Exhibited: ARNDT Singapore, Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful, July 12 - August 30, 2014

Literature: Romulo, Erwin and Oliver X.A. Rexles. Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful (Exhibition Catalog). Singapore: ARNDT Singapore, 2014. Published following the exhibition of the same name at the ARNDT Singapore in 2014.

ABOUT THE WORK

This work at hand was exhibited at the Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful exhibit for ARNDT Singapore. The show features a number of Filipino artists and was curated by Norman Crisologo. The exhibition notes state that “Manila is a city of extremes, and at a time that only the extreme makes an impression, it still manages to shock. To wander into its streets, to be among the crowds, to be caught in the din of history that barrages you at every corner is to participate in a drama that began centuries ago, but whose cries and whispers echo resound well into the present. The sacred and the profane, the amatory smiles and the feral gaze are all on display here, as the unforgiving sun of its days give way to the artificial neon of night.” Kawayan De Guia’s practice of mixed-media and assemblages often concerns itself with extremes as well. From indigenous artifacts to modern ephemera, and urban sprawls to naturally occuring landscapes, the artist understands that within spaces, are monuments and sites of contradiction. His own hometown of Baguio City is a prime example of this contradictory nature. Though on one hand often seen as a melting pot of different cultures within the Cordillera region, it was also once a shining beacon of the American occupation when the colonizers established the city as an escape from the summer heat. Now, its identity is as dizzying as its history. Yet amidst this cacophony is something new altogether; something greater than the sum of its parts yet beyond mere description or categorization. One can argue that such is the fate of all 21st century metropolises. On one hand, they are driven by the creeping urge for modernization, but on the other the lingering nostalgia for tradition; and at the very center, :life, human and yearning for survival and meaning. Thus, in this piece titled Ligaya de Pilipinas - Iscream and Cigarettes, de Guia attempts to reconcile the dizzying effect of urbanization in an attempt to derive meaning from chaos, and to show chaos in meaning. The work, as is emblematic of de Guia’s style, is an assemblage of not only different styles but of different materials as well. Such an approach can be seen as the artist’s way of expressing the diversity of not only sights and sounds, but also materials often attributed to a city. Modernization has paved the way for the use of all sorts of materials in city and space-making. From steel and concrete to paper and plastic, materials intersect and ignore all conventions that once kept them apart. The varying symbols and elements of the work add to the reality of the city, one in which extremes do not only intersect but, miraculously co-exist. De Guia’s city is as symbolic as it is real. Though some may critique the work as obtuse or abstract, one may argue that it was never the artist’s goal to elucidate, but to express. (J.D.)