Aguinaldo shines at the Asean Art Awards

The Philippine contingent brought home a wonderful aguinaldo from Bangkok.

By copping the coveted grand prize at the recently concluded Asean art awards, Leonardo L. Aguinaldo claimed the title of "Best Emerging Asean Artist of 2004." The recognition included a glass trophy and a cash bonanza of US$15,000.

The glittering gala awards ceremony held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok was officiated by no less than General Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council and statesman.

When the Philippine contingent left for Bangkok last Aug. 1, aboard Thai Airways, to compete for the awards, high hopes engulfed the air. For one thing, the five artists comprising the delegation – Aguinaldo, Wilson Belarmino, Don Djerassi Dalmacio, Kawayan Thor Kalayaan de Guia and Vincent Paul Padilla – already weathered a stiff screening before being declared as Philippine representatives in the Asean art fest.

There were 35 works from seven member states of the Asean, namely Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Three other member states – Cambodia, Lao P.D.R. and Myanmar – sent three works each in the exhibition module of the three-day festival.

From the 35 entries in the competition module, six works were selected by an international panel of jurors, broken up into one grand prize winner and five jurors’ choices.

What added to the jubilation was that the Philippines did not only have one winner, but two. De Guia was declared one of the five jurors’ choices, along with Feri Eka Candra of Indonesia, Lin Qing Jiang Terence of Singapore, Kaewvisit Songwoot of Thailand and Do Anh Tuan of Vietnam.

Through this column, allow me to present the winning works, alongside the commentaries of the jurors, which included Pat Hoffie of Australia, Francesca Dal Lago of Canada, Hou Hanru of France, Ho Hing-Kay of Hong Kong and Emily Sano of the United States of America.

Aguinaldo’s winning work is entitled "God Is on Our Side," 134 x 152.9 cm, mixed media on hand color carved rubber. The judges cite the work as one "that goes beyond taking sides; rather it asks question that each of us must answer personally."

Aguinaldo presents a series of images, icons and references from the daily media coverage of global warfare, laid out on what appears to be a "highly decorative surface reminiscent of woven fabric or perhaps tapestry." These images have been interwoven to suggest other complicities and inter-relationships.

Effectively, the work addresses current global conflict.

The judges have seen another sense in the work, that is, it "delves more deeply than everyday discussions of these events to the ways in which we can all fall into the trap of justifying the least worthy of our actions in the name of a higher cause."

Aguinaldo was also cited for not succumbing to either becoming too obvious, aggressive or sensational, as is wont in works dealing with big issues and the danger of falling into the trap of propaganda art.

De Guia’s "Mystique of the Urban Mistake," also a mixed media work, 173.2 x 172.2 cm, draws its immediate appeal from the casual playfulness and fluidity with which the artist approached his composition. As De Guia himself writes, "This work is not about big statements, but rather focuses on the incidental and often whimsical occurrences of urban life. It is a work that bares all the traces of its process: Images, marks and doodles are arranged as if by sub-conscious serendipity."

"Seribu Kepala Untukku, or Mindscape" by Feri Eka Candra of Indonesia, an acrylic on canvas, 180 x 150 cm, "evokes a lyrical response to the uncertainties of contemporary existence. It is a highly personal evocation of a state of being that is fluctuating and ever changing. There is a flow to the surface of this work that seems unconscious, and yet which taps a highly sophisticated understanding of both material and content. Here and there this surface folds in on itself to suggest the gaze of many eyes, furtive whispers from the mouths of animals and men, and a matrix of inter-dependency from which none of us can escape."

Lin Qing Jian Terrence of Singapore presents "Façade of Everyday," a mixed media work, 167 x 113 cm. The judges favorably noted that "the canvas has been cut, stitched, and re-constructed into a playful peep-show into private spaces. In this work, the mundane domesticity of highly congested urban setting has been embroidered into self-conscious parody of the ‘beautiful home.’ Here the bland façade of a Singapore housing high-rise provides the framework for more imaginative reflections on the isolation of modern living."

There is a sense of "claustrophobic containment" in "Inspirational Belief" by Kaewvisit Songwoot of Thailand. A work done in the traditional process of oil on canvas, and measuring 150 x 180 cm, it asks a question of the viewer where "decisions about the extent to which the urban world reflected on the surface of the vessel is rooted in the suggested malevolence of its contents. The contents of this thick brew seem to have spawned anew; malevolent gazes and writhing forms suggest that the darker undertones of past superstitions may not yet be suppressed."

The dark painting of Do Anh Tuan of Vietnam is entitled "Invasion of Death," also an oil on canvas work, employing the square format, 150 x 150 cm. It "inherits the tradition of many artists from the past who have used their images to reflect some of the most terrifying spectres of their time. Yet it also employs highly contemporary idioms and icons to courageously confront a social crisis that is both global (and personal) in its threat."

Aguinaldo becomes the third Filipino artist to be accorded with the award. The other two are Alfredo Esquillo in 1995 and Nona M. Garcia in 2000.

The Asean Art Awards, now on its 10th anniversary, was founded and organized by Philip Morris Asia Limited. This year’s theme was "Ancient Roots: Modern Bridges" to capture the twin spirits of ancient cultural diversity among the 10 Asean countries and building bridges of friendship and understanding through contemporary art.

Bangkok as host to the art festival was an appropriate choice, considering that it is a city that handsomely blends traditional and modern sensibilities.

This was further enhanced by the enviable culture of Thailand, how it is still lived in the metropolis today. The now famous greeting of the Thais, sawasdee, said with bowed heads and with both hands in the gesture of a prayer, shows respect and civility in every encounter with the people.

The show of genuine interest of the guest of honor, Vice Minister Weerasak Kowsurat of the Ministry of Culture, during the welcome rites at the National Gallery was enviable. He shook hands with the artists and chatted individually with them. It was a no put-on show. Truth is he enjoyed listening to the artists talk about their works, their visions, and their ideas.

The vice minister easily stood out as a good example of a public servant who knows the value of art and culture in shaping contemporary consciousness. He even drew a tree on his clay tile, as part of an interactive mural with the delegates to the Asean Art Awards.

The puppet theater as performed by the Joe Louis Theater showing a slice of Ramayana brought the house down during the welcome dinner. Three puppeteers were assigned per puppet – three males for the monkey, three females for the maiden – moving in synchronicity with each movement the puppets made.

It was a show of remarkable discipline and deep understanding of the narrative, of the traditions embedded in the story, a display of culture that is not fossilized but well entrenched in the consciousness of the young people. Incidentally, the Joe Louis Theater is the only puppet group in Thailand.

The Asean Art Awards brought together an amazing amalgam of artistic attitudes and forms, informed and flavored by a strong sense of Aseanism, thus making the 44 works reek with cultural commonalities and perspectives. Yet the works are not parochial. In their typifying individual country’s perspectives, they underlie universal truths as well as grievances.

The Philippine participation was organized by the Ayala Museum. The diverse range of Philippine entries from traditional painting, that is application of pigment on canvas to the use of non-traditional materials in art making, from social realist issues to the very formalist concerns, from secular themes to religious meditations, from ethnic exoticism to modernist attitudes, gives the Philippine representation a degree of competitiveness in the international field. The organizers of the Philippine contingent should be commended to have intended this progressive, if not expanding, concern, that the competition is not only a local phenomenon in the country, but is actually a showcase of what is obtaining in Philippine art making today for the benefit of our Asean neighbors.