Category Archive for: arteng biswal

not a Santi Bose

Leon Gallery is holding what it calls a “Magnificent September Auction” tomorrow, September 28. as of today, its catalogue for tomorrow carries a work entitled “Heart Assemblage” that it has wrongfully attributed to Santiago Bose.

Leon Gallery has been contacted about this major faux pax (i am being kind) by the family of Bose. a letter received by the gallery on September 16 from Bose’s wife Peggy asked that Leon Gallery “kindly and immediately remove the name of Santiago Bose as the creator of ‘Heart Assemblage.”

11 days since, as of 1:09 PM today, Bose’s name is still appended to this work that isn’t his. the artist of this untitled and unsigned work has since claimed it: Rene Aquitania, also a Baguio artist. (more…)

on “The Mind’s Eye”

It seems simple enough, a play that is limited to a set that is one room with three beds, all of them occupied by women from different contexts with the most diverse set of needs, cutting as they do across generations. This room is sparsely furnished, has a TV that doesn’t work, stark white sheets that speak as well of the cold cold winter outside.

It is in North Dakota as it is in the middle of nowhere. It could also be anywhere really, this narrative of two lives intertwined by the limits of a room, the sadness of an ending, the undoing that’s in the lack of a future.

For teenager Courtney (Jenny Jamora) and elderly lady Elva (Joy Virata), this room is all of the world that they have. This is all they need. (more…)

It’s been years since I cared tremendously about the Ateneo Art Awards. That is borne mainly of a self-aware arrogance, where I tend to wait for the winners’ homecoming exhibits – that is, if they get an artist grant that (ideally) comes with being one of the winners. (more…)

the calm in “Owel”

t is easy to say that the homosexual relationship, if not the homosexual story, is one that’s been overdone and overtold, if not just also something that we should get over at this point. After all, in the same way that we get tired of the romantic-comedies that live off heterosexuality, there has become a tendency at redundancy for the homosexual story. It is not a question of more complex discussions, not even a call for more particularly unique experiences, as it is just less of what has become the stereotype of the gay story.

That is, it is rarely quiet, even less so calm.

That is, until “Owel.” (more…)

dear NBDB,

in light of your dot.gov website being hacked,  Andrea Pasion-Flores has said:

“We are an agency that promotes books, instruments of expression. I cannot express enough how much we value the act of expression. Now I have to redirect public funds to fix this problem. It delays the announcements we have to make, such as a fabulous subsidy grant to a regional conference I wanted to tell you about soonest. I guess you’ll just have to watch the NBDB’s FB space instead of going to our website. :)”

she misses the point entirely. if your government office is for freedom of expression, then it is its responsibility to every other freedom-loving-Pinoy to make a public statement against the Cybercrime Law. (more…)