A much bigger Drawing Room

The Drawing Room has a bigger exhibition space and it celebrates the opening of its new annex with one exhibit by three young artists. Despite the show’s title Depleted, the works of Eric Zamuco, Claro Ramirez and Eng Chan innervate the gallery with three-dimensional artworks. The artists assembled mundane objects and common hardware goods, such as plastic containers, steel pipes and nuts and bolts, into functional art. In their hands, these became lamps, tables and picture holders. It looked as though the artists picked out elements from a middle-class household and transformed them into things for a drawing room.

It is unusual for most Filipinos to refer to as drawing rooms domestic-shared spaces where kin spend leisure time together. The term is common to Europeans and has old colonial connotations. Family rooms, the master’s bedroom or kitchen are the Filipinos’ versions of drawing rooms where family members shared main activities take place. But Drawing Room owner Jun Villalon intended the reference as pun to give attention to the first art gallery devoted solely to drawings.

He began with the idea as a way of encouraging young collectors to begin acquiring drawings. It was perhaps a reminder that drawing is a major fine art technique, required as a basic tool among art students. In the Drawing Room, only independent, finished artworks are shown rather than preliminary sketches or studies for other forms of art. After opening the first gallery, Villalon converted a space at the back of the ground floor of the Metrostar Building into a sculpture gallery. In this sense, one of the least exhibited art forms has also been given room. It seemed fitting that a third gallery should be extended to artists who are keen to do three-dimensional art that are functional. The three galleries, through their active exhibit programs now give collectors ideas of other types of art to appreciate and obtain beyond the usual painting.

Zamuco, Ramirez and Chan use industrial materials that do not only focus on making uncommon art. Rather their use of mainly wood and steel attracts viewers because of the contrast resulting from putting together the old with the new. In some artworks, for instance, the recycled steel that is deformed and painted black in one work differs from the shiny steel plates or polished ball bearing in another. Instead of contradictions, the distinctions became complimentary among the objects on display.

Besides similarities with the type of materials that they used, the artists’ works focused generally on clean lines and a minimum of details. Zamuco and Ramirez tempered their usual overworked art, when they exhibited together recently. This time they came up with a collection of beautifully-crafted objects without compromising the complex ideas that consistently shape their art. Chan, likewise, left parts of his childlike whimsy that marked his past exhibits to disclose his maturity as a deft artist of many talents. More importantly, this show seems to represent a turn in the works they have been doing so far, making me want to see more of their art in the future.

Zamuco’s reworked cruciform steel plate became a low table with prefabricated holes. On one side, he added tempered glass that seems to have come out of an airplane window. In all his works in the exhibit, he included old and new photographs. This has perhaps some bearing on his other talent as a photographer. His black boxes, full of old things that include a Kodak camera, rimmed spectacles and small flashlights, were set against photographs that evoke memories and narratives. In his works, it seems Zamuco puts into layers the many stories of his things and images.

Ramirez, on the other hand, re-worked ordinary objects to alter them into something unexpected while maintaining their visual appeal. In one of his works, he took the spine of an umbrella and spread them out on a canvas coated with thick layers of acrylic paint. He then traced some of the spines with black lines, giving an illusion that the viewers’ may be peering from the top of a white umbrella. On top of its square frame is an umbrella handle that resembles the wood of the frame. Ramirez’s wit shows strongly in this piece, revealing more of his intelligence in their simplicity.

Lucidity seems the theme with which Chan put to use his artistry. The elegance of his three-dimensional art stressed the point that function and brilliance come in the uncomplicated designs. These features, merged in objects, such as furniture, make them art. His bench, for example, is made of a refinished old plank of hardwood, set on a slightly flared frame of steel. He gave this a twist by putting arms on its sides that can hold cups. His reference comes from the newer cinemas with comfortable seats and arms in which to put drinks. In this sense, despite the traditional nature of his material, Chan made it fresh by alluding to newer sources. This is consistent in the sculptures he included in this exhibit, particularly with his lamps. One of them is made out of a huge plastic canister used to store water. He inverted this so that the mouth connects to the cast iron drainpipe that functioned as a stand. For added irony, a small block of polished concrete held the whole piece. Chan’s decision to supply it with lamp that cast a bluish white light turned it into a characteristic lighting device.

The advantage of this new gallery was its careful planning and anticipation of three-dimensional works. This made possible more space to move around and look at the art instead of viewers having to jostle for space. It also offered to the artist a new way by which to mount their exhibits giving allusions to museum spaces with a fresh twist. The annex gave Zamuco, Ramirez and Chan the opportunity to create a visual style that gave respectful distance between their works.

The Drawing Room’s new wing is larger than the two existing galleries, accommodating even a glass-enclosed central space for smaller works. It is well-lit, clean space is very different from the drawing rooms of Victorian houses, which are cluttered, cozy and dark. But the new space’s lack of architectural detail is apt and more than make up for the dearth of gallery spaces that allow artists to make unusual art with viewers and collectors to match these new artistic persuasions.

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Comments are welcome at aplabrador@philstar.com.