Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Much has been said, in print and online reviews, about the narrative structure of Ploning. For some, it was a distraction, something that just made the story confusing; for others, it was there to make things more difficult or complex, given that the story seemed simple enough. Across the reviews, this narrative structure has been pinpointed as the reason for the problems with plot and characterization. (more…)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
You know there’s something wrong when you don’t understand your bills di’ba? But of course this has been happening since forever, since I started paying my own bills. Long ago, a housemate asked: do you think Meralco’s really charging us more than it should? Sure that this was (is) the nature of capitalists like the Lopezes, I said, of course! even when I couldn’t explain how or why.
Oh but the powers of perseverance coupled with the patience of pregnancy, and bills that seem to grow expensive by the month! There’s also, of course, the continued distrust in capitalism and government. This was first published in early May of the year via www.stuartsantiago.com, long before Judy Ann Santos did the paid ad of Meralco, and dared talk about her reading of her Meralco bill, insisting that it’s the correct one. To wit, Juday says of her “meralco-is-innocent-reading”: “Yan ang basa ko. Tingnan mo sa bill mo. Maliwanag.”
E ang totoo, hindi nga maliwanag. So here’s a rundown of what I’ve figured out so far. (more…)
a version of this was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Arts and Books Section, August 23 2010.
Because Mark Salvatus and his work inspired by the Quezon Provincial Jail would be the most logical choice for the Ateneo Art Award 2010, to this critic who has seen most these artists’ exhibits when they came out in galleries and museums across the metro, and who does insist on relevance and resistance, and its possibilities in art.
Of the 12 short-listed artists with works in exhibition at the Shangri-la Plaza Mall’s Grand Atrium, Salvatus’ installation “Secret Garden” and painting “Do or Die” were the most outright political, speaking of the lives we’d rather forget about, the silence that is as noisy as our screams. The jail ain’t a pretty place, especially in the Philippines. The ugly ain’t the usual set of works that we see the Ateneo Art Awards (AAA) liking, and let’s not even begin about the political.
The argument would be of course, that everything is political. And looking at the manner in which this AAA exhibit exists can only be telling. In the context of this high-end mall, with mostly foreign shops, the second floor lobby filled with contemporary (and young) Pinoy art just seemed so out of place. Or maybe it was perfect. Read more…
a version of this is in the Arts and Books Section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 9 2010.
From afar, the first thing you notice about Ruben de Jesus’ works is its colors. Reds, blues and blacks are rendered in various and unexpected hues that play around with light and shadow and emphasis. Up close, each of the pen and ink works is a story in itself, at the same time that all together they could be bound into one children’s storybook. Simpleng Buhay, Simpleng Kulay (The Alcove, Filipinas Heritage Library, Makati Avenue) seems simple enough in theory, but in reality it speaks of a complexity that’s in the artwork, and more importantly is beyond it.
The choice of the simple
Last year, de Jesus mentioned the idea of paintings on the simple life to Filipinas Heritage, and while they were excited about it, de Jesus needed to be given much space and time to do it. Sometimes it wasn’t clear how much of the work was being done, or even how many artworks there were going to be. But a year after, there are 12 framed artworks all in all, six in blue and black and six in red and black, each one working with a particular moment in rural life that might be deemed simple, if not forgotten, maybe a reminiscence, by current standards of city life and development. Read more…
basahin ang kabuuan dito.