The start of our generation of then young artists of SBW!

SBW

One could sum up the number of artists struggling to be recognized in the Philippine art scene and find out that it would stretch almost infinitely. From the earliest I could remember in the 1990's we were aggressive. We were always up to the dare. We were focused perhaps because there were also equally good and better young artists around us to measure ourselves with. The artist group Salingpusa and Sanggawa were both breakthroughs. The equally strong response and competitions from the Chabet conceptual artists were a pleasurable view. Both overlapping and producing more good exhibitions that we waited with rapt attention to. So many artists were also accorded recognition in the Thirteen Artists Award and figured in prestigious and not so known art competitions. We knew all of them and we knew that within the group everyone had the potential to be better. There were exceptional young individuals charting on their own too. These young artists were rare and easily supported by the few prominent galleries. Galleries were snobbish then and particular on who was selling a lot. It was a tough deal to present your works. Some eventually recognize that there should be some opportunities opened to other aspiring ones but it did not mean the younger lot. It was just that the quota was already almost filled up during our times. Yet we all did not want to give up. Perhaps because we do well to work with our group, we stuck it out together.


We succeeded eventually. We recognized earlier that it was tough getting represented in a better gallery. Unless you had connections. We never wanted to suck ass. It was a tough uphill fight but eventually I enjoyed the journey the most. We wanted to show and we wanted to share. We broke through most hurdles to bring out changes and other perspectives that young artists contend with. We stuck together even with the sharpest criticism from personalities. We reacted, changed and also challenged.


Finally, breaks were offered and this made the challenge more interesting as more were offered recognitions and became critical to include and encompass different morphing concepts and new influences. We became more afraid of being labeled or included as an afterthought to an existing movement and fought against it tooth and nail. We did not want to limit ourselves in a box. Between the SR, Genre Realists, Modernists, Conceptuals and et al there were very few vacancies left. We delayed because that would not force us to alienate those not included. Eventually we concluded financial concerns would have forced us to commit but we wanted to postpone it. Perhaps because we were lucky enough to find patronage, support and guidance from the two prominent curators of our time that time itself became more flexible. We were also very fortunate to have them as good mentors, teachers and friends. Mr. Roberto "Bobi" Valenzuela and Prof. Roberto Chabet were unique because they led us all in a merry pursuit for excellence, great exhibitions, good ideas, competition, a bigger playing field, confidence and vision. Because we saw in these two people checks and challenges that made it a worthwhile struggle to always rise up and succeed. A real power struggle without the bloodshed but mutual respect and ever so better exhibitions.


I would like to take the opportunity to thank Prof. Roberto Chabet and the late Mr. Bobi Valenzuela. Both were well loved pioneers in their own ways in promoting young Filipino artists and helping them stand independently and create better works. They have been stalwart supporters of Contemporary Art in the Philippines. In their ways they have helped young artists including myself to be independent and challenged.

Waiting the line for recognition, we saw eventually some became lost. Some sacrificed time to do what could be better for the majority. Some delay. But it was a rarity who gambled friendships and relationships for that elusive 15 minutes of fame. They always came back. We recognized that to succeed we have in competition what we have achieved as a group. Anything less paled from the success of the formalities of SBW. It opened up time for most of the members to metamorphose and be more confident in bringing out individuality in each' works. The one big break rolling that could make him/her into a success (in one's own estimation that is). Just to let you know our group never had settled for less because our checks were very vicious – camaraderie, opposing polarity, unpredictability, consensus and the Surrounded By Water spaces.


We started with exhibitions organized during college years mainly from ideas borne from an enthusiastic professor with time to burn and huge amount of ideas to tap from. (The trunk of his car). Founding the group Yellow Door for our first group exhibit and instantly killing it after sending a bunch of press kits to newspapers and seeing it in print would be a clue on what later would be 'dynamic' and 'unpredictable'. To be noted that it came as a title of prestige in attaining the much sought after Fine Arts college room is another. It never so much passed the group consensus so it ended down the drain.<


We also started going to gallery openings and meeting a lot of people. We built friendships and our own presence to support fellows. We were invited to talk about our ideas and eventually that led to being recognized as a group. We were often referred to as UP group. There were other students from other schools and we complimented them. We were able to come up with shows and organize traveling exhibitions that opened up more venues. Some of us began to specialize on different tasks for the group. It came naturally that we respected the group norm. Internally we were stronger and we challenged each other more. We explored going to different alternative venues like Pundaquit Zambales and being involved with localities. We also planned for a regular studio that would house us. We rented the roof top of a dormitory building to work in. After college we met often. We then started again to exhibit.


We became a precedent wherein we would through the years hardly find ourselves the only ones neither entertaining nor attaining. Exhibitions abroad and prominent local shows happened. The international residency grants and collaborations with international artists offered glimpses of what is. The influx of international curators and galleries eyeing the local artists came and added interests. The times and recognition have changed the field again. Skyrocketing rents opened and closed galleries. It marked the importance too of bigger spaces like warehouse and unrented ones. Alternative spaces became formal ones. There would also be conflicting gains in the balloon effect of auctions or the prominence of exhibiting abroad in artificially resuscitated countries. The Recession of 2008 continuing had been a reality check and a welcome challenge to reassess.


I became sentimental now while watching my fellows prepare for the exhibit "In the Ocean Without a Boat or a Paddle: A Surrounded By Water Exhibit " for 2009. We could not always decide on how to curate the group show without stepping on a few toes . I still cringe about it but I hope I am and all of us are mature now. I understand now that we were scared that we would not be doing our best if we could not curate the works properly. I had always been naïve to leave it black and white but we always have to grow up. We had to be more professional about it. Looking at it always from a different perspective. I just wanted my friends around me and to do what I do best.


The successions of exhibitions came to be. It started a saga that would stretch all throughout our lives as friends (now more than fifteen years and counting in 2009). With this new undertaking we close the chapter and begin another again as equals. I have not always been truthful about my loyalties. I never spoke out but I had always assumed that together we would overcome the challenges. We came together as friends. Most of us had come from second degrees and had transferred from other degrees. We were older than most college freshmen. We grew to include more people with what we started and we became more responsible for a greater thrust and hopefully for a better Philippine Art scene.


So, the story begins! From a brainchild born from toddling and teetering to the unknown. Ideas fed upon would make way for the leading turned-up-heads of the ending century. An impressive feat that started for a no-name artist group and eventually took in the mantle of the Surrounded By Water when we had to formally fill up SEC registrations. Initially we were thirteen who signed the requirements but we included more from then on informally.



A steady absorption of information and names to go with had nourished an unconquerable sense of self-preservation to succeed tempered by eagerness to create. Too much one might observe and often remarked by critics too soon perhaps. Today we cross this junction and validate ourselves again. A better background for the economic recession of 2008.


The 2009 playing field has changed but the hunger has remained for challenges. One might say a lot of us in Surrounded By Water have reached our peak but we will never be satisfied. We know the potentials of each member like our own through the years. We grew up together and we will grow up some more.


The shawarma logbook has been one of the major representations for this early unnamed group. It contained our misplaced propriety that most fandom as progress. There were several volumes of these logbooks that housed ideas, memories and doodles. They just happened to show up in the room and many took it up to draw or write something on. It was the diary of our group and it was opened to all. It housed our hang ups.


A bright idea of ​​coming up with a rented venue for our own without any experience and enough capital was pure suicide then. We rushed forward. Despite this minor setback, one explains to another, we have something to work on together and eventually fall on. This would also culminate in the inevitable break-up of individuals and the steady solidification of factions. Changes to make us stronger had eventually come.


Hardly, a consolation to a bunch of already desperate and struggling to live young idealists. Despite a crowded itinerary for the years to come, we still found an opportunity to add some more. "Quite obstinate bastards!" I might say. The Surrounded By Water Galleries were born. We had support from patrons who lent us the spaces, the collectors and buyers, the thankful people who brought in collectors and buyers, other artists for support and ordinary street people who just happen to be curious of what was going on inside. These we would be thankful for and remember.


Surrounded By Water Angono then came to be as a need to pursue a stand for the young artists of Angono, Rizal against the established norm. A concept shared by its pioneer to the group. It was a novelty that would carry us across and cushion most barbs aimed too low. Constant bombardment of the festive aesthetics with the UP formula of mayhem would take its toll. A chink would soon show itself yet solidify quickly to make up for it. A sentiment of change was in the air and a sure surprise to the oldies. It gave birth to Surrounded by Water Ortigas and then Surrounded by Water Cubao.

It was quite uncomfortable to wake up suddenly to find a gallery to loud for comfort and too energetic in vision. We did notice the changes that we came into like the need for brainstorming and the delegating of the odd jobs of managing the place. It would be a major factor to note assets that we share--- which is the hunger to learn, to compete and to explore. This would be struggling through the end. We started obliging ourselves to each and every task at hand as if we could burn every cynics to Jolo with all the bombardment of shows that we have at hand. Sometimes we keep on forgetting that we owe each other a chance to achieve our own goals and the space to grow. We strove forward some more.



The entree of the isolationists, the ever younger artists and the groupies would begin. It became better and encompassed more young artists. It became an umbrella to support other venues and more exhibitions. Another chapter to the ever evolving life of would be artists of Surrounded By Water. It would span a few more years. But our growth together was longer and that counted in the end. We would eventually forgive ourselves and others and have the closure that we needed to grow some more.

Being part of a curious lot of young artists has even given each of us a chance to collaborate on Surrounded By Water Angono, Ortigas and Cubao artist-run-spaces) exhibitions and group related projects. The group has since altered its original concepts, allowing more to transform and move on in their individual techniques, ideologies and beliefs. It may have just been curiosity that we started to exhibit together. It would stand like this until the next reunion for sentimental people.


PS After the exhibit opening the reviews were mixed. The Blanc Compound Shaw was a good space, supportive owner and there were better artists now. The works were hinting of different directions and reinventing oneself. Changes that fewer older artists dare to thread on this later stage. We pulled it off. There were a lot of good audiences. We were older. We were still friends but not best of friends anymore. We might be in the ocean without a boat or a paddle but we were moving forward slowly. Damn! We are still hungry!

Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™

Mandaluyong City, Philippines

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