September in the Philippines can be politically contentious largely due to former President Ferdinand Marcos’s declaration of Martial law on September 21. And this turmoil was reflected in many of the art exhibits BluPrint covered for the month. But for this round-up of art exhibits in September, BluPrint highlights artworks that explore the artists’ inner […]
‘Blue Plate, Synthetic Savor’ Paints with Abstract Voids of Blue
Blue Plate, Synthetic Savor puts viewers in a meditative state through its shrewd use of lines and colors that hint towards the artist’s mindset. Gabby Prado created these works as a way of self-reflection and meditation.
“What color is the void? For Gabby Prado, it radiates blue,” the exhibit write-up said. “Blue is a moment of reflection. A pause in which she can meditate upon the past, the present, and the future.”
The exhibition, showing at Galerie Stephanie until September 27, gives us Prado’s blend of curving lines and elaborate waves of paint. These “dynamic abstractions” synthesize together to reflect the feelings of the void and the ways we attempt to fill it.
Blue is the Color
Historically, the color blue has always been of interest to artists as a reflection of the self. Derek Jarman’s experimental film Blue even utilized nothing but a single frame of International Klein Blue throughout the film as he narrated his life story and experiences. Gabby Prado sees something similar in her usage of the color in Blue Plate, Synthetic Savor.
“For Prado, the blue in her works represents a place in which to clear one’s thoughts and one’s worries,” a write-up by Mara Fabella said. “[It’s] a ‘pocket of time where one can reflect on memories,’ she muses. A space that allows her to refresh her senses and more deeply internalize her experiences with synesthesia.”
Less blue is used in this than in Derek Jarman’s film. Instead, the blue comes side by side with the creative abstract paintings that represent the emotional state of her being. In some paintings, a whole canvas explores the wholeness of blue; in others, the blue is merely a hint within the sprawling array of colors.
Finding Openness in the Void
Her linework is varied and evocative of the concentrated feelings coming from the artist. The squiggly lines Prado uses has this hint of frustration that feels exciting to see. The lines feel both tossed-aside and deliberate as different sorts of emotionality burst through its use on the canvas.
Blue Plate, Synthetic Savor melds these lines with vibrantly textured shades of paint popping alongside it. Reds, oranges, and yellows abound, existing in a semi-transparent state that allows it to work best as background flavor to the paintings.
Fabella said that Gabby Prado’s work in the exhibit “takes inspiration from Korean monochrome abstraction, or Dansaekhwa.” And in these works, there does appear to be an integration of different emotional worlds through the use of linework and hues where a sense of calm emerges from the paintings as a whole.
The works play with your imagination in establishing these emotional ideas. At times, it personally appears to this author that these combinations of strokes create human-like figures in the midst of a physical or emotional struggle.
Blue Plate, Synthetic Savor reflects the search of calm and peace that affects the art of Gabby Prado. Her voids of blue provoke in us the question of how we define our sense of calm in the first place. Is calm really just existing in nothingness, or is it finding a part of that nothingness that exists away from the rush of time?
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: Binong Javier Depicts Cosmic-Scale Beauty in New Exhibit
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