As the built environment evolves, the role of the architect demands reconsideration. For Jose Siao Ling, Co-Founder and Principal Architect of Jose Siao Ling & Associates (JSLA Architects), the role extends far beyond being a licensed professional who designs and oversees construction. By championing ethical practice, ISO-certified systems, and mentorship-driven leadership, he built a firm […]
‘Word on the Street’: Julius Redillas Defamiliarizes Filipino Daily Life
Word on the Street, the new exhibit at Art Cube Gallery in Makati exhibiting until June 1, finds artist Julius Redillas putting his stylistic defamiliarization techniques towards depicting the everyday lives of Filipinos.
Defamiliarization as a technique—mainly literary, but found in art as well—finds an artist taking something familiar and presenting it to an audience in a strange way. The intent is to make the audience think and see this familiar object from a new perspective.
But how do we designate what’s worthy of being artistically-depicted and what’s not? That question plagues many an artist or critic when analyzing a work or conceptualizing a creation. Specifically, is any subject too ordinary to depict on screen?
Advertisement
You can see that in works by surrealist René Magritte, or Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp. Those artists take ordinary ideas and objects and bend them into new things, pushing the subjects of art forward.
As an artist, Redillas appears to thrive in capturing his subjects without pushing for fidelity towards reality. His stylistic choices mimic and distort reality, finding new ways of depicting essentially normal people. Word on the Street works within the same vein of defamiliarized aesthetics.
Sinews and Curves Unfamiliar
One can call the exhibit’s stylistic choice as exposed muscles and nerves within the body. In every painting, Julius Redillas portrays humanity without skin, showing faces and arms overwhelmed with curving sinew-like shapes that appear to hang off the human figures like hair.
Advertisement
As an image, it disturbs. At first glance, it is especially upsetting that the only aesthetic choice used to indicate their humanity is giving them blue eyes.
This also applies to the other subjects of Word on the Street. Dogs and cats are depicted in the same sinewy way, with shades of blue applied to parts of their bodies. In one instance, they are entirely blue.
Most provokingly, Redillas uses that style to depict statues of the Santo Niño and the Virgin Mary. It provokes because it gets into the reality of a typical Catholic Filipino household that these statues are as much a member of the family as the actual family itself.
Advertisement
The artist himself appears to intend that provocation when one sees it. The exhibit write-up leaves us with this question to linger on: “Are our possessions merely material belongings, or do they also carry with them the weight of our memories, emotions, and experiences?”
Collectively, the artist appears to have chosen the subjects to highlight what constitutes a typical Filipino family. It’s never just the children and the parents, like the typical nuclear family; it expands to friends, neighbors, pets, and even the religious figures enshrined within the home. If Redillas sought to depict the complexity of the Filipino family, he succeeded.
The Closeness of Connection
More than just depiction, however, the exhibit shows all of its subjects close together, often holding each other. One person carries the Virgin Mary even as it towers over them. Three paintings have people hugging their pets close to them. Even the posing pack of dogs exhibit a sense of closeness between them.
Advertisement
In their exhibit write-up, LK Rigor said that the artist sought to find significance in the ordinary—and that they found it within the important connections we form together.
“Whether it’s the reverent cradling of cherished religious icons or the affectionate hold of beloved pets, Redillas, captures the essence of each touch — with touch as an extension of the personality holding it,” they wrote.
Word on the Street, then, shows us what family means to us. It’s not whether we’re biologically related or not—rather, family is who and what we care about. Whether it’s our pets or children or even the statue of Mary in one corner of the room, family comprises those we actually care for.
Related reading: Totems of Thought Exhibit at The Blanc Gallery
Public spaces in Metro Manila are often defined by movement rather than pause. People in transit hurry through; the underpass is a shortcut, not a place to stop. Underground, the installation by photography group FotomotoPH, reimagined the Paseo Underpass as a visual experience. FotomotoPH is a Philippine-based photography collective dedicated to promoting, exhibiting, and fostering […]
Born and raised in San Pablo City, Laguna, Ito Kish made a name for himself through residential and commercial design, as well as curatorial work. This new season, built on the idea of Filipino Culture Meets Global Curiosity, unfolds both as a composed showroom environment and a new collection shaped by stillness and balance. A […]
Breaking through in their respective careers is a daunting task for any young professional. For Architect Pierre Briones, architecture has always been an intentional pursuit. Having spent much of his childhood around construction sites, Briones’s environment shaped his interest in architecture, including his fascination with how structures and buildings are built. “Choosing architecture was never […]
Not many people know this, but during the Martial Law era, National Artist for Architecture Bobby Mañosa was also a toy designer. He had an iconic line of toys, called “Bobi Toys,” that he sold in Makati during the 1970s and 1980s, which he discontinued as his own kids grew older. His toys have not […]
Cloud Grey Gallery put together two esteemed artists, Manuel Ocampo and Ronald Ventura, for Dialogo. As a gallery located at the Grand Hyatt Manila, Cloud Grey has a more forward-thinking approach to contemporary art movements at the time. “They’re provocations,” the gallery declared as they described their approach, “invitations to see the familiar transformed.” For […]
Download this month's BLUPRINT magazine digital copy from:
Subscribe via [email protected]