what the hell is philippine contemporary art?

The Philippine Contemporary: to scale the past and the possible exhibition at the onset is overwhelming. It’s like reading a five volume encyclopedia or a 5 chapter voluminous novel. There are three sections in the exhibition with two additional assemblages that narrates the progress of contemporary art scene in the Philippines. The first three sections are arranged chronologically just like a history book. Perhaps, this is the objective of the curator or the programmer of the exhibit. But as you go along with the linear development of Philippine art scene, there are more and more elements that makes the simple more complex.

What is common and differentiated in Philippine contemporary art? This is what makes art ever evolving and present. This is what cartographers of the past and historians exclude. At the margins and the periphery is the common but differentiated art. A reaction against the prevailing forms and modes of expression like the works of Roberto Chabet and his protégées in Lena Cobangbang, Ringo Bunuoan, Poklong Ananding and Wire Tuazon. It is present and visible, there might be no artist run space anymore like Surrounded by Water but there is a survival and redeeming value. On the surface, islands are disconnected from each other but when you dig deeper, you’d realize all of these isolated archipelagic works are interconnected with each other. We just need to navigate the arteries of the vast ocean of contemporary Philippine art with a balangay.