Impotence

Marikina Trip 062413

I always loved the old feel of Marikina. Time seems to stop whenever I roam the  streets and take a breather by the river.It will always be my second home.

Dala-dalang Dalangin, Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2006

Article was published in Business World, Wednesday, March 22, 2006. 

Arts & Leisure page

Angelo Magno’s

Embodied prayers

By Josefa  Labay Cagoco

“Sana bumaba ang presyo ng mga bilihin. Sana bumaba ang pamasahe sa jeep.  (I hope the prices of commodities go down.  I hope jeepney fares go down.)”

Ipinagdadasal ko ang mga taong biktima ng digmaan at mga biktima ng mga sakuna ng kalikasan.  ( I pray for victims of war and natural disasters.)”

“Gusto ko ng sarili kong espasyo. Gusto ko malaman ang sikreto ng  kapitbahay ko.  (I want my private space.  I want to know my neighbor’s secrets.)”

“I love you. Please love me back.”

Whispered and shouted, sung and chanted, begged  and beseeched, these words reflect the  everyday prayers of people.  Many such prayers are gathered in Dala-dalang Dalangin, Angelo Magno’s exhibit that transforms the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Pasilyo Victorio Edades into an intriguing representation of a sanctuary.  As the title of the exhibition – Dala-dalang Dalangin- suggests these are the most intimate pleas carried in mind  and heart, and deposited only in public temples or private sanctums where people feel unrestrained to do so. 

The prayers, of course, come with the individuals that spoke them.  The faces, drawn on paper with oil pastel and graphite, are pictures of reverence and fear, impatience and resignation.  Some heads are plump, some thin, while others almost emaciated.  The drawings stand on top of thin metal poles  lodged in shoe molds. As the myriad color combinations used on the faces signify the invisible  emotional bruises, the  worn-out molds   stand for weathered feet and bodies.

The many gaping  toothless mouths empty eye sockets and bald heads leave grotesque impressions. (The anxiety embodied in expressionist Edvard Munch’s famous  work

The Scream   comes to mind.)  Is this really how people look in their most desperate?

With his background in creative writing, painting and theater, artist Angelo Magno recreates narrative embodying  visual, textual and symbolic elements. The wide ranging concerns shown in his installation reflect a life involved in, or in the least observant of, what goes on out there.

This recreated sanctuary is a place we are familiar with, a refuge we go to in our loneliness or sought in our gratitude.  Most definitely, it is a place that transcends the material space, for indeed it is something that we carry with us.

Vie De Pacifique International Print Exhibition

Expression of Interest: Pacific Rim Print Exchange

Vie de Pacifique/Pacific Life

An International Print Exchange to coincide with the Asia Pacific Triennial in late 2012

An exciting print exchange of original contemporary prints is currently being organised by Impress president Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura with a number of print studios on or bordering the Pacific Ocean. Each print studio will select up to five artists, each to make an edition (or series) of 12 (or more) prints (paper size A4), 10 that will be distributed to the other participating 10 countries, the remaining prints for sale. Each country would be responsible for finding a venue to exhibit and financing in their respective countries. In Queensland, Impress will host the Vie de Pacifique/Pacific Life exhibition at our new studio in October/ November 2012 whilst the other countries involved would stage their exhibitions pending the availability of their venues.

A theme has been decided which will enable a cultural identity to emerge from the artworks. Artists will explore their relationship with the pacific as a source of life and beauty, an element, a source of food and a means of travel and recreation. They could also take into consideration the dumping ground for human and industrial discardments it has become. They could take into consideration the soothing, peacefulness and beauty, concealing the untameable, unpredictable and dangerous aspects of it and what it contains. The Artists are encouraged to reflect on the Pacific in their own way:

·         aesthetically and pictorially

·         subjectively and emotionally

·         politically with ecological concerns

·         philosophically or practically

·         culturally

·         any other perspective

Some of the countries involved are geographically remote; our climates vary from tropical, to temperate and sub-arctic/antarctic. Each country has greatly differing flora, fauna and marine life and coastlines and cultural lore related to the Pacific; each country uses the ocean as a means of transport, food supply/sustenance or other purpose. Queensland has a strong recreational link to the Pacific beaches, our penchant for ocean view or canal front homes and our lifestyle. What does the Pacific mean to you?

Countries who have expressed interest so far are- Australia, Chile, Japan, The Philippines and Vanuatu, New Zealand. We have also sent enquiries to Canada, San Francisco, and Hawaii. The exhibition will present contemporary printmaking practices as they have developed in each participating country.  All printmaking techniques will be accepted, traditional and digital, editions and monoprints but they must be on archival paper.

Artists interested in participating in this international print exchange will be required to lodge an expression of interest by June 30^th 2011. An entry fee will be charged to cover international freight and exhibition fees. Each studio will get to keep their set of prints to exhibit around their country, add to their collection or sell to an interested museum. Five Impress members will be selected to exhibit their works, and a maximum of five printmakers from each country. Details for lodging your expression of interest will be sent out to the exchange co-ordinators of each country and Impress members via email, listed on our website and advertised through Print Universe and other online arts organisations.

Expressions of Interest close on June 30^th 2011, please mark this date in your diaries. I am looking forward to hearing from you and your print making community.

Kind regards,

Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura

President Impress Printmakers Studio

“Royalties of  Flight”

Vie de Pacifique is  an exchange of creative outputs between different  cultures.  Each locality   share  a certain narrative  using images  familiar to their immediate environment.

Flight denotes travel,  motion, or may connote a  transit of ideas .

I have decided to use  two  iconic images in the Philippine setting to express the process of exchange of  creative works from one local to the other and in one way or the other,  present images  that reflect the distinctive mirage of Manila, the Philippine capital .

I have used the word “Royalties” as a metaphor for the popularity of the two iconic images that I have used for my print. These images present the polarities of male and female, nature and technology , urban and rural and yet form a balance between contrasting two energies, just like the yin and yang.

Manila is both urban and rural in its setting.  Among the hustle and bustle of the metro,  the environment is still filled with diversities that  reflect  the roots of the people.

The maya, is a native bird from the Philippines. Similar to the robin,  this  common yet pleasant  bird  can be seen   all around the Philippines.    The people do not touch them nor hurt them. They seem to liven up even the most mundane setting. These   They  are considered the little queens wherever they are found. A  sort of royalty in their own right.  “Reyna” is translated as Queen in Filipino.

 The jeepney is the means of  public transportation in Manila. Its owners usually garnish them with accessories.  Personal  names  are even given to this  mode of transportation in order to give it a sense of  uniqueness or personality.  Just like a person with a distinct character, no jeepney is designed alike.  Citizens call it “The King of the Road”  since they dominate mostly all the avenues of the metro.  “Hari” is translated as King in the Filipino language.

“Royalties of Flight” also connote the transit of these images   from its locality-  the Philippines to other areas -  Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Hawaii, Japan, France,  among other places.  They  are  relics that in one way or the other  represent a small glimpse of how textured yet balanced  the Philippines   as  a locality.

Con/Text

Tatsulok Series Angelo Magno's Tatsulok Series takes on Martial Law by divesting two of its most famous icons of their names and labeling them what the were: ang pinuno at ang musa. The refusal to depict them for what they did in those positions is also in the form that the woodcutting allows, where lines create a sameness among images. The latter is what works for these two icons relative to the third one, as the rebel is made into the every man, allowing precisely for that possibility. Cont/Text, a group exhibition, Gallerie Anna, SM Megamall, Manila, Philippines, Feb. 2013 CON/TEXT By Katrina Stuart Santiago

That art and culture and creativity are cradled by the historical milieu from which they spring goes without saying. Yet to some extent, in the Philippines, cultural production is wont to feign disengagement from socio-political events, celebrating notions of silent spectatorship, of removal. That in the process, art becomes complicit in what might be an oppressive state of affairs has become all but normal. Con/Text is a group exhibit that gathers artists who dare engage with contemporary socio-econo-politics, in the process taking to task history and its telling. And no, here artmaking is not merely about being mirror and reflecting what is happening in nation. Instead in the works of these 14 artists, context is reason for being, as it is acknowledged and articulated impetus for creativity. And diverse creativity is here. This exhibit gathers together Don Salubayba, Iggy Rodriguez, Robert Besana, Lindslee, Marika Constantino, Michelle Lim-Lee, Angelo Magno, J. Pacena II, Jepren Solis, Arvi Fetalvero, Veejay Villafranca, Rai Cruz, Vincent Aseo, and Kirby Roxas. This is to say that it cuts across creativity from design to street art, mixed media to print, abstract to social realist art. The daring is as complex and varied as each artist’s individual intervention: of shifting attention from the national telling of events, to the personal engagement with the same. Certainly it is the decision to take a critical stance that is the point of this exhibit, its insistence that the personal take precedence over mainstream public discourse that informs the national. Here, 14 artists engage with history and current events, conscious of the shift from the latter to the former, from without to within. Here, the critical stance is about being con to this text that is our common history. Here, is nation. But also here are our artists daring to intervene in its making.

"Hindi Mo Nadinig", music video featuring Gloc-9, directed by Jaime Pacena, 2013, AVM(Stylist, Production Designer )

"Dapat Tama",GMA 7 station ID for 2013 national elections/ music video featuring Gloc-9, directed by Jaime Pacena, 2013, AVM ( Stylist, Production Designer )