CANVAS annual “Looking for Juan Outdoor Banner Project” 2018

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILIPINO?”

Bulwagan ng Dangal, UP Diliman, Pilippines

"Mang Pedro"

Digital Photography  on Cintra Board

2 ft x 3 ft

2018

Mang Pedro  is a vendor I have encountered outside our village in Pasig  way back in 2016.

I see him every morning   walking through the traffic  selling his goods with his unusual jacket.

With his consent, I was able to capture his portrait. I regret  not being to converse with him  thoroughly because of the rush hour.

He is quite energetic at his age, not  minding the  heat of the sun nor the rain.

I see in him the character  of perseverance and resilience  that  most Filipinos have.

The salawikain, "Walang mahirap na gawa pag dinaan sa tiyaga. " also reflects this character of  Mang Pedro.

My prior  intention was to capture the creativity of  his attire but in the end, I realized  Mang Pedro's character  gave the photograph more  significance than what  he was wearing.

How can personal collective  narratives  be represented through  traces of memory  signified by  found (personal) objects collected and imprinted in the creation of  personal maps. 

Cartography is defined as the science and art of making maps or graphical representations/images showing spatial concepts at various scales. Maps may convey geographic information about a place and can be useful in understanding topography, weather and culture depending upon the type of map. 

My project deals with   creating a  a layered map that may  illustrate my personal narratives based on my social encounters.  The finished work shall consist of  a 3ft x 4 ft,  3 piece layered  collagraph print in tracing paper  and three relief artwork  based on the print’s  3 matrix. 

The work shall  represent traces of an incomplete cartography,  at the same time selective and fragmentary .   It is a subjective approach in representing a  personal narrative .  This project  reflects on my personal   social encounters and  how  each  interaction may have shaped my personhood. 

My personhood changes with every type of  social relationship I experience.   I used print as a medium in order to exploit its   quality of being  reproducible. My project also deals with tracing memory and imprints of personal narratives.  Print   is an appropriate medium to  capture the image of things,  to preserve memories of social encounters signified by significant found  objects  in their ephemeral  form.  

By  creating imprints of   found objects collected from significant individuals  in my life,   I will be able to create a work  that presents a collection of  personal memories  in the form of a map that shall  situate  these individuals  based on  various levels of intimacy.

Objects from individuals met in casual    encounters  may be in the form of  small apparels. This size of the apparel may signify  the encounter,  short,  perhaps intimate but fleeting.   Peers and friends usually gave casual wear which signifies a certain type of comfort within the relationship but not at all intimate.

Relatives  gave  either  formal wear or  “pambahay”.  These clothes signify  the events in which I usually encounter these people, either at formal events or  at home. 

Personal Geographies,  oil, acrylic, textile on board, 36 x 36 inches 2018.  

collagraph matrix translated into  paintings.

Photo taken with Kidlat Tahimik  at SM Aura  exhibition ground, Manila, Philippines

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Association of Pinoyprintmakers

TIRADA

19 May to 15 July 2018

Buwagang Juan Luna (CCP Main Gallery)

Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino (3F Hallway Gallery)

Pasilyo Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery)

Opening reception: 19 May, Saturday, 4pm

This exhibition marks the fiftieth year of the organization of printmakers in the Philippines. Founded in 1968, the Printmakers Association of the Philippines paved the path for the acceptance of the art of the fine print in the country and the modes by which it becomes material: technique, technology, repertoire, subject, artistic vision, public reception, and critical evaluation.

The medium of print has constantly shifted in Philippine art history from the contexts of cartography to catechism, from commentary to modern and contemporary art. In every way it turned, the print was responsive to the demands of artistic expression and the urgencies of its social and cultural milieu. This is why this exhibition is not only confined to the work of the members of the organization, but opens itself up to all practitioners who are committed to the discipline and risk of the print.

“Tirada” is a term among printmakers that signifies a strike: to pull off or pull out a piece of work in a series of multiples. It also means effort and labor, a decisive action. It is a fitting term for this commemoration as the organization, which has recently morphed into the Association of Pinoyprintmakers, looks back at its history and its pioneers; revisits its archives and the lineages of practice; and reflects on the issues that confront the practice of printmaking.

In this vein, this exhibition is built around a range of concerns: the aesthetic integrity and intelligence of the work of the print and the status of the printmaker as an artist; the validity of appropriation within the artistic system of the print; the capacity of the print to respond to socio-political reality; the self-consciousness of the print as a medium; the place of the print in art history; and the processes by which the print plays out in the ecology of the popular.

  

Tirada honors the achievements of printmakers of varied persuasions and charts a course for the future of the art.

-Patrick Flores

Confession -  "Daing , Bulong, Dasal" rubbercut with chine' colle on sewn canvas,  2015   #rubbercut #chinecolle #artphilippines#pinoyprintmakers #TIRADA#culturalcenterofthephilippines