VARYING issues are constantly brought to light within Cebu’s art scene as one artwork speaks of a thousand words about a certain issue. As the region’s art industry continues to develop, these artworks come together and create a big resounding voice; the issues they wish to tackle, fall into one statement connected by conjunctions.
Highlighting nine of their favorite artists from the Visayas and Mindanao, Qube Gallery launched Conjunctions with Michelle Hollanes Lua, Jericho “Jake” Vamenta, Jonathan Benitez, Roderick “RA” Tijing, Junjun Montelibano, Hilario Campos III, Rodney Yap, Louie Talents and Nomar Miano.
Cebu-based artist Nomar Miano, a teacher in the University of San Carlos’ School of Architecture Fine Arts and Design, presented to the public an installation entitled The Europeanization of the Flesh. He explained the importance of embodiment in art through it.
“I am fixated with the idea of being embodied. People create ideas. But although we create them, they often serve as contraptions. And that’s what I mean by embodiment. We are embodied beings. We create ideas and constructs but these constructs oftentimes also enslave us. The Europeanization of the Flesh refers to the collective flesh, the flesh of the Filipinos because Filipinos want to have this kind of skin. We measure the value of the image of the Filipino skin and its meaning in relation to white European skin. That’s historical, the way we see ourselves in relation to other colors somehow constructed by what happened in history. These ideas were brought here by Europeans. We were colonized so even though they are not here anymore we still have that kind of mentality,” said Nomar.
Michelle Hollanes Lua, currently taking up Folklore Studies in Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, impressed the crowd with two bejeweled sculptures of creatures found buried beneath the forgotten stories of Philippine folklore entitled Sea Bird and Sigbin.
“I want to preserve Philippine folklore because there are lost stories. Children today don’t even know what a ‘sigbin’ is. Philippine culture is very wide and beautiful and as an artist I want to preserve it by sharing. Folklore, we preserve it by telling those stories and as a visual artist I want to make sculptures out of those stories. This is the beginning of a series,” said Michelle.
Aside from bringing to life creatures whom people have never laid eyes on before, what was most intriguing was the material Michelle created the creatures from.
“My materials are from broken shoes, belts and bags. I selected those metal beads, aluminum and a fiber glass cast. I gathered them from flea markets because nobody really finds damaged bags useful anymore. I am able to find destroyed Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags or shoes and I tear them apart because I only need the beads. I have a video of the process I go through because there are stories behind those,” said Michelle.
Jake Vamenta with his symbolic art that usually revolves around domestic issues, stunned the crowd with his piece entitled Salamangkera, a commentary on the double burden faced by many women.
“That painting is about women who multitask because they are mothers, workers, lovers for the husbands etc. They have so many things to do. They actually juggle the tasks and with its title Salamankera, which means magician, here they are being portrayed as such,” said Jake.