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 self. As important as addressing the feelings of the time are, exploring the self showcases some deeper meaning that unlocks the reasoning of the turmoil of our times today.
This West Gallery exhibit by Victor Balanon utilized a neo-noir sensibility in creating a strange portrait of our world and the weirdness enclosed within. It is aesthetically playful, reminiscent of David Lynch with how it utilizes the ‘50s aesthetics to poke against normalcy.
There’s a certain sense of unease in the paintings here, something that feels disturbing. It’s the crooked hands, or doubles of one’s self standing close to each other, or the faces seemingly cracking and peeling out of itself.
Balanon seems to capture an emotional anxiety within people before taking that ugliness out in the open. It’s very visually disquieting overall, and paintings like “The Double” or the title painting feels evocative of the turmoil within each person.
For Dante Enage’s exhibit in Art Camp Manila, his works create a sense of peaceful serenity in the repeated patterns and subdued colors of his work. A native of Tacloban City, this exhibit evokes the culture of the area in pleasing, soothing ways.
“[The art exhibit] incorporates Pintados tattoo patterns and Baybayin script to highlight cultural diversity in his works. His art also reflects environmental advocacy through geometric and organic shapes,” the exhibit write-up said.
These patterns recreate a natural environment that finds its own rhythms in its shapes and colors. Overall, it transports its viewers to a world unlike any other, lulling them into a feeling of harmony with the works displayed.
Bea Policarpio’s exhibit, shown at Altro Mondo Creative Space in Makati, plays with the self and how our self-perception is affected. Many of Policarpio’s works here build themselves from the mirror, crafting colorful waves within the reflected surface. Some of them are even paired with a short poem to add an extra layer of meaning to the piece.
Here, the central idea demonstrates the freedom one finds in individuality and exploration. “By starting within, we break through the ego’s illusion of separation and connect deeply with a limitless reality,” the exhibit write-up said.
Other than the mirrored works, Policarpio’s colorful paintings of the sea really put you in a mindset of contemplation. Her stroke work evokes such vast movements of oceans and seas, finding optimism in seeking the self.
This is the first of a series of collaborations fostered by Cartellino Art. Specifically for this exhibit, it contains paintings made by artists CABNOV and Haraya Ocampo-Tejido.
The two artists are friends in real life, and it’s this friendship that drives the works presented here. They both saw this as an opportunity to “break new ground” in their own individual styles and works. Their works fed on each other’s energies as it strengthened their relationship further.
Ocampo-Tejido’s contributions feature a merging of teacups and flowers that look candy-like in their usage of colors. CABNOV’s works, meanwhile, crafts curving homey environments which contain a sense of whimsy in its portrayal of the world. Overall, the pieces from the two artists come together as finding common ground in the two’s practices.
These artists all looked into the inner self, and documented what they found through art. Whether their creations reflected a positive or negative perspective of themselves is almost immaterial. These September art exhibits showed instead the seeming transcendence of how we portray our feelings in our art—and how that moves forward through our culture and community.
Photos by Elle Yap.
Related reading: July in Review: Five Unique Art Exhibits You May Have Missed
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