Category Archive for: arteng biswal

kultura

Picasso at The Met: sex to begin with

It is this rendering of the visceral as questionable that happens on the level of spectatorship with the series entitled the “Battle of Love” made up of etchings all entitled “Violación” (“Rape”). Here it is the Picasso’s hand that falls heavier or lighter as it renders the act of sex, presumed to be at its most violent, across a set of five images that look the same. But are different. (more…)

kultura

grace in the land of Pinoy film

(in the midst of all this talk about Pinoy films, indie and otherwise, from people who haven’t given it a chance in a long time, and are ready to dismiss it anyway.)

here: listen to this Pinoy indie film director talk about his film Graceland, with quite the interesting plot of a kidnapping layered with class division and struggle, with an unabashed social realism made different by a merging of the film and the docu, of the fictional and the truth, and ultimately just the real. this doesn’t seem to be about the dregs of society, as it is about the underbelly of society — the poor and rich and illegal and corrupt of it — that’s dredged up and revealed for what it is: a victimization of those with less as a matter of course.

and then there’s this beautiful prayer from the trailer:

na kami’y maglakbay sa harap mo / tulad ng aming mga ninuno / ibaling mo sa’min ang iyong paningin / upang kami’y iyong magabayan / mula ngayon hanggang sa aming pagpanaw.

do vote for Graceland as project of the day/week of indieWire (which is a rockin’ project, too, actually), so it gets the support it needs for post-production and we can all watch it in full. we’ve got only until 1AM january 4. that’s two hours. but heck that’s a lot of clicks when you think about it. 

it’s a chance to vote for the Pinoy indie, literally.

and then let’s talk about the Pinoy indie (and commercial) film at length, shall we?

kultura

the question of CareDivas*

Because CareDivas was one of those plays that everyone was raving about, that got TV exposure because celebrities sponsored whole shows, that was celebrated for being an original Pinoy comedy musical. Of course that it dealt with homosexuality must have had much to do with those raves, though as with anything and especially a stage production, there is more to this than just the fact of its subject matter. (more…)

kultura

Rodel Tapaya WINS!

Grand Prize, Signature Art Prize 2011!

that’s out of 130 nominated works and 15 finalists from the Asia Pacific.
and no, this prize isn’t the one based on people’s votes ha.

wherefore art thou Pinoy pride?

Baston ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero di Mabilang
(Cane of Kabunian, numbered but cannot be counted)

image from here.
more info up at the Singapore Art Museum FB page.

kultura

on Manolo Sicat’s Matayataya

Manolo Sicat's "Bawal Tumayo 1"
Manolo Sicat's "Bawal Tumayo 1"

White is what greets you when you enter the gallery that’s been transformed into a playground by Manolo Sicat’s Matayataya. The first reaction is one of joy: the kind that play allows, no matter how old we get, especially because it is reminiscent of the kids that we were when the streets were safe to play in. But it sinks in soon enough: play here is everything and violent, because the streets have changed, because the streets are now testament to what has become the sad state of an impoverished nation.

To say that this exhibit is just about the violence of poverty wouldn’t do Sicat’s work justice. In fact it isn’t so much poverty as it is inequality, it isn’t so much inequality as it is injustice, it isn’t so much what’s unjust as it is how all these tie together into sadness and helplessness when children – and all that they represent – are objects and subjects.

The cold cast marble sculptures of Matayataya are precisely such: children at play are its necessary subjects, made into mere objects by the contexts within which they live.

click here for the rest of it!