Postcollonial Arts In The Philippines 2d4x2x

POST-COLONIAL ART (1946–1986) Art After the War: The Growing and Expanding Philippine Arts

• Philippine Modern Art (1946-1970) • Philippine Post Modern Art (1970-1980s)

PHILIPPINE MODERN ART (1946-1970)

Philippine Modern Art (19461970) • The study of determining what is Philippine Contemporary Art Period is still being determined since the word has been used loosely used even during the American Colonial Period. However, some Philippine art historians/critics has always been a follower of the Western Art Style and its trends at that point and thus, suggested that this was actually the point where Philippine Modern Art Period started but went only full swing only after the war. This is set by the creation of the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) that in a way has a strong leaning with the Modernist than the Conservatives (the traditional art also termed Amorsolo School)

Philippine Modern Art (19461970) • Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar F. Legaspi, Victor Oteyza, Vicente S. Manansala, Romeo V. Tabuena, and Ramon A. Estella began the modern art movement in the Philippines, while Lydia “Lyd” Arguilla eventually put together the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG), the first gallery in the Philippines to showcase modern art.

Modern Art Aesthetics • Characterized by the artist’s intent to portray a subject as its exists in the world, according to his or her unique perspective and is typified by a rejection of accepted or traditional styles and values.

'BLUE HORIZON.' By Jose Joya

'SAETA 44.' By Fernando Zobel

PHILIPPINE POST MODERN ART (1970-1980s)

Philippine Post Modern Art (1970-1980s) • The of the Philippine Government for the arts via the creation of the Cultural Center of the Philippines during 1969, gave a venue for all artists to experiment and explore different art medium tying closely to the Post Modern Art Period of the West with POP ART, INSTALLATION ART, and PERFORMANCE ART dominating the scene. In contrast, social realism became a heavy theme by most Filipino artists as social commentary of the problem brewing in the Philippine political and social landscape.

Post Modern Art Aesthetics • Postmodern Art – a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath • In general, movements such as intermedia, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia, particularly involving video are described as postmodern.

POP ART

What is Pop Art? • Art based on modern popular culture and the mass media, especially as a critical or ironic comment on traditional fine art values.

“ANNIE Batungbakal,” by Magdamo

INSTALLATION ART • • • • •

What is Installation Art? History of Installation Art Characteristics of Installation Art Types of Installations Sample Installation Artworks

What is Installation Art? • An artistic genre of three dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. • A contemporary art form that uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way the viewer experiences a particular space

History of Installation Art • It may be said that primitive forms of this art have existed since prehistoric times. However, this genre was not regarded as a distinct category until the mid-20th century and only came to prominence in the 1970s.

Characteristics of Installation Art • Allows the viewer to enter and move around the configured space and/or interact with some of its elements • May engage several of the viewer’s senses • A purely temporary work • Allows the viewers to experience the “artwork” • More concerned with the presentation of their message • More grounded and remains tied to a physical space • Characterized by the incorporation of the SITE or space of display into the artwork • Artists impose conditions and provide detailed instructions with regard to the installation of the artwork

Types of Installations • Can be gallery based, computer-based, electronic-based, web-based - the possibilities are limitless and depend entirely upon the artist's concept and aims. • Some are strictly indoor, while others are public art, constructed in open-air community spaces, or projected on public buildings. • Some are mute, while others are interactive and require audience participation.

Sample Installation Artworks • Cordillera Labyrinth • My Wife is a DH

Cordillera Labyrinth

Cordillera Labyrinth Roberto Villanueva, 1989 Bamboo and runo grass Outdoor Installation at the Cultural Center of the Arts

Name of Artist- Roberto Villanueva

Roberto Villanueva (1947-1995)

• Born in 1947 in Olongapo, Zambales, the Philippines. • When Villanueva moved to the northern highlands of Baguio in 1980 he was inspired to create art build from the basic materials of the environment. • His art acquired a shamanic aura, the source of its powerful energy drawn from ancient but continuing community symbols, rituals and traditions among the animist ethnic groups. • Won critical recognition for Archetypes: Cordillera Labyrinth set up on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (C) grounds in the summer of 1989.

Materials Used to Create the Artwork • Bamboo, reeds, bed rocks, runo grass • Runo grass- a high yielding energy crop that grows over 3 metres tall, resembles bamboo and produces a crop every year without the need for replanting

A picture of runo grass (miscanthus)

Quality – Form • A Labyrinth. Its center was covered with rocks from a river bed, creating a sacred space peopled with spirit figures from which life power emanates. • Forty-five meters in diameter and 600 meters in length, set up on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (C) grounds in the summer of 1989

Quality – Materials • Out of 45 in diameter and 600 m length of bamboo and reeds, he built a labyrinth where the center is covered with bed rocks from the river and bul-ul

Quality – Technique and Art Style • Outdoor Installation • Located at the Installation Cultural Center of the Philippines • Representationalism and Surrealism. • The illustrated art looks real and the artist connects the use of organic materials and natural locations to incorporate the life of the people in the community

Content – Social Context • Villanueva traces the source of the denudation of his landscape, and the poisoning of its riverbeds and streams to the destructive (capitalistic/industrial) structures situated in Manila: The transgression of his installation onto the cityscape, as well as the pathways traced by its form when viewed from above, clearly evidence this.

Content – Technique • Villanueva’s gesture reinterprets the indigenous and installation as an epistemic representation to advocate the nostalgic return to the past, however renders the outwork as self-exotic, essentialized aesthetic. • His work provides the viewers another view of reinterpreting the usage of indigenous materials as a nativist act of going back to the past.

My Wife is a DH

My Wife is a DH Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, 1995 Suitcase, broom, dustpan, mop, iron

Name of Artist – Imelda Cajipe-Endaya

Imelda Cajipe-Endaya (1949present) • Born 16 September 1949 in Manila, Philippines • Known for her art advocacy focused on women and centering on the nation’s history and culture. She cofounded the feminist organization Kasibulan in 1987 and was its first president. • Has consistently explored the themes of national identity and people empowerment, gender, race, migration, displacement and globalization in her artworks.

Materials Used to Create the Artwork • Suitcase that contain personal objects, broom, dustpan, mop, iron

Quality – Form • The artist constructed a mannequin, with a broom and a mop on both of her figure, an electric iron and a frying pan hanging from her waist.

Quality – Materials • The body of installation is made out of an open suitcase that contains personal objects. The installation is propped with different materials such as brooms, dustpan, mop and iron

Quality – Technique and Art Style • Representationalism

• Feminist Art

Content – Social Context • Cajipe-Endaya renders the body of a woman as a contentious site of global mobility. • Her work signifies how the Filipina/ Pinay body is “ikinakasangkapan” (being used and devised) as the Philippines’ major global export, the servant of the world.

Content – Technique • Cajipe-Endaya executed in her installation the female body by which is shaped by materiality and objects of domesticity, labor and migration

PERFORMANCE ART

What is Performance Art? • A nontraditional art form often with political or topical themes that typically features a live presentation to an audience or onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, or painting

PHILIPPINE CONTEMPORARY ART (1980sPresent)

Philippine Contemporary Art ( 1980s to Present) • The on-set of the sudden rise of personal computers and new technology created a new art medium for the arts and human expression • The term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today • Started a new direction for the arts, thus, setting the name, momentarily, the Philippine Contemporary Period.

What is Contemporary Arts? • It is the art the springs out of the present day events and ions of the society. • It id the newest form of art, amusing people from the middle to the late 20th century up to this time

• It is a statement that an artist makes about life, thoughts, ideas and many other things that define human life

Contemporary Art… • Not confined in the museum • The process rather than sale is essential in artmaking • A dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that challenge traditional boundaries and defy easy definition. • Reflect cultural diversity, technological advancement, and make use of a wide range of mediums.

Contemporary Artist… • Living in the twenty-first century

• Sell artworks “online” to increase sales

• Are self-taught and have no formal education for the development of their talents and skills in art-making

• Employ the help of fabricators, carpenters, electricians or welders in constructing artworks • Working in a wide range of mediums

Characteristics of Philippine Contemporary Arts • Dominant/Mainstream (foreign influenced, industry-driven, technology assisted, oriented for mass-consumption) • Alternative (usually social realist and/or advocacy-oriented)

• Traditional/Indigenous (preserves local traditions)

Traditional Techniques, Styles & Practices Applied to Contemporary Creation • • • • •

Contemporary Painting Contemporary Sculpture Installation Art Contemporary Performing Arts Contemporary Philippine Music

Contemporary Painting 1. The Style of Objective Accuracy •

The artist can do art by being detached observer or by employing a selective eye.

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As a detached observer, the artwork is presented as if it made by a reporter who is observing the subject

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The artist presents himself/herself as somebody who selects, arranges, and represents reality without his/her identity being revealed

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On the other hand, an artist must know the subject as well as see its surface characteristics while employing a selective eye

Contemporary Painting 2. The Style of Formal Order

• Intellectual Order - its action consists in imprinting an idea in some matter. Example is cubism, which a painter uses an intellectual order in analyzing and presenting the geometric forms • Biomorphism – when the patterns and shapes in an artwork is reminiscent of nature and living organisms

‘The Bird Seller’ By Vicente Manansala Intellectual Order Used Transparent Cubism

Union Church. Design By Jose Maria Zaragoza Biomorphism Roof patterned to anahaw fan

Contemporary Painting 3. The Style of Emotion • Themes of emotion, feeling, and romance are common in painting

4. The Style of Fantasy • Fantastic art manipulates illusion and reality

• The works may be objectively accurate or subjectively distorted and originates in both logical and irrational mental process

‘Sarimanok’ by Abdulmari Imao An example of fantastic art

It is alone in abstraction of geometric forms and its movement is apparent in the flowing lines and geometric colors

Contemporary Sculpture 1. Modeling • Modeled sculptures are created when a soft or malleable material is built using an armature and then shaped to create a form

2. Carving • Involves cutting or chipping away a shape from a mass of stone, wood or other hard material • The carver substracts non-essential material to form an image from a block of stone, wood, or metal

Contemporary Sculpture 3. Casting • Made through a material that is poured and hardened in a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape

4. Assembling • The process of gathering and putting together different materials including found objects to create an assembled sculpture • Uses adhesive, welding, and other chemicals for adhesion

Installation Art • Uses the combination of techniques in painting, and sculpture and different mediums like ready-mades, text, found objects, assemblage and drawing assembled together to interact with space or art objects formed by the artist • Usually dismantled after the exhibition • Temporary and most of the time, cannot be stored

Contemporary Performing Arts 1. Films • •

The new wave of Filipino directors “tended towards exposing relevant social topics or hybridizing Filipino topics with Western techniques” Mainstream Films

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Alternative/ Independent Films 

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Those which are produced by big production companies and are released and screened in first-run theatres Includes short films, documentaries, experimental films, and animations which are made without the capitalization usually found in commercial films

Maindie Films 

Films which are independently-made but were adapted and distributed by the bigger production companies

Mainstream Film

Indie Film

Maindie Film

Contemporary Performing Arts 2. Performing Art •

Artists in performing art used the basic elements of time, space, the performer’s body, and the audience who will randomly witness their performance

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Not restricted in the four corners of a theater; can take place anytime and anywhere

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Its purpose is to convey the message through action, spoken words, or sounds imitating same thing that is essential to the idea they are communicating

"KALIG-ON“ by Nicolas Aca Synchronize Performances in Solidarity for Yolanda

Contemporary Performing Arts 3. Contemporary Dance •

A performing art that involves rhythmic body movement within given space, choreographed based on musical beat

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Disco dancing

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A dance style popularized during the 1970s

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Characterized by hip and pelvis movement and raising of arms to the beat of the music

Hip hop 

Refers to the steed dance styles performed to hip hop music

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Includes dance styles such as breaking, locking and popping

Disco Dancing

Hip Hop

Contemporary Philippine Music • Characterized by its use of new genres such as OPM, Pop, Emo, Post-hardcore and Postrock • Original Pilipino Music (OPM) – originally referred to Philippine pop songs, particularly ballads, such as those popular after the collapse of its predecessor, the Manila Sound of the late 1970s

• Characterized by improvisation and its content can vary from philosophical, social commentary, personal or propaganda

MIXED MEDIA ART • What is Mixed Media Art? • Types of Mixed Media Art • Sample Mixed Media Artworks

What is Mixed Media Art? • A visual art form that combines a variety of media in a single refers work • An artwork in which more than one medium has been employed. • Is distinguished from multimedia art which combines visual art with non-visual elements, such as recorded sound, literature, drama, dance, motion graphics, music, or interactivity.

Types of Mixed Media Art • Collage • Three-dimensional (3D) Sculpture • Installation Art • Online or Computer-based Interactive Art

Collage • Comes from the French word coller which means “to glue.” • A form of visual art that incorporates different types of paint and other materials, such as paper, fabric and photographs • Describes both the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down onto a ing surface

Lee Aguinaldo, "Homage to Vermeer", 1983, photocollage with acrylic

Three-dimensional (3D) Sculpture • Three-dimensional art is observed in of its height, width and depth. It is not flat like twodimensional art, which consists of paintings, drawings and photographs. • A type of mixed media artwork often features a wider variety of materials, which can include metal, wood and even large-scale items such as furniture • Three-dimensional art design is comprised of three main elements: balance, proportion and rhythm.

Installation Art • Art that is created for a specific site, often incorporating materials or physical features of the site • An artistic genre of threedimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space.

Online or Computer-based Interactive Art • Typically involves a large amount of viewer participation in navigating through a project, clicking on different inks or images and playing different audio or video recordings

Sample Mixed Media Artworks • Menstrual Period in Political History • My, We

Menstrual Period in Political History

Menstrual Period in Political History Danny Sillada, 2005 acrylic and metamorphic rock on board Mixed Media Artwork

Name of Artist: Danny Sillada

Danny Sillada • Born on April 27, 1963 from Mindanao • A surrealist painter, sculptor and installation artist, philosopher, bilingual poet, essayist, musician (singersongwriter-composer), performance artist, photographer, and an amateur indie filmmaker

Materials Used to Create the Artwork • Metamorphic rock, brush and paint

Quality – Form • The vaginal form is carved on a metamorphic rock and painted with red, blue and yellow to signify the Philippine flag.

Quality – Materials • A mixed media on metamorphic rock or slate, with painted and carved vaginal form at the center.

Quality – Technique and Art Style • Symbolism and Surrealism

Content – Social Context • Like a woman’s menstrual period, Philippines politics has its own menstrual cycle in our country in the form of corruption, economic instability, violation of human rights, the involuntary disappearances of civilians, the century-old war in Mindanao, insurgency, poverty, and inadequacy of political leaders to address socio-economic and political problems in our society, to name a few.

Content – Technique • The “Menstrual Period in Political History,” for instance, may just be a mere symbol of vaginal form; however, it possesses the power to provoke the consciousness of the viewers in the context of social and political realities of our society.

My, We

My, We Louie Cordero, 2011 fibreglass, steel, acrylic, found objects Installation Art

Details of My, We

Name of Artist: Louie Cordero

Louie Cordero • Born in 1978 in Manila, Philippines and is currently based in Malabon. • An award-winning painter, sculptor and creator of Nardong Tae—a self-published underground comic series • Uses anatomical innards, muscle tissue, veins, and eyeballs in his paintings, sculptures and installations to construct a new, unclassifiable species that has evolved through forms, shapes, and patterns, and then juxtaposes them with iconographies

Materials Used to Create the Artwork • fibreglass, steel, acrylic, found objects

Quality – Form • My, We comprised of four cast figures and a videoke machine (an all in one karaoke machine, TV, and speaker system) • The figures, for one, are very evidently overcome by sheer pain and agony of being attacked, hands outstretched and legs asplay – yet, the nature of these murders are immediately undermined by the cheerful colours present on the corpse. Instead of dark blood, gummy-coloured substances fill each wound.

Quality – Materials • fibreglass, steel, acrylic, found objects

Quality – Technique and Art Style • Installation Art and 3D Sculpture

Content – Social Context • The artwork is a social commentary on the classic My Way killings in the Philippines – the violence and occasional murder of people failing to accurately sing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in Filipino karaoke bars – is a rather cynically amusing one, very evident in the cast figures, which I will elaborate on further below.

Content – Technique • The work of Filipino painter Louie Ordero embodies contemporary manila culture by mixing together indigenous traditions, Spanish Catholicism and American pop culture, all stemming out of a long tension and history of colonialism • The viewer is no longer an isolated, ive observer of the killings (and on a more macro level, social catastrophes) – he is enraptured, involved and even confronted by the violence.