CUT2010: Small World

Ramona Rivera

With the advent of digital technology, photography has now become a ubiquitous part of daily life. With the increasing ease and speed of its dissemination, it is undoubtedly one of the most accessible and democratic art forms. Everyone can be a photographer and photography is everywhere – from books, newspapers, magazines, street corners, malls, buildings, private homes, galleries, museums, to the internet. More interestingly, everything now can be the subject of a photograph.

CUT 2010: Parallel Universe, Valentine Willie’s annual survey of photography from Southeast Asia, departs from the conventional function of the photograph as a representation of the real, and instead focuses on the alternate visions, fantasy and fetish that pervade in the works of eleven young and emerging photographers from the region. Curated by Eva McGovern, Valentine Willie’s new overall curator, the exhibition includes works by Agan Harahap, Eiffel Chong, Frankie Callaghan, Michael Shaowanasai, Mintio, Sara Nuytemans and Arya Pandjalu, Shooshie Sulaiman, Tanapol Kaewpring, Wawi Navarroza, Wimo Bayang, and Zhao Renhui / The Institute of Critical Zoologists.

Having made the rounds of Valentine Willie’s several outposts in the region, CUT 2010 finally opened in the Philippines, at Manila Contemporary last September 18. At first glance, the photographs in the exhibition seem unremarkable, perhaps brought on by the manner of their presentation. The gallery’s already cavernous space is simply too small for the number of photographs included in this exhibition. Granted that photographers often work in series, but not everything needs to be included to deliver the point. The barrage of images have a de-sensitizing, numbing effect, little is retained after seeing the show.

Except for the works of Wawi Navarroza and Shooshie Sulaiman, the other works in the exhibition follow the default output of most photographs, the traditional standard-size print on fine paper. Of course, these are more acceptable for buyers, but it denies the possibilities that contemporary photographers have already established – that photography is more than just a printed image, more than just its subject, but is a process that can have various manifestations. Photocopies, x-rays, lightboxes, albums, videos, projections, installations, even particular type of paintings and sculptures, can be linked to photography. Their inclusion would have given this exhibition a wider sense of contemporaneity and a more dynamic definition of what photography can be today.

(CUT 2010: Parallel Universe is ongoing at Manila Contemporary until October 10, 2010.)

Catalina Africa: The Etymology of Disaster

Ramona Rivera

Catalina Africa’s first solo exhibition The Etymology of Disaster, which opened last September 14, 2010 at West Gallery, ruminates on the origin of perceived tragedies, “involving moments so small, and almost secret that you hardly even notice them.” Her photographs, charts and collages depict and use everyday scenes and objects, so familiar to our landscape, yet in their ease, there is an underlying current that is seemingly just waiting to implode.

Her collection of sunset photos retrieves the image from the deep horizon of clichés and banalities. She says, “sunsets are so overused and abused that they’ve become almost sad. Yet we never tire of them, we never fail to comment on a beautiful sunset, or to take pictures of them for that matter. I find this relationship intriguing.” Shot in black and white and arranged like an organized grid on the gallery’s front wall with the word Departure in pink, the work sidesteps the obvious sentimentality associated with the sunset and instead becomes a survey, a pattern, an interplay of light and darkness.

Her other photographs – a bunch of balloons tied to a ladder by the beach, makeshift cardboard or plywood prop – houses, and letters made out of leaves, petals and small debris that spell out ‘wowowee’ – seem so natural, as if they were actually just found. Their subtle deceptiveness and vulnerability are part of a strategy that is cleverly wielded through photography.

A sense of spaced – out humor is evident in her charts and constellations. In Happy Camping, she begins with the word ‘Let’s’ and maps out endless and interconnected possibilities that can follow. In Dust, she mirrors the night sky, replacing the stars with plastic googley eyes, as if to say that the universe is watching.

Still a student at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Ms. Africa has yet to fully grasp the potential scale of her first utterances. If she can remain steadfast and not fall into the common traps that nip young artists in the bud before they even have time to mature and blossom, then she may be someone worth watching. The works in her solo debut may be small tentative steps; but they are surely quite the opposite of a disaster.

(Catalina Africa’s ‘The Etymology of Disaster’ is on view at West Gallery until October 9, 2010.)

Cube: A Review in 4 Easy Sentences

Ramona Rivera

1. Another cube / box group exhibition, how square is that?
2. Cube is not a group show but a single work, an installation by the artist-curator, Nilo Ilarde.
3. The works of the other artists should be not be seen or represented as individual pieces, but as part of a larger whole.
4. Roberto Chabet has unpacked his work, out of which came generations of Filipino artists whom he encouraged to think outside the box; they should naturally question the premise of this exhibition.

‘Cube’ is ongoing at Finale Art File’s Tall Gallery until September 27, 2010.

Lena Cobangbang & Bea Camacho: Sisters?

Ramona Rivera

Two exhibitions, which opened on the same day within walking distance from one another may be perceived as a kind of twinning or a sister act. Lena Cobangbang’s Velvet Landing at MO_Space is a spread of carpets and installations that spillover from her earlier solo presentation at Finale, Crater Valley Plateau. As with her previous work, Ms. Cobangbang creates fantastic, illusory and mocking landscapes and environments using various everyday domestic materials, projects that she likens to ‘failed scientific experiments’. For this exhibition, she lays down the carpet as a stage for her comedy of errors – a panther is scorched and skinned, a clown is hit by lightning, mushrooms and stalagmites are growing, a plane crashes at night. We may fall flat on our faces, but at least it’s a soft landing.

Bea Camacho’s Standard Fiction at nearby Pablo Fort likewise works with domesticity and other controlled and simulated environments. She adds another chapter to her long-running familial narrative with her new works that aim to reconstruct memories, images and spaces of her old family home, which has now been gutted down and stripped bare for renovation. She admits the works are inadequate, an abstraction, a translation, removed from the real, a fiction. A chandelier made of wood hangs light-less and low. Images of bare walls scarred with the shadows of what used to hang on them are imprinted on neatly folded sheets. A swatch of carpet tries to remember its original color with the help of a pantone strip.

Ms. Cobangbang and Ms. Camacho’s practices overlap in many ways. Both deconstruct situations, objects and images from their personal space – either the studio or the home to create fictionalized identities, contexts and settings. Both are informed by design and sign-making; Ms. Cobangbang works as a freelance production designer, mostly for music videos and Ms. Camacho used to work as a corporate design consultant. Both of them have interests in architecture and spatial relationships, evidenced by their use of installation, objects and other props. Both are also susceptible to traditional ‘women’s work’ – crochet, embroidery and other crafty leisure activities to while away or measure time. You can even almost imagine them sister-like, threading different ends of the same quilt.

Seeing their two exhibitions side by side however, it is clear that there is a palpable divide between them when it comes to the aesthetics, values and production of their work. Trained at the UP College of Fine Arts, Ms. Cobangbang, in keeping with the 90s DIY attitude, prefers handmade, raw and messy one-offs. Nevermind if they are a tad too grungy and will most likely break apart as soon as you bring them home; that is all part of the work. Several years younger than Ms. Cobangbang, the Harvard educated Ms. Camacho, in contrast, works with white gloves and there is almost a business-like detachment with the way she approaches and represents her subjects no matter how personal they are. Sleek, machine-made editions that are so conveniently well-framed and wall-bound.

Would it be safe to say that this is largely due to a generational shift? They say art history can be simply put as a pendulum that swings back and forth. And if these two exhibitions are of any indication, where can we be now? One thing for certain, Ms. Cobangbang and Ms. Camacho are far from being even half-sisters. The thread is basically never long enough to finish the quilt, so it might be best to just leave it all in shreds.

(Lena Cobangbang’s ‘Velvet Landing’ is ongoing at MO_Space until September 26, 2010 and Bea Camacho’s ‘Standard Fiction’ at Pablo Fort until October 9, 2010)