POST NO BILL

POST NO BILL

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

It is very rare to see an assembly of artworks with one theme, seeing art in everyday experiences and objects in our lives. Yet we have it and marvel at how the many artists have shaped, reshaped and transformed ordinary-looking objects into works of art.

You see, everyday, when we go out of our homes, we are deluged with posters and billboards enticing us to consume this and that. We are in effect a bill-fed people as can be gleamed from the broad avenues of Makati to the simple narrow streets of Sampaloc. Not even the spaces between streets are spared – so many streamers greeting graduates, wishing the people happiness in this and that occasion can be found. Billboards advertising this and that object or that service proliferate and multiply in great abandon, the local governments neatly and strangely quiet about this advertising invasion of their territories.

In this exhibit, what we would normally consider as litter meant for the bins are given a make-over. For example, a billboard picked up in L.A. has been transformed into an artwork with a new, relevant and contemporary meaning in it- hands in different poses.  Looking more closely, we will find they depict the sign language of “peace.” Now what is the purpose in this muted expression of “peace?” Instead of a mouth screming and shouting “PEACE!”, the hands speak the mantra “speech is silver and silence is gold.”

Other objects that have been transformed include bottles of different sizes and shapes, vehicle tires beyond repair, newspaper pages, toilet bowls, signages, talon calendars with holy figures, as well as shredded Philippine bills. For another example, tires are laid out in a circle like a wheel of fortune. Why tires, we ask. That is because tires should be moving us from one destination to another.

Then newspapers once we have read, we throw away or sell to the “Diyaryo-bote” scavenger. However a front page banner headline is cut up, magnified and placed under a lens serving in effect a new purpose. It has become the  most significant issue of the day, this headline:”Nawalan ng delicadeza.” The artist has put forward his own view of politics.

Now the TV advertisintg world is wrapped up in so many ads enticing us to drink this and that label. But an art installation shows us another view – drinking is not limited to liquor but to harder stuff like shabu – most of the time to forget. Thus, a small corner contains a TV set and in front of it several bottles wrapped in paper.

In another piece, chairs wrapped in paper are actually toilet bowls serving as seats for the audience viewing a mélange of dire images dished out by commercial film companies. One could feel like eliminating in the face of “s---” being dished out by the screen.

A “Welcome” sign not only urges the people to come, but also sees to remind us comically about what could be found in Baguio City: blind curves, narrow roads, a hundred traffic policemen who could jail you due to even the minutest infraction in the coldest jail in Luzon.”

Bottles have their labels removed and then various cut-outs of a face, the head of an animal with horns, a woman’s behind as well as land formations become the new contents. Why bottles? We bottle up our memories of people and places we encounter in life.

A calendar4 of holy figures has been cut up and then woven with the artist’s own painting and now includes graphics of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as well as farmers’ scenes, hence telling us that our life as a people is a mishmash of cultural icons that seem to be clashing yet which we tolerate side by side with or even on top of each other.

S piece with the shape of four crosses or what could be pieces in a puzzle seems too ordinary to be attended to. Actually when magnified the crosses are actually made up of shredded bank notes. And when you see through the lens then the questions arise” “whom” and “what do you worship?”

Vivarium, a puzzle at first glance is just a plain salvaged welcome signboard to a subdivision. Sawdusts have been shaped into roads and landmap of a subdivision. In the center is a peephole – voila!—you see the original, idyllic setting of the place full of greenry. Where is it now

The works of Santiago Bose, Mark Justiniani, Joy Mallari, Alfredo Esquillo, Ling Quisumbing Ramillo Alwin Reamillo, Leo Abaya, Francis Commeyne, and Ioannis Sicuya, are featured.

“Post No Bill” Exhibit was put up by Tin-Aw Art Gallery in partnership with Manila Contemporary located at the Whitespace 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. Runs from March 17 to April 25, 2012.