Material Practices in the Everyday

Saturday, May 2, 2015
at 6:00pm

Artery Art Space
102 P.Tuazon Blvd, 4001 Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines

Material Practices in the Everyday

Group Exhibit:

Ronald Achocoso, Anjo Bolarda & Marika Constantino, Carl Graham, Russ Ligtas, Stephanie Misa, Shireen Seno, Stephanie Victa, Christine Wong-Yap (Image Courtesy, CWY)

Exhibition Dates: May 2 to 30, 2015
Opening: Saturday, May 2, 6:00 pm

Artery Art Space proudly presents a group exhibit that looks into the world of everyday objects and practices in order to mine cultural meaning from within, together with the intention to instigate the formation of social content. Art in this case provides a spotlight on things that might otherwise be ignoble, ephemeral, or mundane, turning it into a practice of conscience, criticality, and creativity. The exhibit features a variety of practices from drawing and painting to texts and sculptural installation, photography, video, and performance. Artists featured in the show are Ronald Achocoso, Anjo Bolarda & Marika Constantino, Carl Graham, Russ Ligtas, Stephanie Misa, Shireen Seno, Stephanie Victa, and Christine Wong-Yap.

Ronald Achocoso’s works on paper that have been worked and continued to be reworked on in order to give an appearance of the distress of time, similar to an archeological artifact lost then found, embodying the various thoughts and gestures that accompanied its making, turns his work into a symbolic recording of lived moments. He states that his “fascination with layering (of images, of textures, of paint) as both a means of obfuscation and articulation…can be taken one way as his own archeological dig. In a very literal sense on one hand, out of how the works undergo a similar geological process, of sedimentation and accretion. And in a very philosophical sense on the other, the way it is a similar inquiry into his faith, only art, not religion, is his stand-in godhead.”

Melting Pot (Marika Constantino and Anjo Bolarda)Melting Pot is a collaborative initiative of artist/illustrator Anjo Bolarda and artist/curator Marika Constantino. This is in partnership with the KITCHEN program of 98B COLLABoratory. Melting Pot is an intimate activity where the collective experience hopes to forge richer connections between participants. It is a project where invited guests who may come from various cultures, sharing different components, with assorted viewpoints, perspectives, tastes and notions with regard to art and life can come together to discuss and partake of an experimental cuisine.

Russ Ligtas’ “There are holier places than these” is an ongoing photography project between two of his dominant characters Happy and Mdm B. Niyaan. Producing figurative cutouts of his characters taken from previous shoots, Ligtas inserts his photographic image into unfamiliar places which in turn create fantastic scenarios out from the ordinary. The photos of photos reveal the current states and sentiments of Ligtas’ characters while illustrating the distance from which their personas have traveled in the context of memory and time. In this series, they have become their own mementos occupying the present and contemplating the future. The unusual juxtaposition becomes another extension of Ligtas’ activity as a performance artist, heightening unattended affect into palpable messages, where in this instance he explores feelings of alienation and the search for identity.

Stephanie Misa, a Filipina artist based in Vienna, Austria, will be presenting a mixed media installation which includes a photograph, muscavado sugar, and copies of archival documents. Connecting these everyday items are a specific history and cultural identity. Moreover as the items are imbibed with the personal and familial; memory, ideals and beliefs, emotion and information, politics and activism, all intertwine into symbols that remain pertinently present whilst transcending time.

Pancy Letter is a project by Carl Graham on Filipino hand-lettered signage as seen around Metro Manila. It started as a fascination with seemingly under-appreciated letterforms as Urban Type Manila and became a search for a unique voice in Filipino letter design. The project’s name was taken from a conversation with one of the interviewed painters: Manong Silverio, who called the wavy lettering style found on most all jeeps and taxis as “Single-stroke. (P)ancy Letter” fitting to describe the way Philippine lettering—at least in his opinion and experience—often looks a lot like something (Fancy) but has its own twist to it (Pancy).

Shireen Seno is a lens-based artist whose work addresses memory, history, and image-making, often in relation to the idea of home. Taking images from her zine “Jeans Don’t Lie”, Seno presents material culture laden with ambivalent desire, dystopian lifestyles, customized enlightenment, and unexpected joys. Orion and Ariane are indispensable lounge chairs that live up to the advertising of luxury and comfort fit for the gods. Another picture, a written note of the song Moon River, shows dream and destiny as absolute ends in the search for love.

Stephanie Victa is an interdisciplinary artist and designer based in Colorado, U.S. whose work covers the areas of art and research, design, sculpture, performance, and social work. As part of her Fulbright scholarship award that she received in 2012, Victa researched on local housing and living standards, social space that influenced the production of culture, and where indigenous materials could be applied to modernist architectural construction. Her research led to the actual design and construction of a hybrid house.

New York based artist Christine Wong-Yap’s ” “Positive Signs” is a series of interpretive diagrams, quotes, and speculations on creativity, optimism and the lives of artists, as well as brief forays into the nature of space, stuff, experience, and cognition. It is Wong-Yap’s attempt to share her research into positive psychology with artists and art enthusiasts.

Artery Art Space is an artist-run space with multiple functions of a studio, an artist residency, exhibition space, shop, and a snack bar. Artery Art Space aims to connect creative production with the realities of the globalized market culture that we are living in today, in relation to fostering critical thinking and developing smart approaches to making and living with art. It is located on 102 P. Tuazon Blvd., Cubao, Quezon City. Contact us via arteryartspace@gmail.com.