Excursion modules in tension island

Poklong Anading clearly is an experienced communicator of new perspectives. His originality lies in his willingness to engage with audiences. It is interesting to note how he revisits earlier debates on the relation between community networks and the artistic avant-garde. — Jo Holder, director of The Cross Art Projects, Sydney

PHILIPPINE STAR: Can you talk about the first image here, what happened?

POKLONG ANADING: I was inspired by the transportation flow during rush hour. I’m usually put in that situation. So one time I brought my friend Enteng along to the MRT station, but it proved difficult to get in because it was too crowded. He had a plastic laundry basket with him, so when the next train came he didn’t have a choice but to place it on his head.

He probably did it because of his circumstance in reality, perhaps (not) art. If there were more space in the train, what would have happened?

Nothing. Maybe he would have just held it. We even laughed about it. He placed it on his head because he couldn’t do anything about it.

You guys had art/work in mind?

It’s a study that could become work. Cameras aren’t allowed in the MRT, but how can you stop this gesture? People discreetly get footage.

ENTENG VIRAY: They can’t do anything about it. It was very crowded and I wanted to hop on the train. I told Poklong that we should just see each other at the next station.

With influential artists like Adrian Piper who explore boundaries of public space, gender, race and socialized rituals, streets and other modes of transportation such as the subway become potent platforms for similar tensions. I wonder how the Filipino mindset and audience react to or localize such concerns.

POKLONG: It’s quite passive here, it’s hard to make an audience participate. It’s either they get mad or just stare blankly, perhaps out of fear that they might get reprimanded for joining in. As a group they could, but on their own and separately, especially if they see a camera, that would be tough.

The presence of the camera either drives them to engage and/or perform, or look away to avoid getting photographed.

POKLONG: The audience reaction was secondary. The important thing was being able to translate my actual, spontaneous experience — how I got the idea when I had Enteng react without prior plans — to reenact a spontaneous act via photography. I think it’s important. I just see Enteng’s photo and I laugh.

ENTENG: I can imagine people thinking, “What’s that basket doing on his head?” and I’d think, “Well, there’s nothing you can do, it’s tight in here!”

POKLONG: The second image is another guerrilla project — it’s like an unplanned architectural space. Vehicles would pass the intersection of EDSA and Aurora Boulevard and at times there would be a beggar sleeping there from 6 to 8 p.m. That’s the first thing I thought, I was hoping there were squatters living there. If there was a shower curtain, would they still be visible and privy to stares and heckles? Traffic is noisy underneath and people crossing the street obtrusive. So I got interested in this kind of space, it’s like a gallery where people can throw trash in. There are kids who get high there as well.

That’s really tempting spatially, with or without the aid of narcotics. Everything seems nice. In reality though, this residual error or accidental structure can be quite dangerous. One has privacy and free lodging, but becomes isolated. Solitude as both trip and trap.

POKLONG: Just think of the people who can potentially live in similar spaces. If they built a bridge then there would already be a community living there right now.

Are you still interested in the space?

POKLONG: It’s been a while, a lot has happened. So every time I pass there I develop the urge to throw something in its direction just so that the space will get noticed. People don’t even mind it anymore. There’s no one there, but I didn’t want an easy task so I chose the megaphone. You can hang around with it and no one will probably mind you.

How did you decide on the gesture? Did the megaphone come first or the space?

POKLONG: I decided on the megaphone because most of the props here in the studio are just scattered. When we were transferring houses I saw the megaphone. It’s noisy, it’s like a musical piece. When I heard it I got really nervous. I remembered the space again all of a sudden — Enteng and I can do a guerrilla scene there using the megaphone. I wanted to make it into a timer, to make it tick like a time bomb.

Did Poklong explain what you had to do?

ENTENG: At first. There was nothing I could do. I just wanted it to finish.

POKLONG: It was a bit risky, despite the many times I’ve told him about it.

ENTENG: We were caught so many times already.

Yes. I miss those days.

ENTENG: Sometimes, shit, I don’t trust Poklong anymore. I think he just likes putting me in danger.

That’s what happens in a collaboration; in a way it gets rehearsed but nevertheless it is still nerve-wrecking.

ENTENG: You face the police, and here we go again.

POKLONG: I just wanted to see what would happen — like if the ambulance would arrive, if passersby would think it’s a bomb. But I wanted to be invisible in all this.

It’s a better idea — more spectral and suggestive.

POKLONG: That’s why I get it more. At first I was hoping I’d toss it, and the cops would pick me up. It’s funnier if I was the one to admit the fault instead of Enteng getting into trouble again. It’s kind of dramatic. But since consecutive bomb threats have been happening in the city, Enteng got scared. He was already traumatized from our past encounters with the authorities so I thought there was no point in making the same point.

The idea of something being thrown in that awkward space is already more troubling than bearing witness to the act. The work is more the suggestion (in a photograph) rather than its execution (in reality). It would probably look silly in actual life, but the frozen gesture in a fictive and reproducible document becomes something more open to projection, more prone to rumors, and potentially disturbing. You could be throwing anything. The siren as object, thought and sound triggers fear and hysteric talk.

POKLONG: Speaking of fear and growling, this last image is a study inspired by walks in a neighborhood where dogs are everywhere. In such places one needs a tactic, especially when you’re drunk and not so alert.

It’s like sexual harassment, but of the canine kind!

POKLONG: It’s just a hassle when you get bitten. Worse, the owners often claim that their dogs don’t bite, as if putting the blame on you. I get annoyed by such incidents, so that got me thinking of dog collars/traps made of metal. Basically you lock the dogs’ heads together while they’re asleep. When they wake up faced to each other, they’d probably end up gnarling and fighting ‘til kingdom come. Eventually they’ll get tired, energy drained. Ready for release.

So you want to teach the dogs a lesson, to make them feel the way you do (laughter).

POKLONG: I want to know also how far their patience will go. It’s like a war dance. I can’t do anything about the culture because it’s the government who should find a solution. But I want the dogs to know their effect on people when they bark. I want to place the stress on them.

Do you see a common thread in the works you mentioned?

POKLONG: The connection is that they all comment on experiences that are both tragic and funny. Just like the Bawal Ang Tao Dito image — I want to explain and show that it’s funny, that despite the warning there is still a person there, albeit butt-naked and face covered. These contradictions and small observations are interesting to me.

It’s a way of coping with the world but not providing a neat solution. Where the stress falls is, after all, part of the joy. Are the studies important, or do you have to execute them?

POKLONG: It depends. The ideas Enteng and I come up with have been there for a while, but they have to be executed with timing. That’s why we turn them into studies. They just happen when the right time comes.

It’s a good thing you remember. I quickly forget an idea.

POKLONG: The idea’s always been there. That’s why it’s more interesting this way, when it’s a pure study.