Shipments

Shipments, 2013
Wood, rope, paper, light, steal
Roppongi Art Night
Tokyo, Japan

I collected thousands of receipts from different shops in Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama and installed it in the Hibino ship for the 24-hour project, Roppongi Art Night.  The ship was the base of the paper installation that invites people to tie their own receipts in an omukuji-style knot.  Omokuji  are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally "sacred lot", these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a five-yen coin as it is considered good luck) and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. When the prediction is bad, it is a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine grounds.

For "Shipments" the idea crosses between religion, consumerism, economy and trade.  A “ship of affinities” to make us keenly aware of how we ourselves and all our “baggage” are interconnected with everything else in the world.

http://www.roppongiartnight.com/en/musubi-maru/

http://www.roppongiartnight.com/

Curated by Nozomu Ogawa
Director: Katsuhiko Hibino

Shipments, 2013
Ink on graph paper

Forever

Forever, 2013
Plastic, garbage
size variable

In my apartment, Cubao, Philippines.

Untitled

Untitled, 2012
Quilt/cloth
289.5 X 190.5 CM. 2012

Populus
Drawing Room Contemporary Art, Singapore
http://drawingroomgallery.com/exhibition/populus-3/

Believed by Catholic devotees to have healing powers, these piece of cloth with Nazareno images were bought at the nearby market outside the Quiapo church. Each handkerchief was rubbed onto a saint to acquire its healing power, passing its energy from the statue to the body of the person who believe in miracles.

Untitled, 2012
Drawing, markers on paper

Happy Hour

"Happy Hour", 2012
LED

Other
Curated by Clarisaa Chikiamco
Picasso Hotel
Makati, Philippines

Happy Hour (2012) features an LED sign of the common marketing term for the limited period in which restaurants/bars offer discount on their alcoholic drinks. Only this time, the letter ‘h’ of ‘hour’ does not light up, spelling out happy our. The reworded expression may simply refer to the Filipino tendency to be joyful despite rampant poverty and calamity. Yet, it could also designate something more insidious in its lighted form, pointing towards nightclubs, extra services, cheapened merchandise, and even ‘happy endings’ in the context of this show.
_____________________________



OTHER

In the book, Amorsolo 1892-1972, Alfredo Roces cites an article of the March 10, 1929 edition of Tribune Magazine in discussing the form of foreign patronage in Fernando Amorsolo’s works: ‘Explaining that “60 pictures of typical Filipino life done in the Impressionist manner” was scheduled for exhibition at the Grand Central Art Gallery of New York, the report observed: “It is said that of thirty-two pictures of [Amorsolo] exhibited in the same gallery two years ago only two were not disposed of and those do not treat of the essential Philippine scene.”’ (emphasis my own)

The quotation helps inform this exhibition ‘Other’, which examines ideas of stereotypes, exoticization, authenticity, and their consumption. Set in the context of a hotel which day-to-day regularly acts as collision space of the foreign and the local, the show features artworks, books, a film, Mabini art and tourist items in a self-conscious consideration of typical images of the Other and their mechanisms of circulation.


http://altromondo.com.ph/exhibits-config/main-exhibition-curated-by-clarissa-chikiamco/

Wrapped: Taipei

Wrapped: Taipei, 2012
Bamboo Curtain Studio
Taipei, Taiwan

Link http://wrappedtraces.blogspot.com/2012/11/wrapped-taipei.html

Acknowledgement:

Margaret Shiu
Chia Mei Yang
Chaterine Lee
Michael Ho
New York
Jia-Yow Hsie
Boots Herrera
Niko Zapata


http://bambooculture.com/residentartist/913

Related activity:

Artist Presentations at Guling Avant Garde Theater
http://bambooculture.com/activity/926
http://bambooculture.com/news/948

Model Unit

Model Unit, 2012
Hollow blocks, sound
Cultural Center of the Philippines

Dealing with issues of urbanism, economy, aspirations and space, I made an installation using the main component of constructing a building - hollow blocks. The project is an ongoing investigation with the urban landscape especially Metro Manila. The project started with my recent show "Territories" at the Ateneo Art Gallery wherein I collected property development brochures preselling condominiums to prospect buyers and turned it into a model city.


The jump off point of the project is also from the brochures I collected. Hollow blocks were neatly stacked as if it is ready to be used in the construction of a studio-type unit - unit area range: 26.20 sq. m. Speakers were installed inside the hollow blocks for the sound. The sound piece is a woman speaking random phrases that I also collected from the brochures as 'advertising copy' of the condominiums.


Copy samples: Let your Dreams and Lifestyle Soar to the Sky; Live the Life you Love; Your Family Comes First; Enjoy the Good Life; Your Life Begins Here... The stacked hollow blocks also becomes like the real condominium building and the holes also resembles the windows... It also reflects to the country's strength in the economy that is viewed by the economists in the west and these layers of hallow blocks has also different layers of issues concerning the country -- booming population, bad urban planning, capitalism etc.

Voice Over only

Model City (Phase III)

Model City (Phase III), 2012
Cut-outs and video (looped)
size variable

Cityzening
Project Glocal
Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines
curated by Dayang Yraola
http://vargasmuseum.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/cityzening/

Walking around Manila especially inside the malls and other establishments, there are many real-estate companies promoting their high rise apartments and condominiums to a prospect buyer. Using their brochures as part of their marketing and advertising, I collected these pieces of paper and cut the image of the proposed building. I created my own model city using the pictures of the building. Presenting it like a scale model of a future city, the video animation represents the uncontrolled sprawling urbanism in Manila.

True Color

True Color, 2012
Inkjet on archival paper ed. of 5
11.69 in X  16.54 in