Methods of Illumination

Listahan

In theme ang pasasalamat ko sa aking exhibit. Isang listahan ng utang ng loob at pasasalamat sa mga taong nagbigay ng oras at panahon para tumulong sakin.

Salamat kay Jay ng Blanc Gallery sa pagkakataon na makapag exhibit ako sa kanyang gallery, yes, that’s one thing off my bucket list. Sabi nga ni Sir Nuki, soloista nako.

Kay “Engineer” Pao na kasama kong tumatawa, nakikinig ng music at nagpupuyat hanggang madaling araw, minsan nakakatulog nako. Tumulong sa electrical at mga man stuff that I needed to finish my pieces.

Kay Guia who helped me put my thoughts together. Nicole who helped me clean the studio, ahem, linisin ang banyo at mag floor wax ng mga sahig.

Kay Mao (Paris,isdatchu?) sa paghanap ng studio ko (yes off the bucket list again), sa pagtulong sa pagsulat ng pr, sa chika at sa pagpinta ng gray sa aking mga laruan. Ang winner ng chika moments namin, pwede ko na ipa-frame.

Kay Sidd, nabasa nyo ba ang bongzee na exhibit notes ko? Si Sidd ang nagsulat nun! Napapangiti daw sila habang binabasa yun sabi ng mga tita ko at ibang kaibigan, ako, naiyak. Puno ng pagmamahal sabi nga.

 

Kay Bjorn (ang heartthrob ng Maceda) na tumulong sakin gumawa, at may bitbit pang kasama lagi para tumulong sakin.  Sinama din kami ni Bjorn sa masasarap na kainan sa kanyang turf (bagong salta lang ako) at sa daming masasayang kwento tungkol sa buhay-buhay at mga AWESOME na bagay-bagay.

Kay Epjey, Don at Jigs (na sinama ni Bjorn) sa pagsama sa jamming namin. Salamat nga pala kay Don sa Mountain Dew na paborito nila ng kanyang irog.

Kay Pau, na hanggang umagang naki-jam sakin, haha! Kailangan natin ulitin.

Kay Wesley, na kahit injured ay nag ayos ng aking exhibit, sa inspirasyon (ubo!) at sa suporta (Crownd cheer: kissing scene! Haha!).

Sa aking mga kaibigan na pumunta nung opening at nagtetext sakin para mangamusta at magbigay ng suporta, ang sarap lang. Maraming-maraming salamat!

 

Ang huli ay para sa aking pamilya, na laging nandiyan para sakin at nagsisilbing inspirasyon ko sa aking mga piyesa.

Dust in the Sunbeam Opening Photos

certain things cannot stay lost

Mimi Tecson's practice is quite obsessive - circulating around activities of collecting and configuration all the while weighing the combinations of certain formalities that would uncover multiple connections. Fittingly her works have always been inclined towards the sculptural, relying on the constellation of components. Her practice is effective only because Mimi understands mass - that the mass of an object is not always equivalent to its physical weight but that the mass of it is proportional to the potential of Memory we give to it.

Mimi's works are deliberate in composition. With color, they abide by symmetrical compositions. Contained, they make up an impression of calculated values. As a whole, they are neither haphazard nor capricious. The discipline of her works, however, do not cancel out the intuitive nuances that govern her practice. At the center of Mimi's works - both as a physical component and as artistic motivation - are objects rooted in a context very close to her self and her locality. These objects are plastic toys obtainable in sari-sari stores and market places, often available at prices easily accommodated by a child's meager pocket money. They are produced in quantity and in variety, such little things and yet they hold a sentiment disproportionate to their disposability. They gather in Mimi's works, painted over as if further resigning to their mass production destiny. Nonetheless these things require scrutiny as they become symbolic of our shared childhood and even can be disclosed as a significant cultural design.

Personal narratives inform her work. Particularly with the objects, the anecdote of loss emerges constantly in Mimi's back story - impressing upon the personal use of toys and the activity of collecting them again as a means of making up for what was taken from her. However bittersweet, she translates her general debonair outlook into this remorse. The effectiveness of her practice is on account for her ability not to remain singular in sentiment, but for containing these different histories and states of mind.

Dust in the Sunbeam is not making sense of loss. While she revisits the past, Mimi draws on her experience of growing up with her grandmother's store - coincidentally named 'Laureen's Store,' after her - as a happy one. This exhibition recreates the artist's safe corner, employing forms reminiscent of Laureen's Store. Images from this point in time of Mimi's life are placed alongside jars, soft drinks containers and an assortment of details that are made over in the artist's interventions in color and configuration. Light radiates through most of the work, casting not shadows of the past but bringing forth the resonance of events and places full of promise. As much as Mimi grounds Dust in the Sunbeam to a setting subjective to her, she extends this place as an expanded field to navigate through our own 'happy place' that is close to us. Through the elements in the exhibition, we identify similar experiences that even single objects in the works can draw us from, as they perform as capsules to time and localities within our proximity. As Mimi reminds us, certain things need not be found by digging too deeply - after all, they surround us always like dust in the sunbeams.

- Sidd Perez, 2012.

Happy Birthday, Yang!

Half of our lives we've been friends, and forever we will be.