on the environment. His work is reminiscent to that of a child’s early entertainment but brings us back to a higher level of fascination with art and science.

The exhibit occupies two rooms. The first room encloses all the works that experiment on new media, while the other one house the other comforting, usual visual works. The former room elevates experience and is a summary of the young Filipino artist’s yearning for new ways.

The desire to create is common amongst these artists. They do not simply imitate but they push the boundaries in producing art. Pursuing the question of truth through science and art, they generate works that are socially relevant in concept and ultimately pleasing in aesthetic.

IN SITU: MET Renaissance

7:41 PM

ELEVATE EXPERIENCE: Cultural Heritage Tour in Manila

4:40 AM

EXHIBIT REVIEW: Charles Buenconsejo's Relative Nothing

4:22 AM

Singular details are sometimes irrational. Seeing the bigger picture, on the other hand, helps you understand something. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, they say. Utterance of a single letter does not always make sense to us. Combinations of letter, however, prove itself logical.

On the other hand, thousands of images and words are fed to us in this day and age. A single one may not mean anything to anyone. Together, they make up our virtual world. This is a world we often deem important but can otherwise decelerate our minds.

The artist, Charles Buenconsejo, delved on obliterating the collective consciousness we all have as human beings in this certain point in history. The digital devices we have supplemented our knowledge and championed efficiency in our lives. Although it proved itself essential, we click away without having to think anything at all.

The selfie might have been the greatest breakthrough of our times. It entails one snapping a photo of himself quite literally anytime, anywhere. While it may prove to be a present self-portrait of the millennial, it does not have the same value as that of its precedents. Long ago, self-portraits were commissioned by wealthy families to preserve their properties and their image, so to speak. Nowadays, the selfie is accessible to people from all walks of life. This begs the question of the importance of it in our daily life. Does this still hold value as it were centuries ago?

Buenconsejo takes us again into a well of mundaneness as he mounts an exhibit dedicated to the commentary of the “selfie”. His medium, the video, is his gateway to the dystopian artist’s pool. A man evident of his profession, Charles Buenconsejo comes from the province of Cebu and is originally a photographer. He managed to go beyond the usual image and rendered it into a video only he can call his own. He is better known in deconstruction and finding new meaning in these tapped images.

Charles Buenconsejo is not new to the world of visual arts. He has long ben recipients of different art awards in the past. Relative Nothing is his homecoming exhibit from an artist’s residency spent in La Trobe University wherein he documented his travels all the while eliminating sound, only focusing on the image. His tenure in Bendigo, Australia has allowed him to experiment fully on his concept of oblivion. The audience also plays a part in his works in which they find significance in Buenconsejo’s loosely pessimistic works.

The piece entitled From A to Z explores depth and magnitude. The subject is reminiscent to that of the 1x1 picture we all have for bureaucratic usage. He manipulated these images to include nonsensical sounds. The work is laid out in three televisions with different dimensions and is operated all together. His concept, he admits, is evocative of our first words as a person. We are made to utter the whole alphabet in a span of a minute or two but when combined randomly they made no sense.

He alludes to the virtual world we call the Internet. An image can hold a thousand meanings but when thrown into a pool of otherwise same aesthetic, they hold no more than a valued piece. We aim in relating and connecting but it actually turns us into nothing.

His work projected on the different pedestals is an intriguing one. (see Fig.1). The picture and the video projected onto it were scattered and broken when looked at. The dimension is overwhelming and makes for a good show all on its own. The content of the medium was composed of different people doing different jobs. Buenconsejo may have opened the interpretation of this piece to the viewers.

In the back, there is a covert space dedicated to a work (see Fig.2) that ultimately displays Buenconsejo’s artistry in experimenting with video and geometry. This undisclosed work makes for an interesting ice breaker that you would easily dismiss if not for its hiding place. There is an element of surprise and bewilderment. You, as a voyeur, will be amazed with the use of light on the object. The work perfectly encapsulates Buencosejo’s job as a photographer in need for a good lighting.

The space was dimly lit and even bordering on darkness. Absence of light is essential in creating a broke, dystopic mood in Buenconsejo’s exhibit. The idea of being sucked in a vacuum enters your mind while perusing the almost black hole of an exhibit.

Buenconsejo’s exhibit allows us to question ourselves. Our online, digitized selves are but a shallow portrayal to our being. We are gifted with these incredible technologies that even our true, natural selves diminish with its efficiency. While altogether promising, Buenconsejo’s commentary is thought provoking and even bordering on unhopeful.

Fig. 1