photographs on museum papers
1997
shipping costs not included
photographs on museum papers
1997
shipping costs not included
installation
1997
nfs
shipping costs not included
By Amiel Roldan * July 9, 2000
I always wondered how one could start the introductions to an essay on this scope and what would be the qualities of such a writer. I never did make much of it afterwards. I guess, there will come a time when one will search for his roots--- in most it is just an urge but in others it becomes a way of life. One might be contented to skim through while others have to dig deeper. Between these two, there are also nuances and they come in different levels for different people so take your pick!
The first thing though to consider is the language or you won't get the article across. The second is the venue where one reads this essay to disseminate the information as widely as possible. A credible writer with the great literary skills perhaps with a doctorate in the field and an extensive background on the subjects would be a runner for academics. 'Bah!' Much like the numerous coffee table books adoring chic shelves across the land.
The logic goes much for the former than the latter but I have to try and this leaves it at that for the moment. (Until someone could take the challenge to contradict the things I wrote).
I remember talking with an Australian about the ails of the Philippines art scene and it would sum up to much of the bad things and the frivolous. One would need not be a genius to suggest the AAP and Leonardo fiasco to make a comment of interest to some artist person to talk a mile and three solid hours. Two sides to every issue in the politically hot Philippines. Being a Thirteen Artist Awardee is great vindication indeed for the artist from his detractors.
The Name Foundation Rule is another --- a well financed institution dictating the works and democratically establishing the norms that most galleries follow. Quite noticeably out of the contention are the academic 'mill' institutions breeding the likes of this writer every year. Well history is like a wheel with a pinch of the fad, some things take longer to turn up but they do turn up one way or another.
Art in the Philippines have so far been reflections of the Western concept. Throughout the ages, our own art-making has been delegated to the backwoods or should we say Third World Ledge. Our own claim of art has been to a large extent a mixture of different culture and traditional forms without being truly Filipino in heart. The successive colonization in the past and continues sublimely today has placed us in a unique position to look from and rue. The Eastern culture and art-making and its counterpart in Western hemisphere is here to stay. Yet with this diverse heritage, we still remain clueless in realizing the Philippine identity in art.
We could never go back to the point of ideal Eastern Asian nor could we afford to completely embrace the Western concept. Though we could readily trace and say that we have a legitimate tie in one or the other, there is still quite a lot of problems and it is never as simple as that.
In Asia alone we are the only country to be occupied and influenced by both the Western and Eastern hemisphere in our infantile stage of nationhood. We readily absorb both culture and traditions and constantly bastardized any remaining inherent sentiments. A dangling perception of mixed culture never to be whole.
There is the Philippine art before the Spanish colonization and it would have reflected our inherent culture and would have placed us on equal footing with our Asian neighbors. The signs have reflected that it still remains with us and have evolved with our other influences. Pure Philippine art in it indigenous stage would not be entirely possible and would be only an illusion if one could ideally isolate it from other influences yet knowing this vaguely would not help us now if we could not have the liberty of immersing generations.
There is not to say a pure art had existed anywhere and had been isolated in Philippine history. There has been a constant evolution that creates and destroys in use and knowledge. Yet in the Philippines we have been learning and exploring... We have been growing in strength and evolving with the nuances of neo global culture. Growing conciously aware of our challenges with the development of our economy, our government, institutions, infrastructures and people . With the start of new beginnings we have places for the development of art and our Filipino culture. We just need the time and the space to put our roots down. We need to settle in.
Perhaps we can say in part that our culture now is largely independent with what we strove for in progress as a country. Very much unlike the development of art as a spearhead to challenges, changes and structures already in place in other developed countries. We move in parallel and always cataclystic. Reactionary with that invisible challenge undefined as of today....
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