The Landscape Artist
The Landscape Artist
The Philippine Art Scene 2009
05 22 2009
I wrote a sentimental scope on this chapter a few years back. I had come to terms with what was then happening around me. A lot had changed and some of my perceptions had come to pass and some have not. After seven years, I again try to come up with another projection. Hopefully, I would be wiser and experienced to commit some more ideas to print. Many changes have happened for the better.
“Waiting’ is the word in my vocabulary that I have been obsessed with. I knew that in a few years, we all grow older and we all would evolve. Redeeming one’s artmaking is his or her own responsibility. I cringe whenever I think about my own artmaking. I do have to work harder on them. What made us successful is that we survived it to be better. If one has closed doors and not left windows open, then there is little to go back to. In a way, we peers kept ties we unconsciously made. They had been weakened through the years but they will support us. I wanted to continue a question or statement train of thought as I did on an earlier article below. Maybe answering these personally would offer a good enough challenge. I would try to commit my answers too to follow.
Could the penchant for site specific works be the next chapter?
I confess to being late to a talk I have been meaning to attend at the Lopez Museum. Barely getting the topic straightened out. But the question and answer portion was informative. I rather enjoyed listening to the answers, the panels and the audiences. Singapore is not the only place to go for artists. I had no questions to ask as I already was set on some ideas of the talk. I was just curious on some more facts. I am for supporting emerging artists. I stand in support for institutions that prevail in contributing to do this.
I agree that site-specific-works are the genre right now in artfairs and biennales. It is important that artists are aware of the community that their artworks are to be shown in. Sponsoring communities do have guidelines and norms that artists are expected to respect if not react to. If you go against it without the community consensus, it is likely you would have your installation reviewed. There are also instances of installations could just be giant eyesores and garbage. I still hope that responsibility and professionalism goes hand in hand with skill, creativity and concept. Documentations are the essential formats that these pieces depend on even though they are created for ephemeral purposes. Once these events end, most are unaware that they are just torn apart and the important pieces are just kept for future installations. Most would just leave all of it as garbage after documentations to avoid shipping fees. Smarter, would be if the artists could have the community adopt the structure, fund it and preserve it in their community.
After the biennales and art fairs where would the auction babies go next?
Hopefully back home to work on better works...
After the lack luster auctions a few months back affected by recession could we expect a resurgence?
It will still continue. It will distract all artists. It would hope to create an interest to newer works. But auctions are like old collectors. They only pick time proven pieces that artist created at the time of his or her peak. It would offer documentation. It would confuse a lot of artists eager to get on the bandwagon. It would be selective. We would have the casualties and we would have the winners. It would always be entertaining to watch.
After the many grants and travels offered and made available to artists, did it infuse the fresh blood needed to resuscitate an ailing art scene?
Hopefully yes. If artists are eager to get grants. They should be eager to share them first. The secret of grants is your passion to help others.
Do we have enough capable writers, critics and curators now that there are encouraging venues for them with the new spaces and museums?
With the leading newspapers brisk sales on scandals and gossips. Who needs the critics and writers in the arts?
Are interactions and collaborations bringing a new awareness to a new era of Filipino Art?
There will always be opportunities for interactions. They are just less stressed. There is less vision I admit on some projects. There are more mediocre artists than better ones to invite though.
Are the new larger spaces and galleries strategically opened better to sustain a resurgence in this decade?
They are. There is the natural selection. The fittest would stay. The unfit would not last the next year. The ones with visions would find the necessity to stay. The ones with passion would be breakthroughs. The others would be left behind laughing to the banks selling their genre paintings and interior designs.
Is the Filipino artist ever ready?
For the next competition he is. Philip Morris here we come.
Is there a place for a Managering Artist?
Most artists have at one time been successful in promoting their concepts and thus selling their art. Having sold the majority of the exhibition pieces or getting the sought out commission can be quite rewarding. But it doesn’t stop from there. The next six months could be harder if finances are not handled properly. It is a long journey of discipline and planning. We need the correct perspectives to improve our individual finances and save and prepare for future projects. Managing one’s finances even before all of this happening might leave a lot of artists rather stumped. For some artists it is better to get courses and managering one’s career. For others just getting a professional art manager would be the best option.
Economically the Philippines is stronger, would this bring a different change?
Yes it would. Filipinos are stronger too. We had all the opportunities to be better. We are older and more mature. Lets act it, just see them through and support the better works.
Is relearning the ropes easy for an older artist?
Starting again after a hiatus is different from reinventing one’s artmaking. It might overlap in some perspective as reorientation but the former is picking up where one left and the latter is going in a different direction or branching out in concept, form, medium or in discipline completely.
We grow older with the times but would we be consistently making our art?
Changes effect us but would it show in our works? It would be against the law now to tape nudity in women and children. I would further add that nudity in paintings would be frowned upon now more than before. Maybe artists getting the kick out of going against the norm would now be eying controversial streaks. We are not prude. We are not more religious. We are just plain uninterested in ethics and morality and more on entertaining ourselves.
Why would an artist or a painter be concerned about the recession of 2008, threat in North Korea vs US or H1N1 epidemic?
Now that the first 10 cases of A(H1N1) virus are in Philippines, dissemination and awareness should come hand-in-hand to help overcome the immediate threat. Not to cause panic but information. There is a conspiracy theory in this. We as a country should be independent and self sustained to overcome crisis that could hurt us. It’s ironic that it doesn’t come secondary for Filipino artists to raise brushes to promote awareness and information instinctively. We are numbed. It is media and news addressing them on the forefront always. I sure for the current ratings war. Maybe enough time for everything to sink down should be considered. Maybe blogs would be the ideal forefront as the events get dissected through discussions through the internet. In this instances a photograph could be informative but paintings intrusive. With site specific works artists use and incorporate videos in works. Would reality streaming, taping and online streaming now be illegal and limited. How far would “For Art’s Sake” go from here? If artists would incorporate sex on installations would they now be censored and put to jail?
Recession has affected us and the imminent war would be a large factor in the near future. We will find ourselves.
What are the redeeming equators for us Filipino artists?
We are now reactive with some current events. It is sort of a pinball effect. We move when we are personally hit by the situation. Safe in a lot of instances. secured. Committing only when sure about the situations. Would surrendering our past differences mark a conquering of the present? Is our predicting the times really feasible for individuals artists, audiences and the art community? Caricatures are blown up in media. Personalities had long taken reigns of public interests and this had been specially particular in the Philippine contexts. Quotes had been effective slogans of hitting marks in televisions and in front of the camera. Public performances have been staged dramatically to hype or downplay scandals. In the Dr. Hayden Kho and Actress Katrina Halili scandal it is like a reality show complete with object, nemesis and protagonists. Perhaps artists should just document information and try to wring out sympathy in the end as recall.
There are very noteworthy artist individuals in the Philippines. But I still see no edge or hunger to be best. We are manipulated by struggle to survive. Artists in history are catalysts of changes. They are part of the events happening. They would continue to be.
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
Mandaluyong City, Philippines
*** visit me at
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amielaceremoroldan.tk
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www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
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October 29, 2002
I always wondered how one could start the introductions to an essay on this scope and what would be the qualities of such an author? I never did think much of it afterward. Hoping some poor soul would start on it leaving me to read about and smirk later. But to gauge your role and assess your place in this particular society -- an active practitioner in an art society at that! One has to face this sooner than one might expect to ground himself or herself to his community. I am facing this crossroad. I guess this is my time. I decided on a random statement - elaboration for flow of thought to start with the article. I wanted it to be subjectively effective. I also wanted it to be cryptic and frank. There will always come a time when one must search for his commitment --- in most people it might start as just an urge, an itch, a curiosity or in others it becomes passion. One might be contented to skim through while others have to dig deeper in each chapter. I just have to find mine fast. The first thing though to consider is the language. I decided optimistically on English as I could scrape decently with it and string coherently a few sentences without breaking sweat. I decided to use sparingly some Filipino in some instances just to express spontaneity. The second is the venue where one reads this essay to disseminate the information as widely as possible. I guess the blog would do. Lastly, its author should be a credible writer with the great literary skills. Perhaps a doctorate in the field with an attachment to one's name a mile length might help on coherence… An extensive background on the subjects including seminars and coffee sessions would help against digressing too much.
'Bah!' Better than the writers of numerous coffee table books adoring chic shelves and of course the recipient of many contributions that artists send to have a glossier image in these books. Should we be concerned with intrigues that seem to sustain the art scene? This should be a question to face when ever irrational revelation seem to be brought into discussion in every type of conversation. A few have been bothered enough to discuss these concerns. This collective mentality that seems to preoccupy people in this country have a damaging affect to everyone. It leaves a bad impression. This has been the norm entertainment -- these seemingly mundane sentiments that hold more water than a broken pail. We should have no patience to propagate these if it could not be constructive. Finding the Filipino spirit. Art in the Philippines have so far been reflections of the Western concept and would remain one. Through the ages, our own art making has been disdained upon and promoted for economic reasons. Our own claim of art has been to a large extent a mixture of different culture and traditional forms without being truly Filipino at heart. The successive colonization in the past and which still continues sublimely today has placed us in a unique position to look from and rue. The Eastern cultures and art making and its counterpart in Western Hemisphere is here to stay. Yet with our heritage, we still remain clueless in realizing our Philippine identity in the arts. We could never go back to the point of ideal Eastern Asian nor could we afford to completely embrace the Western concept. Though we could readily trace and say that we have a legitimate tie in one or the other, there are still quite a lot of problems. In Asia alone we are the only country to be occupied and influenced by both the Western and Eastern Hemisphere in our infantile stage of nationhood. We readily absorb both culture and traditions and constantly bastardized any remaining inherent sentiments. In fact nationhood is almost alien to us being volatile territorial islanders. A mixed culture that would never be whole? There is the Philippine art before the Spanish colonization and it would have reflected some of our inherent culture. It would have complimented us on equal footing with our Asian neighbors. If colonial fate has not been against the Filipinos. There are signs that it still remains with us and have evolved with our other influences. But Philippine art in it indigenous stage would not be entirely possible intact. It would be only an illusion if one could ideally isolate it from other influences. It would not help us now preserved with time. It has also to grow with its people. Knowing this would not help us now if we could not have the liberty of immersing the artists themselves and the people in generations of heritage. Say in four hundred years or so of isolation. Plainly speaking it would be unrealistic now. There is not to say a pure art had existed anywhere in Philippine art history. There has been a constant evolution that creates and destroys in use and knowledge. Yet the Philippine Art struggles to vindicate itself to its people. Treasures discovered-recorded-shown and internalized are essence of art. Do let us continue to support aesthetics, creativity and originality that continue to uplift the dynamism and uniqueness of the Filipino culture and its essence. Absorb what we can hold and cherish what we have amidst us that propel us forward aesthetically and culturally. In this instance, we might start to bring identity and pride in this newly found sense of art patriotism. History goes hand in hand with art. The Edsa revolutions I, II & the contested Edsa III reflect the mass sentiments. These are only few of the opportunities to expound and be immersed in. Very few had tackled social issues timely. These are choices that we encompass in our daily lives. These are sentiments unique to our generation. Let us not read about it only on the sanitized or biased columns of foreign or local newspapers. Let us not hear about it from the newest personality in his/her newest show format or on trivia game shows to be aware. Let us see, feel, touch, hear and taste them with our own senses in public works displayed amidst where we live in and live by. We owe ourselves more. "Sigh..."
Perhaps we owe more for the better part of enlightenment to the cable television. One is able to see for oneself the changes happening around the world. We are forced to realize that to move on we must take that initial step. Some countries understood the sentiments of its people, tradition and its history contributes to uniqueness that in turn supports artmaking. Changes around us must also be considered and pace ourselves to these developments. We could not afford to be last. We must bring the Philippines to base and from this stage we strive for the better.
What is art appreciation en masse?
This is where we have our society giving a damn about the situations in the art scene and addressing them. We don't have many galleries and museums that are viewed by the public in appreciation, educating the community, inculcating values and traditions and challenging norms. It may be due to the different priorities we have as Filipinos. It's a very sad that we have in our midst indifference. Art should be for the masses' appreciation too.The few museums here are dictated upon by economics and most have whimsical collections. There is really no great value except for sentimental reasons. Collections are divided and kept in such poor state physically. The climate in our country has created havoc in whatever was left not plundered. We should value what we could recover and build from them. The majority of the public are in malls with no relevant art seen. Public art is unheard of and largely ignored if seen. Commissioned works by government, guilds or religious organization churn out monstrosity and eyesores strategically placed in unsatisfying locations around urban landscapes. We don't have the right aesthetics to appreciate our own and hold them in value because they are characteristically handled by the least appropriate people. Let's say that we are more interested in gossips and misdemeanors of public personalities than going to exhibits. Yet media is quite strong in the Philippines. Maybe a new direction would be cooperation and collaboration with this entity. It's a start to have this idea prosper and make something of it as we move along. Maybe this banner of 'Sulong Pinoy!' slogan would rub off for the best. It gives emphasis what we could start from, a base. Lets not be critical on the beginning, as we have lately, no beginning that is worth to crow about. Some ideas in good intentions have bogged down at one time. We should strive forth continue supporting art. “Sigh…” One could have the government help institutionalize the many museums. Give passes and privileges at par with necessities of the Filipino community. Give grants that help structures be self-sustaining and exempt private companies that could be tapped as arms of promoting Philippine art. It could be "Baduy!" a lot of times. But we can't cry aesthetic injustice when we ourselves have not earned this right nor produced enough caliber artists alive that our countrymen could be proud of. Artists are creators of their present culture. I don't think we could hold them up better if they are dead.
What have we created of our culture now?
Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam are being elevated because of the distinct creativity of their people. Almost every country holds their own in high regard because of their uniqueness. Why can’t we produce the same? Why can’t we progress from here? Why not have the same values and appreciation? Because of the new venues and different independent representations of Filipino artists and art groups there is hope. But will it be enough?
We are now seeing new factions to emerge in the largely individualistic art community of the Philippines. Institutions that had stood for years now had young and old artists questioning ethics, concepts, forms, worth, applications, interactions, relations and merits. Steps are being taken seriously and hopefully internalized. Many exhibits that were formed around these nuclei of young emerging artists were successful. These young people are promoting art awareness. These events would hopefully not end in this generation but propagate largely and strongly. It became a bandwagon to be in of sort. Many formed their own goals individualistically. Many struggled and survived to the merit of the art scene albeit superficially still. Let us hope the efforts and challenges would be enough for the years to come.
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
Mandaluyong City, Philippines
*** visit me at
www.amiel-roldan.tk
www.amielroldan.tk
www.amielaceremoroldan.tk
at my blogs:
www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
www.amielroldan.blogspot.com
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/a-g-roldan.html
www.myspace.com/amiel_roldan
www.amiel_roldan.multiply.com
www.face-pic.com/amiel_roldan
please comment and tag if you like my compilations.
amiel_roldan@yahoo.com
amiel.roldan@gmail.com
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