End Frame Video Art Project 3 Launches with Passage, the first solo exhibition of Tad Ermitaño

END FRAME VIDEO ART PROJECT 3: PRESENT

Launches with PASSAGE, the first solo exhibition of Tad Ermitaño

15-29 January 2011, Pablo Gallery Fort Bonifacio


End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, a Philippine video art festival, commences this month as the third edition and new format of the video art festival which took place in 2006 and 2007. Presented by Visual Pond, the theme Present refers to the current project’s focus on selected Philippine contemporary artists’ practices in video art. Throughout the festival, each artist stages a show presenting new video work in various venues from January 2011 to January 2012.

The festival proudly launches with Passage, a solo exhibition by Tad Ermitaño, opening on January 15 at Pablo Gallery, Fort Bonifacio. A site-specific work responsive to the two rooms of Pablo and the stairs between them, Passage utilizes multiple projections and video mapping technology in a crossover of fairy tales and science fiction. Ermitaño, who has studied philosophy, biology and filmmaking, has participated in several local and international group exhibitions and film festivals, including the 2002 videoart.mov, the 2004 Hong Kong International Film Festival, the 2006 Ogaki Biennale, the 2007 Dime a Dozen at Lopez Museum, the 2008 Inter-society of Electronic Arts juried exhibition and recently, the Hear to Ear exhibition of Fete dela Wsk. Passage marks the first solo exhibition of this media artist, running until 29 January 2011 with a closing talk by the artist at 5:30 pm.

Pablo Gallery, located at C-11 South of Market Condominium, 11th corner 26th Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 noon to 7:00 pm, tel. no. (632) 506-0602. Other confirmed artists presenting new works for End Frame 3 include Manny Montelibano, Claro Ramirez, Kiri Dalena and Kaloy Olavides with the full schedule and line-up to be announced soon. For inquiries on the project, call +63917-5357955 or email visualpond@gmail.com. End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present is curated by Clarissa Chikiamco; Passage is with thanks to Green Papaya Art Projects.

Reflections: End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present

I am curating the third edition of the Philippine video art festival my friends -Rica Estrada, Tenten Mina - and I initiated and did in 2006 and 2007 as a project for our sometimes active non-profit organization Visual Pond. After a hiatus of how many years, the third edition is a new format for End Frame Video Art Project. I chose to abolish the call for entries because, while it was a good opportunity to learn of others who do video and was more democratic (even if entries passed through a selection committee), the resulting exhibition was a mixed bag. In a criticism of our own project, I felt it lacked making a statement, cluttered with so many things. In retrospect, regardless of quality, each work suffered from a "mish mash" context. It was good for these works to be seen and to be able to seen in so many different reiterations by people of different backgrounds (artists, filmmakers, students). However, whatever strong point each work could make was lost or weakened by being amongst other works saying different things.

When I returned from Australia in late 2009, Rica urged us to do a third edition, saying so many people asked about End Frame while I was away. I was hesitant but considered the possibility based on conditions of changing the format. At first, I wanted to do a small group exhibition based on a particular theme. I was not one who believed that an event needs to be bigger each time next time around (and that bigger means better). Yet, while I was doing research on ideas for the show, I realized that I needed to do so much more research on artists and their video works here. I felt a little strange about subjugating artists and their works under a theme for a group show when I still had more to learn. Perhaps for the future but for now, I had more to learn.

So I thought about devising a format which would allow each artist to speak in his/her own context. The festival then would be a series of solo exhibitions of artists who've worked with video and would present a new video work. Working with each artist would also provide the necessary avenues for research (or, at the very least, identification of these avenues). But of course, there are still questions - which artists? How many? There was also the issue of the manageability and duration of the project.

Since the full line-up has yet to be announced and I'm still in the planning phase, I will write more on this next time. I can say though for now that I have decided to keep a private journal documenting my thoughts on this project as it is staged to 2012. And it is being launched this Saturday, 15 January, 7 pm with Tad Ermitaño's first solo exhibition at Pablo Gallery in Fort Bonifacio. Tad uses projections to make a site-specific work responsive to Pablo's two rooms and the stairway in between them.

I have gone back to some conversations I had with Tad in 2009 when I was writing a paper on him for my media art/cinema class (which I eventually revised to present at the Second Philippine Art Studies conference in February 2010). I plan to edit these conversations and put it in the End Frame 3 catalogue which will be released at the end of the project, to be available in online platforms like Kindle or the ipad.

My research continues as I leave next month for my residency at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, researching on their video art collection. I also have a project in Korea after that but I will be back still in time for our humid Manila summers. I will though continue to update throughout.

Press release on End Frame 3 and Tad's show below:

End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, a Philippine video art festival, commences this month as the third edition and new format of the video art festival which took place in 2006 and 2007. Presented by Visual Pond, the theme Present refers to the current project’s focus on selected Philippine contemporary artists’ practices in video art. Throughout the festival, each artist stages a show presenting new video work in various venues from January 2011 to January 2012.

The festival proudly launches with Passage, a solo exhibition by Tad Ermitaño, opening on January 15 at Pablo Gallery, Fort Bonifacio. A site-specific work responsive to the two rooms of Pablo and the stairs between them, Passage utilizes multiple projections and video mapping technology in a crossover of fairy tales and science fiction. Ermitaño, who has studied philosophy, biology and filmmaking, has participated in several local and international group exhibitions and film festivals, including the 2002 videoart.mov, the 2004 Hong Kong International Film Festival, the 2006 Ogaki Biennale, the 2007 Dime a Dozen at Lopez Museum, the 2008 Inter-society of Electronic Arts juried exhibition and recently, the Hear to Ear exhibition of Fete dela Wsk. Passage marks the first solo exhibition of this media artist, running until 29 January 2011 with a closing talk by the artist at 5:30 pm.

Pablo Gallery, located at C-11 South of Market Condominium, 11th corner 26th Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 noon to 7:00 pm, tel. no. (632) 506-0602. Other confirmed artists presenting new works for End Frame 3 include Manny Montelibano, Claro Ramirez, Kiri Dalena and Kaloy Olavides with the full schedule and line-up to be announced soon. For inquiries on the project, call +63917-5357955 or email visualpond@gmail.com. End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present is curated by Clarissa Chikiamco; Passage is with thanks to Green Papaya Art Projects.

Update

So I've been extremely busy and there are a number of my art writings which I haven't been able to post here.

The past few weeks I had been focusing on the expansion of my essay for the Lee Aguinaldo book being published by Vibal Foundation and the Ateneo Art Gallery. I think writing for a book really means seclusion! You really need time to concentrate and process your thoughts. I blogged about my essay in September when I was working on finishing it. I actually did finish it by the end of that month. My final word count was over 9,000, much more than the projected 5,000.

In early November though we had another meeting and the publisher thought it would be a good idea for us writers to expand our texts as we could include more images. The requested expansion though was 8,000 each - nearly double what I had already written! I think I was a little shocked at first with a race of conflicting feelings. I had been quite happy having already opened the retrospective and getting to attend to the many things which I needed or wanted to do but had put off because of Lee. Now I would have to put off everything again and face the extreme difficulty - mentally, emotionally and even physically - that comes in writing a long academic essay. So to know I would go back into this cave and self-imposed hibernation was nerve-wracking.

Even if I had this anxious little ball bouncing around in my stomach, there was also a part of me that was looking forward to the challenge, knowing that there are still so many things that could be said about Lee. Indeed, there was still a lot more I could discuss with Lee as a postmodernist artist, particularly with his ideas on appropriation and on, as I also felt, 'time'. I had to agree when the publisher said that my essay in my current state was solid but it also made one curious and asked for more. So now, I had the opportunity to flesh out more of its ideas - in a full additional 8,000-word glory.

In the middle of this attack on the expansion, I attended the Visayas Biennale or the VIVA Ex-con in Cebu (my first visit to this city often compared to Manila). I had already booked my trip weeks before, thinking I would have been done with my major Lee commitments by then. I also had to honor my other writing commitments, the major one being the catalogue text for the Ronald Ventura 'Converging Nature' solo exhibition at Drawing Room. And, of course, before writing meant research, research, research. I was crazy enough to actually flip page by page through several years of weekly magazines of different publications from the late 1950s to mid 1960s. Since the articles for these magazines are not entered in a computerized database, an article discussing Lee could be hidden somewhere within those pages. Since I didn't have time to check out every year of every magazine, I began by doing a random selection (example, 1963 issues of Philippines Herald Magazine) and just going through that. I would input into my computer which issues/dates I would check so I wouldn't get confused and wind up redoing what I had already done. It's an extremely time-consuming process but I did find some things I could use. I would have kept on looking but tick tock, I had to stop.

Other research meant reading books and essays, looking for those that could be of use and help me understand and discuss Lee's work. There was the usual (1) reading something for hours and realizing I can't use it; (2) reading something for hours and realizing I can't use it but it points me towards other sources I might be able to use; (3) realizing some sources might be crucial... but not available anywhere in the Philippines and too late or too expensive to order and have it shipped rush via Amazon when I'm still not 100% sure I can use it; (4) wanting sources in university libraries but I'm not a student so I don't have any borrowing privileges... so song-and-dance having very kind friends with access borrow it for me! Then, of course, making notes, pulling out quotations, even making outlines... Oh yeah, writing.

So yes, anyway, I've finished. In total, I was supposed to pass 17,500 words. What I sent in was about 19,600 - minus a few hundred since a number of those words were text call outs for which images I wanted in my essay. So 19,000++. I sent in 10,000 more words, phew. As the word count was climbing towards that, I was already quite dizzy trying to read my whole essay in one go! I was also a bit shocked when I counted the sources in my bibliography at the time I passed it- 65!

Now that I've finished it though, I'm extremely happy about the expansion so my essay could be more thorough in the discussion. I also feel like I have gained a crucial understanding to Lee's works that I hadn't had before, even as obsessed as I am with his art. This is especially with his ideas on time, which I had then only had hints of that it was worth taking note of. In retrospect, I realize now that a discussion on time is absolutely fundamental, at least to my essay.

So I've been busy with that and will continue to be busy with that, at least in terms of helping the book come together. I still need to see the copy-edited version and I've also had minor changes and additions I want to do, after thinking about it over a few days. I also want to help with the vision and visuals of the book, in somehow making it 'Lee' (as in very modern and contemporary). In other aspects, I'm still rushing to make a couple of deadlines this week and I'm also making plans for Visual Pond's End Frame 3 (will make an announcement in a couple of weeks).

I will try to do further updates on the blog this week but likely not... so if I don't get to, I wish you a wonderful holidays! Till the next update.

Modernist/Postmodernist Lee: Talk on 4 December 2010, Saturday, 10 am

I will be giving a talk on Saturday, 4 December 2010, 10.00 am as part of the programs for the ongoing exhibition "Lee Aguinaldo: In Retrospect" which I curated with Victoria "Boots" Herrera in Ateneo Art Gallery. The talk has been generally titled "Modernist/Postmodernist Lee" but the talk really serves as the vehicle for me to deliver my ongoing essay on him for the upcoming book for Ateneo and Vibal Foundation Publishing. The title of my essay is "The Missing Link? Modernist Trope, Rupture, Variations." In this essay, I examine how Lee has been identified as a modern abstract artist and posit the necessity to rupture this notion in order to examine other facets of his practice.

Everyone is welcome to attend and there is free admission. The Ateneo Art Gallery is on the 2F Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Metro Manila 1108. You can try to find more specific directions at http://gallery.ateneo.edu. For inquiries, call IC or Thea at (632) 426.6488.

Photograph on the right is the invitation image for Lee's 1972 'painting' exhibition at Cultural Center of the Philippines. It is a photo taken of Lee by Nat Gutierrez.

Lee Aguinaldo exhibition opens today!

"Lee Aguinaldo: In Retrospect", curated by Boots Herrera and myself, opens tonight at 6 pm at the Ateneo Art Gallery, 2nd level, Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Metro Manila 1108.

Exhibition talks by the curators
13 November, Saturday, 10 am - Lee Aguinaldo, Revisited by Boots Herrera
4 December, Saturday, 10 am - Modernist/Postmodernist Lee by Clarissa Chikiamco

Press release below:

LEE AGUINALDO: IN RETROSPECT


This October as part of its year-long 50th anniversary celebration, the Ateneo Art Gallery launches the exhibition Lee Aguinaldo: In Retrospect. Among the illustrious first generation of Philippine abstractionists in the 1950s, Lee Aguinaldo (1933-2007) is often identified with abstract expressionism and hard-edged and color field paintings. This representative exhibition of Aguinaldo’s output incorpo...rates his more celebrated styles as well as his other lesser known experimental approaches that also form an important part of his contribution to Philippine art.


A self-taught artist, Aguinaldo began his artistic career at a young age as among the artists in the 1952 annual show of the sanctuary of modern art, the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG). He was also part of the landmark show, “The First Exhibition of Non-Objective Art Exhibition in Tagala,” held in the PAG in 1953 with other artists such as Fernando Zobel, Vicente Manansala, H. R. Ocampo, Arturo Luz, Victor Oteyza, and Nena Saguil. Aguinaldo held his first solo show in 1956 and, later in the 1960s, won major awards in the Art Association of the Philippines Annual art competitions. Known as being a brilliant colorist and being very particular about his materials, Aguinaldo is credited by many for introducing local artists to the use of acrylic as an artist’s medium, particularly the high-end brand “Aquatec” which he used over marine plywood.


Although he was more known for his abstract works, Aguinaldo created figurative works throughout his life. He was a consummate drawer and he was among the first, if not the principal exponent, in adopting ideas of Pop Art by incorporating printed images from glossy fashion magazines like Harper’s Bazaar into his oil paintings, particularly the Galumph Series. He loved to experiment with different processes inspired by his up-to-date resources of art magazines. His mixed media works incorporate frottage or surface rubbings, pencil, image transfers, collages and acrylic emulsion, reminiscent of the works of American Pop artists Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers and Christo.


In the mid-1970s until the early 1980s, Aguinaldo closely collaborated with his photographer friends: the late portrait photographer Butch Baluyut and Wig Tysmans. This interest on the graphic arts produced a series of photo collages taken from print media and photographs “flattened” or sealed with acrylic emulsion.


The exhibition, curated by Ma. Victoria Herrera and Clarissa Chikiamco, presents Aguinaldo’s many facets as an artist. Further talks on Aguinaldo’s life and output will be given by the exhibition curators as part of the Ateneo Art Gallery’s Artspeak program: Lee Aguinaldo, Revisited by Ma. Victoria Herrera on Saturday, 13 November 2010, 10 am and Modernist/Postmodernist Lee by Clarissa Chikiamco on Saturday, 4 December 2010, 10 am.


The exhibitions runs until 5 February 2011. Museum hours until 6 November, Monday - Friday 8 am - 5 pm, Saturday 8 am - 12 noon. From November 8, Monday –Friday 8 am – 7:30 pm; Saturday 8 am – 6pm. The museum is closed Sundays, holidays and from 20 December 2010 to 5 January 2011. For more information, please contact IC Jaucian at (632) 4266488 or via email at ijaucian@ateneo.edu.

Lee Aguinaldo work? Last call

6.31 am and I should be getting to sleep but I thought I'd squeeze in 30 minutes to write a quick overdue blog entry.

Since arriving in Manila from my one-month sojourn in Korea for the Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course, I have been quite busy on the Lee Aguinaldo (1933-2007) exhibition I'm working on with my former teacher, Boots Herrera. I've mentioned this project in past entries and it has been a longtime coming. The seeds of the project started from my undergraduate project under Boots when I was a senior at Ateneo in 2005. So it is with a little incredulity that I realize the exhibition opening is fast approaching and all that has happened between me being a college senior to the current moment. A lot can happen in 5 years! Anyway, the exhibition opens 26 October, Tuesday, and will run until early February 2011.

What I've been particularly preoccupied on for the past few weeks is my essay for the Lee Aguinaldo book which will be launched in February before the closing of the exhibition. There are four of us writers, each of us with our own piece. One is a reprint of Rod Paras-Perez's text from Lee Aguinaldo's last solo exhibition which was in 1992 at the Lopez Memorial Museum. Cid Reyes is writing on Lee's abstract works. Boots is doing the biography. My essay looks at how Lee constituted and was constitutive of modernist ideas of the artist as well as examining his postmodernist practice which has been little remarked upon (and why it has been little remarked upon).

So my life for the past 2 1/2 weeks since I've been back has been Lee, the computer and texts helping me along my essay. I am trying to finish the essay by Sunday not only because we are beyond the original deadline already but I have put so much of my life on hold for this piece. I have not been writing for my column for Star (and I should be doing a review of the Gwangju Biennale which opened last September 2) or a couple of other things lined up. There are also I think so many things I need to attend to so I can plan my 2011 well and 'manifest' exhibitions/projects I have in mind before spaces fill up their calendar. But this essay on Lee deserves/demands so much of my concentration. Everything is on hold till I finish it.

I have put at the start of this entry an image of Lee which appeared in the 13 October 1963 issue of Asia Magazine. Shot by Dick Baldovino, I would argue this piece is a self-portrait because Lee composed a special work on glass plate for the photo which he stood behind. Now, to illustrate in a way what my essay is tackling, juxtapose that self-portrait above with another self-portrait of Lee done in 1985 below:



It is instant to visually register there is something different going on here but I think difficult to articulate how and why while locating it within a wider discourse. It always seems easy in retrospect once it's written but when you are articulating this - from images to thoughts to words (as thoughts are not immediately words) - it is difficult as well as exhausting. While I do veer towards the poetic in writing texts for contemporary art exhibitions, my essay here is academic in approach which means a lot more research than usual. The length is also considerable. Originally, I thought it would be 5,000 words. I remember even looking at the screen at about over 200 words thinking, 'I cannot imagine reaching 5,000.' Well, I am over 5,000 at the moment and still writing. I've estimated the final word count to be between 8,000 to 10,000.

So I'm going to get some shut-eye at last for a few hours but I just thought I would update people with what I've been up to since I've pretty much been a recluse that pops out here and there (for some interactivity with the outside world for my sanity). I'm going to some exhibitions later in the evening to some shows I cannot not go to but between sleep and that, I hope to have a productive day pumping out those words. Wish me luck I finish by Sunday. And for some last words for this entry - if you have a Lee Aguinaldo piece that you haven't contacted Boots and I about yet, this is the last call for you to tell us and for it to be included in the book. Seriously, if you have one, email me ASAP: letterstolisa@gmail.com

And I leave you with a good morning!

Last few hours in Korea

I haven't written in over a month since arriving in Korea last 8 August for the Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course. The course closed a few days ago and I decided to spend 3 days in Seoul before flying back to Manila. I'm gearing up to attack the massive load of work that awaits me and which I'm trying to start on in these last few hours before my flight to Manila tonight.

For the people here who have visited my site because we met in Korea - anyong haseo! I'm glad you took the time to visit! Do know there's still a lot of updating on my site to do. This site served initially as documentation of my art writing but I think I should write more about my curatorial ideas, curating projects and upload more images. But in any case, please stay in touch and I hope we get to meet some time in the future soon or work on something together!

I will miss many things but more importantly many people whom I've met here. But as one of my classmates said - this is just the beginning. And so... here's to beginnings!

Now, to work.