3WXPO

3WXPO, 2008
construction, found objects, light hose
6x6x7ft
Kargado show, curated by Jose Tence Ruiz
Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City

Idyl Idols

By Juana Manahan
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Mark Salvatus’ multimedia installation called “Xpo” is paired in reaction to Antonio Austria’s work, “Sari Sari” of 1965. I find that it is a commentary on the idolatrous nature of Filipino culture and the very Filipino tendency to mix unlike things together—for the sake of convenience. For a country that claims to be the “only Christian Nation in Asia” we certainly worship more than one. This is probably the only place in the world where one will find a statue of a Sto. Niño alongside a Chinese good luck laughing Buddah or a lucky frog with a coin in its mouth. Other figures that are included are those of children’s toys—an influence from the American culture that is ingrained in every Filipino no matter what their social background is. “Xpo” also comments on the commodification of labor and mass production the west has brought on the Philippines. It also nods at the fact that our sense of nationhood is watered down by the strong outside influences that we chose to idolize.

TUTOK KARGADO is an agitated dialogue between a post-modern
community and the high modern collection of the Ateneo Art Gallery.
KARGADO examines nationhood, modernism, critical self-recognition,
political complexity, and proposes that art practice comes with an
inseparable charge, a context, an implication that cannot be distilled
away into absolute form but has to be grafted and manifest by and in
such form to fully address the era it came from. The anxieties of
Y2k08 – homogenizing globalisation, climate change, hegemony and
extremism have prodded artists to either dissect contemporaneity or
provide perishable cocoons of indifference. TuTOK KARGADO chooses
dissection.

This dissection becomes engaging when shaped as visual discourse
between masters such as Arturo Luz, Vicente Manansala, J. Elizalde
Navarro, Roberto Chabet, Antonio Austria, Brenda Fajardo, Lazaro
Soriano, among others, and current practitioners such as Edgar Talusan
Fernandez, Manny Garibay, Alfredo Esquillo, Noel Soler Quizon, Karen O
Flores, Jose Tence Ruiz, Boy Dominguez, Mideo Cruz, Mark Salvatus,
Buen Calubayan, Jay Pacena, Lav Diaz, Jim Libiran, Don Salubayba and
Kirby Roxas. This discourse encompasses painting, installation and
video and is curated by Jose Tence Ruiz.