A 5th solo show by Chill
July 31 – August 12, 2022
Opening
July 31, Sunday | 2 PM
Secret Fresh Gallery
Ronac Art Center, Ortigas Ave, 1502 San Juan, Philippines
In Exasperated Expression, one rarely explored side of Chill’s artistic practice is given precedence in his thriving career as painter, illustrator, street artist, and photographer. He draws from his eagle-eyed perspective as a visual chronicler, capturing life in black and white with footages and moving images. Compared to a painter-artist’s fate as the original work-from-home or -studio creative, a photographer/videographer happily does his rounds of events, immersing in life’s happenings as they unfold. It is this light-footedness that the artist admits to miss the most during the pandemic, when he couldn’t stalk, scope and shoot the streets due to lockdowns and health scares.
It is only fitting, then, that Chill pours his frustrations out into his other muse, that of crisp pen and ink drawings. By gathering memories and photos in his mind in their stark selection of black markings on white flat ground, he manifests emotions on paper, creating surrealist imagery and varied, six-sided interpretations of the pandemic. Rage is vexation given form in jagged rock spikes and twisted boughs planted on a gyroscope-shaped piece of earth. Pent-up frustration is hidden behind a forced smile as a figure across seems to lose his head. Mad Honey implies fear and panic, that constant, annoying buzzing in your ear enough to drive one to the brink of sanity. It may all taste sweet, but it’s a different thing altogether when it makes you see disembodied eyes and macabre grins. Calm takes one to a quiet place we all dream of, where pent-up frustrations melt away in smoke or through slow, steady breaths, making us wish we were all looking through the eyes of Observer in his veg out state. Hope is waiting for that elusive bite to show another sigh of life, and, fingers crossed, praying that things will still turn out alright. Death/Despair commemorates the departed and how they will be reborn as elements of nature, and though we can’t help but feel sad for the end of their worldly journey, we are comforted by the thought that they do not experience any more pain and desolation, only the good remains in remembering. Regret pierces through the center of the chest, a hug for comfort resulting in impaling another with the equal amount of suffering. Among the six drawings, this speaks most directly about the artist’s coping mechanism, his power of observation objectively balancing the experiences of the people around him and his sanity, contributing to his very survival.
Breathe in and out. That was the most basic thing to do in the helplessness of it all. Seeing encounters, good or bad, of the people closest to him, combined with the artist’s capacity for self-reflection, has surprisingly brought its own share of blessings. Snippets of life seem clearer, with gratitude effervescing. Chill’s pandemic experience has brought him renewed power to awe and inspire, and to dwell on detachment as he suspires anxiety away. The wide outdoors caught on stills and video present a perspective of life that we rarely see, grounding the exhibition on expressing not only exasperation, but undeniable joy.
– Kaye O’Yek
