For their annual ICONS series, Altro Mondo Creative Space spotlighted legendary artist Junyee as their second featured artist. Of Man and Nature is only Junyee’s fifth gallery exhibition in his decades-long career due to the nature of his artworks.
“I’ve been doing art professionally for 60 years, but I only have five shows,” he shared. “I don’t like doing [an] exhibition in a gallery. Most of my work [is] outside: in the mountains, in the river, in the field. But this time, I cannot say no to the owners, a good friend of mine. Because they have this series [that] Ben Cab started last year, every December.
“I’m the second one, so I cannot say no. Besides, last year, there was a tribute show here for me. So that is the first time [I had] been given a tribute show from different artists and professional artists. So that’s the reason why I’m around.”
For Of Man and Nature, the exhibit attempts to reflect on the career of Junyee, including the different themes that appear to pop out within his work. Much of his work utilizes wood and other natural materials, functioning as commentary on a modern industrial world.
“Each piece symbolizes growth, life, and change, presenting wood not merely as a material but as a living testament to the natural world’s cycles,” the exhibit write-up said.
Of interest to art history aficionados is a recreation of “Wood Things.” First exhibited at the 1982 Paris Biennale, it’s the work that established his name as an artist internationally. For this artwork, Junyee repurposes dry banana stalks and kapok pods to create these bug-like entities that look like fleas.
It uses an abstract version of a typical “pet animal” shape as a way of commenting on the need of depicting the ideal artistic beauty shapes to instead depict our personal perception. The work is a sincere deconstruction of colonialist standards, and a strange sight to behold in real life.
Many of the other works featured in Of Man and Nature incorporate natural and fabricated objects in interesting and innovative ways. Some, for example, utilize soot alongside a variety of materials like metal sheets and electronic boards. Junyee manipulates them into looking like typical tech parts, adding an ominous feeling through the combination of disparate elements.
Other pieces in the show utilize dried seeds collected and arranged circularly on canvas. They appear caged in a metal matrix, with some of the seeds painted in primary colors to add a sense of offness to the work. The works here are also combined with seeds scattered below the painting, suggesting a spillover of raw materials escaping the cage of the canvas.
“This integration highlights the dualities of progress and preservation, demonstrating how even industrial remnants can coexist with organic elements to create something meaningful. These combinations reflect the exhibition’s deeper theme of interconnectedness, illustrating the complex relationships between human innovation and the natural world,” the write-up said.
Of Man and Nature assesses and summarizes the decades-long career of an artist who integrated the modern and the environmental in different aspects of their work, cultivating thematic points that centers the narrative of the colonized in today’s postcolonial society. And that means moving beyond technology and towards preserving the resources and beauty of the planet.
“Through his art, Junyee challenges us to reflect on our role in the planet’s ongoing narrative, urging a deeper appreciation of the connections that bind humanity to the earth and to one another,” the write-up said.
Of Man and Nature is showing at Altro Mondo Creative Space until January 11.
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: Filipino Artist Junyee Makes A Stand with Felled Trees
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