To Cast A Shadow, There Must First Be Light, curated by The 5th House’s Brisa Amir and Jose Olarte, strives towards an atmosphere where audience members are invited to re-examine light’s role in art. This exhibit at Aphro in The Alley at Karrivin Plaza reinterprets our perception of lights, lamps, and the artistry within it.
How does one perceive light in regards to art? It is essential to most works of art, affecting the way we see and comprehend different works. From sculptures to paintings, light plays a pivotal role in defining artistry as a whole.
With this exhibit, twenty-one artists play with light directly, as they design works that bend towards the light rather than bending the light towards the art. The curators said that many were chosen because of their lack of experience making lamp designs.
“Gumagawa kami ng mga makeshift lamps kapag may house party kami,” Amir said. “And then, na-realize namin, baka pwede tayo mag-invite ng mga artists na pwede rin na may potential. Pwede na may old work na sila na lamp; pwede rin yung work nila ay may potential na maging lamp. Yun na lang ang i-gather natin.”
(We make our own makeshift for our house parties. And then we realized that maybe we can invite artists with potential for lamp works. They can use their old works for the lamps, or works that have potential to become lamps. That’s who we gathered for the exhibit.)
The exhibit contains a large collection of lamps with varying degrees of brightness and interactivity. It traverses different designs and stylistic choices that shade and show light in different degrees, ranging from works harkening to Classical Grecian art to more nativist/indigenous influences.
Goran Fernando’s “Illuminate,” for example, repurposes a Nike box as a lamp shade. Ioannis Sicuya’s “Between the Cracks,” meanwhile, creates a city of ruins underneath what looks like a cave. Jan Sunday’s “Central Sun” uses acrylic and tapestry to make a head bust lamp shade that opens and closes at the front.
These works center around the Filipino experience, illustrating these different perspectives of light. The use of wooden twine, fabric, glass, resin, and other materials encompasses the artistic impulses and approaches of every individual working on the project.
“With the light that transcends through the transparency of their layered exteriors, one is able to look inward to understand their essence, their identity, and their individuality,” Arvi Fetalvero said in their write-up.
Olarte said that the works mixed the typical lamp makers with people new to the craft. He saw the potential of creating a challenging yet integrated experience that speaks to the experiences of the everyday Filipino. On a curatorial note, he and Amir centered around the idea of the parol, and how to decolonize it from our troubled Spaniard past.
While the end product of the exhibit didn’t necessarily circle around the theme of decolonization, Olarte believes that the art of creation itself becomes its own form of reclamation. The personalization of each lamp, he said, works as a tool of making lamps more Filipino.
![Curators Jose Olarte [left] and Brisa Amir. Photo by Ed Simon.](https://assets.bluprint-onemega.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DSF5675-scaled.jpg)
“I think, in general, the fact that people make their own lamps is already a way of decolonizing. Not specifically the parol, but also lamps in general,” he said.
“Parang yung sinabi ko rin kanina na ni-re-reclaim din namin yung idea ng lamp, ng light. Kasi kino-colonize kasi yung light na sila ang pag-asa, yung mga colonizers ang pag-asa, tapos laging nasa shadows ang mag indigenous. In a way, ito yung way of reclaiming spaces,” Amir added.
(This is like what I said about reclaiming the idea of the lamp, of light. Because the symbol of light has been colonized to make the colonizers the hope of the people while the indigenous remains in shadows. In a way, this is a way of reclaiming spaces.)
In the end, the exhibit works to reclaim not just lamps in general, but the symbolism of light itself. Fetalvero said that the works come together not as a way of decolonizing the past, but of representing light in the context of creating a community around us.
“Rather than decolonization, it’s more on darkness [that subjugates or dominates or conquers],” they said.
“Sa panahon dati, kung saan may maliwanag doon na nag-ga-gather yung mga resistance, yung mga nakikibaka, mga ganon. Sabay ganon na lang din naging parallel na yung idea na, in a general sense, diba, kung saan may ilaw, doon mag-ga-gather yung mga tao.”
(In previous times, where the light can be found is where people gather for resistance or struggle. That’s the parallel of the idea in a general sense: where there’s light, the people will gather.)
To Cast A Shadow, There Must First Be Light harvests the ambition of redefining lamps and light for the Filipino. In gathering a collection of artists that personalize light to their perspective, it gives us a grand idea of how we choose how symbols represent us to the broader people. Filipino artists need not be shackled to colonizer tropes; they create new tropes that speak to their experiences instead.
Related reading: Brisa Amir’s New Exhibit Showcases Her Explosive Collages
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