Revisiting Jose Maria Zaragoza’s 1969 modernist landmark on Ortigas Avenue, where corporate architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary, performing arts, and personal memories come together. The Meralco Building […]
‘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?
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.
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.
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.
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
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Culture is not just a motif incorporated into architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary and interior design. It is shaped by people, places, and shared experiences. On the […]
The idea of home extends beyond the walls of the house. It also considers the spaces and environments people share—the larger setting that supports everyday life. At Yume at Riverpark, these considerations begin with individual homes and lots, extend to the shared landscape of an 18-hectare residential development in General Trias, Cavite, and ultimately connect […]
PSID presents “What the Pop!,” an exhibition opened on the third floor of V-Mall in Greenhills, San Juan City, that examined how popular culture shaped Filipino homes and lifestyles. Through spaces representing four generations—Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z—the exhibit explored how each era’s experiences inform its approach to interior designInterior DesignThe discipline […]
Design Week Philippines 2026 marked its 15th year with “Sama All,” a theme that invited designers, industry leaders, and communities to come together in shaping the future of Filipino design. Organized by the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP), the festival opened with festivities on October 10, followed by the design fair and exhibitions from […]
Read the issues.
Collect the volumes.
Recommended Video
Tap to Unmute
Unmute
0:00
0:00