Victor Balanon’s And in Arcadia

Saturday, July 11
at 6:00pm

MO_Space
9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, 1634 Taguig

In Balanon’s new series of works entitled And in Arcadia, he continues his study on the nature of images, especially in an age where spectators have become accustomed to viewing them at an incredible speed and rate. Balanon calls for a ‘reintroduction’ of images; a new way of looking at scenes that have since bombarded the senses. He transforms the cinema’s power—to manipulate audience’s attention through a succession of images—into a deliberate, one-to-one correspondence with its essential component: the single frame.

Through his meticulous process of drawing using ink, Balanon produces landscapes and settings that appear void of context. The depicted scenes from films do not stand as exact replicas nor film stills. The scene has been manipulated and has been cleared of characters who contribute to the illusion. The landscape, which was once an unassuming backdrop, becomes an impression of a place—like residues from a fleeting memory, bold yet inexact. The lonesome vehicles that were once minor prop, becomes the centerpiece of the composition; the trails and tracks toward barnyards and cottages that are now deserted mark an inconspicuous passage that leads to an unknowable place; while the view from the boat transforms any threat into a sublime moment between object and nature.

Balanon references his works to Nicolas Poussin’s painting, Et in Arcadia ego, which is a representation of idyllic life in a utopian scene. Like the utopian scene in Poussin’s Arcadia, Balanon’s series also suggests a lingering death—a transfiguration of the image into a new way of seeing. Memory, reality, fantasy, or archival pictures—the landscapes that comprise Balanon’s And in Arcadia resist any simple categorization. Through their seemingly straightforward appearances, they carry the ambiguous nature of representation in which the acts of representation have also become sources where memory and experience can be derived.

And in Arcadia opens at MO_Space on July 11, Saturday at 6:00 pm and the exhibition will run until August 9, 2015. The gallery is open daily from 11am to 8pm. For any inquiries please contact us at telephone no. 856-7915 or through mobile no. 0917-668-3951. To learn more about the show you may also visit our website at www.mo-space.net.