2012 Ateneo Art Awards Shortlisted Artists: The ether of limbo
Riel Hilario Riel Hilario
MANILA, Philippines - Two separate collector-commissioned projects comprised the exhibition for which wood sculptor Riel Hilario was shortlisted for the 2012 Ateneo Art Awards: “Perro Amoroso” and “It Was a Paradisiacal State: The Body Was Allowed to be a Body” held at Art Informal. “Perro Amoroso” is an unconventional portrait of the commissioner’s dog, portrayed as a quadruped with a human head. However cryptic or fearsome as a sphinx the concept may be, the final object is actually quite intimate as it personifies the beloved pet, creating not simply a portrait per se but a more authentic projection of the beast’s “being” through the shared eyes of both artist and commissioner. Frida (the real name of the portrayed dog) sits snidely among wooden representations of her gnawed treasures, guarding another commission piece “It Was a Paradisiacal State: The Body Was Allowed to be a Body,” whose title is a reference to a passage from Milan Kundera’s Life is Elsewhere. The multi-piece sculptural installation consists of imagery literally drawn from the well of Hilario’s dream journals. Trees suspended in time, human-faced avians, canines with men for heads and empty pillow cases populate his idea of paradise, where in the artist’s mind, the subconscious reigns supreme. Paradise is complete freedom according to Hilario. Since the subconscious knows not the meaning of choice, perhaps Hilario is onto something here.
Goldie Poblador
Oftentimes the springboard for great art is the rage of displacement. Take, for example, glass sculptor Goldie Poblador’s works from her solo exhibition “The Ghost in the Machine,” held at Liongoren Gallery. Poblador grew up within a stone’s throw from the Marikina river in relative comfort, away from the struggle of both man and nature beside its riverbanks. But regardless, Poblador was never blind to nature’s uphill battle against the careless urban exploitation that continues to take place there. This displacement led her to more than a year’s passive journey to discover what ghosts remain in the machine most of us call home. Her excursions led her to Sagada, Mt. Banahaw, Palawan, among others. A side quest with fellow artists led to a community project with the Mangyan tribesmen in Puerto Galera, where she discovered the raw beauty of fauna that are all but ghosts.
Goldie Poblador The product of Poblador’s journey was an exhibition in ode to her newfound, if not revitalized affinity with nature. In collaboration with artisans from the art hub of Angono Rizal, she made sculptures of imaginary deities named after the places she visited. Supplemented by her delicate, intricate and soulfully cold glass sculptures and an altar of found objects, she came up with a show that questions the very validity of her exhibition’s title.
The works of all the shortlisted artists for the “2012 Ateneo Art Awards: Sneak Peak” will be on exhibit at the Grand Atrium of the Shangri-La Plaza, Aug. 3 to 13. Winners will be announced on Aug. 9. “The 2012 Ateneo Art Awards: Sneak Peak” is presented by Ateneo Art Gallery, Shangri-La Plaza, YStyle of the Philippine STAR, Metro Society and The New York Art Project funded by Marcel Crespo and supported by La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Liverpool Hope University, Art Omi, Common Room Networks Foundation, Artesan Gallery and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.
