The next wave

CEBU, Philippines - Who's afraid of the  Balete?

 Installation artist Leeroy New explained that the distinct aerial prop roots of the balete (banyan tree; also known as "dakit" in Cebuano) and its capacity to grow to huge proportions have bestowed upon the tree a sacred identity – that's why most dare not trespass this mysterious identity.

Nevertheless, New goes ahead to "recreate the awe and terror that the balete inspires, using bright orange flexible conduits for electric cables as probing roots that attach to and choke architectural structures and other trees."

According to a certain Adjani Arumpac in an essay entitled "Profanum", New's body of works – ranging from mythological forms to sci-fi creatures – frequently explores his dread and fascination of the consecrated. And that New "defines the sacred and its counterpart, the profane, by exploring strange and supernatural forms such as the Balete."

"The profane is the everyday as we experience it, as we see it. All of the things unknowable, unseen, and incomprehensible, in contrast, constitute the sacred."

Accordingly, the essay added, "religion, whether it takes the form of God, gods, or the mythical ancestors bridges this dichotomy; and that this is where the artist locates his mythic sculptures, instilling in them a sense of reality by participating in the sacred through a visualization of form from a primordial time when the Sacred first appeared and established the world's structure."

"But by rendering the sacred tangible, New consequently annuls sanctity and simultaneously puts his work back into the forbidden realm. This irony reeks of profanity and it is through this that New manages to confront his terror of religion and tradition: through sheer mockery."

Assuming the role of the jester, the artist blatantly "disregards fear usually associated with the iconic tree and with religion in general." He playfully deconstructs the mystery and myth that surrounds it by choosing to show work in progress for the audience in his site-specific Balete installation.

Sharing in the ongoing "The New Wave" exhibit at the Casa Gorordo Museum is another contemporary artist – Kiri Dalena – for her "Watch History Repeat Itself" installation.

In a separate essay of Arumpac entitled "History in Translation", it was mentioned that Dalena's works begin with the blinking white neon sign screaming LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!

Randomly illuminating a dark room, it is meant to recall reactions to statements issued by the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government from the infamous Hello Garci controversy to over 1,000 alleged extra-judicial killings throughout its nine-year reign.

"A red neon sign that floods red light in a white vacant area reads DEAR ACTIVIST, WRITE A SLOGAN FOR ME tenderly invites one to contemplate past and ongoing brutalities denounced by various sectors in countless angry statements against the government."

"(Those) neon signs, ubiquitous visual polluters and commercial vendors of the modern world, give light to such provoking statements and reveal what the artist sees as a paradox: commercial and political interests of the ruling elite are protected by the state through various mechanisms such as brute armed strength," this was the explanation given.

Dalena's aesthetics banks on a "pervading sense of terror in real-time - continuing." But this sense of immediacy and urgency; an energy usually taken out in the streets, is forcefully brought to a standstill by the artist. She chooses to "show tragedy as history, as clearly advertised by a blinking neon light that spells HISTORY. In the same vein, transferred in the YELLOW BOOK OF SLOGANS are rally calls culled from photo-documentation of rallies waged against the nine-year Arroyo regime. Likewise, inscribed in a single funerary slab are the haunting words: WATCH HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF, an abridged text displayed during Cory Aquino's funeral march."

According to Arumpac, Dalena wrests these texts out of the streets and entombs them in forms and mediums that significantly depart from traditional protest art, wherein prime is given to fast production, accessibility and portability, whose end is to provide visual support for street mobilizations. She doubly gives weight to her cause, literally, by trading permanence for transience through writing ephemeral protest calls in black and white and in stone.

The initiative of bringing contemporary artists, winners of one of the most prestigious art competitions, in the country is a way of providing an opportunity for local young aspiring artists to learn from the works and a means of encouraging viewers to open their minds to other media of artistic expression.

The Ateneo Art Awards was first presented in 2004 in memory of its founding patron Fernando Zobel de Ayala. It is given to three outstanding Filipino artists aged 35 and below who have made a significant mark on contemporary Philippine art. It honors innovative, enlightened, and committed visionaries who, through their exemplary practice of the visual arts today, symbolize the hope and promise of a nation.

The Next Wave (Exhibitions in Response to the International Studio Residency Grants of the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards) runs until July 30 at the Casa Gorordo Museum. Leeroy New is the recipient of the 2009 Ateneo Art Gallery – La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre Residency Grant, while Dalena is the Common Room Networks Foundation Residency Grant recipient.