YOUNG artist and designer Andre Chan presents life, death, then life again at Qube Contemporary through his first solo art exhibit entitled “Metanoia” with 79 beautifully created pieces including an art installation called “The Mound of Transfiguration.”
With its roots in Shinto and Mahanya Buddhism, Chan’s “Metanoia” taps into the notion of regeneration—the quintessential ideas surrounding “reikon,” the equivalent to “soul” in Western culture.
With long, sporadic paint strokes across the number of canvases, the idea of a wandering spirit is consistent. This is in likeness of the searching for one’s final feat. Simultaneously, such long paint strokes also are representation of the cold course—the traumas, that one reaps in the simple action of living life. Altogether, such elements are essential in making man who he is. In the absence of these elements, he is not made man.
For Chan, trauma is a blow to the head that leaves any man concussed, a batter of the mind bestows upon its agony.
“It is traumatic occurrences that fashion the way in which we respond to the natural world; the stimuli it allows us to encounter. The soul carries with it the weight of these woes, and it is up to the man, in all of his individuality, to do—or not do—with such weight.”
The concept for his first solo exhibition was processed for about a year and has come to fruition in two months.
“I believe the hardest part was creating the art installation. It was a very daring move for the Cebu scene; however, I just went with it and believed that this could raise more awareness in art and my expression as an artist,” said Chan when asked what was the hardest part in creating “Metanoia.”
The 24-year-old artist would love to bring more awareness in art appreciation, and not just for the art collectors but for everyone to enjoy. To him, art is a celebration of culture and breeding of humanity.
Chan challenges himself every day to create more abstracted pieces, molding the unseen. “I can say that I can show more daring experiments soon, and I hope everyone will enjoy it!”
According to Chan, aspiring artists should constantly love what they do.
“Be experimental! Listen to the world, but in the end you have to listen to your heart!”
Check out “Metanoia” at the Qube Contemporary, Design Center of Cebu until the end of January 2022.