Ramona Rivera
Its sometimes interesting to wonder about what artists do during the day. Artists are often seen as nocturnal creatures, who only come out of their studios or houses starting at 6 pm when galleries usually have their openings. A typical day for an artist might be something like this: wake up, recover from last night’s work and/or hangover, eat something, start working, text, email, check facebook, look for materials, do something with it, break for a drink with other artists and friends who suddenly drop by, go to an opening, more drinks, more artists and friends, more art…
Many artists, unfortunately, cannot live on their art alone. Like everyone else, they have day jobs to sustain themselves and their art. On top of the usual things than an artist does, they have do all kinds of work – teach, write, curate, run galleries and spaces, do production design, advertising, graphics, commercial photography, shoot weddings and music videos, give workshops to kids, landscape gardens, anything, just to get by. After hours, cigarette breaks and fleeting moments throughout the day are for art, if not actually for making, but at least for thinking about it.
Artists Vic Balanon and Ferdz Valencia both work in graphic design, illustration and animation during the day. They have a common interest in underground culture, skateboards, death metal, independent film, and comic book publications. They both studied at the University of the East, majoring in Fine Arts and at the Mowelfund Film Institute, where they first collaborated on a 35 mm film animation project called Terminus in 1999. The same year they also participated in the annual group exhibition, Dog Show at Surrounded By Water in Angono, showing drawings and other works on paper. They also had a collaborative exhibition entitled Failure of a Modern Man in 2005 and participated in the group show Conflict Resolutions organized by artists Lena Cobangbang and Jayson Oliveria in 2006 at another critical but now sadly defunct alternative artist – run space Future Prospects at Cubao Expo, way before it became a hip and popular weekend destination.
Their most recent collaboration called The Crocogator at Green Papaya Art Projects, one of the few remaining alternative artist – run spaces in Manila, is a continuation of their long – standing interest in impromptu, guerrilla work: drawings directly on the gallery’s wall, temporary installations and assemblages using scraps and found material. For two weeks, they went to work and transformed Green Papaya’s front area into an open studio. Anybody who passed by can watch the two artists as they go about their job. They didn’t really have a plan about what to do; they just maximized the time, space and readily available resources to create their work. In the end, the products and remnants of their two – week collaboration was shown together with an animated video that documented their process, and a performance by sound artists Erick Calilan and Roger Lopez.
Mr. Balanon and Mr. Valencia’s The Crocogator is the first part of a new program called The Ephemera of Disposable Goods organized by Lian Ladia, Green Papaya’s new resident curator for this season, July – December 2010. Ms. Ladia is an artist herself and co-founder of the Filipino – American art collective Kwatro Kwantos and has organized various exhibitions in San Francisco, Oakland and Manila. Now she is based in town, where apart from Green Papaya, she also works as Silvana Diaz’ new assistant at Galleria Duemila. For her project at Green Papaya, she aims to present a series of collaborations, bringing together artists of “similar or dissimilar genres investigating social sculptural projects based on context of time/place, relational works and encounters and to make available to them Green Papaya’s space and bar hours as a facility where artists and public can engage in discussions and debates as the artist go through their process of constructions and deconstructions every session.”
Green Papaya is back on track after a tumultuous period of domestic squabbles and other issues. Norberto Roldan, Green Papaya’s founder, at one point announced that he would close the space after his very public separation from his former partner. Then he decided to keep it open and maintain the space as a bar. Now it seems like Mr. Roldan has found a more stable working relationship with Ms. Ladia, whose new program is reminiscent of the early alternative projects of artists at Surrounded By Water, Big Sky Mind and Future Prospects. Relational aesthetics was not yet a catch phrase then. Artists just did their work on their own terms, free from the expectations and limitations of commercial galleries and institutions. And often at the end of each working day, especially if there was an opening, they would gather, have too many cold beers and toast to the next round.
(Ferdz Valencia and Vic Balanon’s’ The Crocogator’ was presented at Green Papaya from July 28 – August 14, 2010. It is part of ‘The Ephemera of Disposable Goods’, an ongoing program by guest artist – curator Lian Ladia until December 2010.)
(Photos courtesy of Albert Ascona)
