JAY YAO
THE LOW HUM OF A DRONE
FEB 03 - MAR 10, 2018
A RT D I R E C T O R
Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz
EXHIBITION TEAM
Vicente Amancio, Jr. Jose Jeoffrey Baba Gabriel Abalos Dianne Ong
Thess Ponce Bing Francisco Roy Abrenica Edgar Bautista
EXHIBITION NOTES
Johanna Labitoria
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Anna Rafanan
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Untitled 1 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly
cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 3 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
The Low Hum of a Drone WORDS BY JOHANNA LABITORIA
“To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life.” – Henry Cartier-Bresson of C aesthetics has allowed photographer Jay Yao to utilize different platforms and machinery ONSTANT AND CONTINUOUS EXPLORATION
to be able to obtain scenic shots acknowledging the onset of 21st century media. The concept was first realized in an immediate product of an abstract geographical shot, the artist often differentiates from the idea of a painting wherein the produce is gradually evolving. This immediacy of form allowed the artist to compare it to his experiences online, the instant communication, the faster capturing of images/stories, the rampant sharing of ideas overtly changing interpretation overtime, hence it becoming more candid, unrehearsed yet holding a multitude of meanings, abstracted as he would call it. This experience in the collective mind space affects the viewer inasmuch as in feelings of both anxiety or calmness and sympathy or apathy. The low hum of a drone is metaphorically a silent observer, a medium the artist chose to shoot an entirety of bodied scapes, which he likens to vast world of the internet. The artist’s eyes hover as the drone continuously speculates, picking up images he finds most profound.
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 2 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 4 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways) 2017 aluminum dibond 16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 8 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways) 2017 aluminum dibond 16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
The artist’s chasing of a story or a shot thereof was greatly inspired by Henry Cartier-Bresson, a candid photo essayist interested in capturing the beauty of uncontrived circumstances with real and straightforward emotions in a person’s daily life. Jay Yao was greatly influenced with this although utilizing the perplexing beauty of scapes that are represented herewith in geographical locations and how it takes a life of its own in varying periods. Captured in different seasons and terrains, Jay has ultimately searched the ground, in highs and lows shooting the rawness of vistas, cascading of waters and organic boundaries and composing it to the essentials. Additionally, he attributes his work to Nan Goldin, a contemporary photographer who believes that photography is way of touching somebody, a glimpse into one’s soul rather than a third party onlooker that is completely detached from the subject. Oftentimes, Jay Yao’s scapes introduce a new mood with each varying state which the artist relies on to for an emotion he wants to illicit from the viewer, an intimate way of conversation and ultimately engagement. The process, he admits to learning for the first time and becoming more confident each time with maneuvering his chosen device. Over time, he has developed several viewpoints taken on every body, a technique he used to read about on David Hockney’s “Joiners” wherein several elements of a photograph are shot in different perspectives and deconstructed to form one composite image. The artist eventually decides on the best angle to form the final set of his abstracted works, both the process and outcome in equal significance.
Untitled 5 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways) 2017 aluminum dibond 24 × 16 IN / 60.96 × 40.64 CM
Untitled 6 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 7 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 9 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 10 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 11 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways)
2017
aluminum dibond
16 × 24 IN / 40.64 × 60.96 CM
Untitled 12 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways) 2017 aluminum dibond 20 × 30 IN / 50.80 × 76.20 CM
Untitled 13 (Mr. Occam’s razor could possibly cut both ways) 2017 aluminum dibond 20 × 30 IN / 50.80 × 76.20 CM
In varying shades of green, blue, brown and silver, the prints hold the illusion of a three-dimensional texture, almost as if you can touch it with each formal element’s differentiation. Each line and curve manifests a dimension of its own, with the artist’s rendering of a representational subject to a non-representational composition. The Sloth Glacier, a picture of a road terrain with a vehicle almost a miniature in size, captured into one whole image of an abstracted universe, a theme constantly repeated in most of his works, attracting viewers of its mystic appearance. The abstracted aerial views of the rooves in Manila are reminiscent of Piet Mondrian’s Tableau with his use of rectangular shapes in shades of primaries albeit utilizing a different media. The earthen scapes is displayed in a transcendental view, an omniscient angle of the vistas and terrains, zooming out the minute details and generalizing the whole scape, much like in the internet’s onerous consciousness, an abstracted world of images and words. The myriad of art references can only be traced back to the artist’s multiplicative approach to things, a truth he often attributes to himself. The intuition and impulse jolting from every part of his practice and taking a more bodied form in the latter stages of his works. Jay Yao, the artist focuses on the idea of abstraction whilst valuing the process he has intended for himself. A multi-media artist at best, Jay is crossing the borders of traditional photography, adding another layer to his thought by incorporating a technological theme and successfully weaving it in a spiraling concept of abstraction. •
MNL to BCD 3 2017 giclee print on Hahnemuhle archival paper 36 × 36 IN
/ 91.44 × 91.44 CM
MNL to BCD 1 2017 giclee print on Hahnemuhle archival paper 32 × 20 IN
/ 81.28 × 50.8 CM
MNL to BCD 2 2017 giclee print on Hahnemuhle archival paper 32 × 20 IN
/ 81.28 × 50.8 CM
MNL to CEB 2017 giclee print on Hahnemuhle archival paper 36 × 24 IN
/ 91.44 × 60.96 CM
JAY YAO
S O LO E X H I B IT I O N S
2016 Funopticon, Archivo 1984 Gallery, Philippines 2015 Homecoming Too, ArtInformal, Philippines 2014 Homecoming, Celestina, Philippines 2013 Homecoming, Vask, Philippines 2012 SKYSCAPES, Silverlens, Makati City, Philippines 2005 The Possibilities of Ordinary Things, Silver Lens Gallery, Philippines 2004 Look Around, Tixe Gallery, New York, New York, United States, 2003 Isolation and Contemplation, Hampshire College Main Gallery, Amherst, MA, US 2002 Balance Within, Hiraya Gallery, Manila, Philippines, Sponsored by the Canadian Embassy 1999 Persona, The Mezzanine, Hiraya Gallery, Manila, Philippines 1998 Vancouver on my Mind, Hiraya Gallery, Manila, Philippines, Sponsored by the Canadian Embassy 1998 Mexican Influence in the Philippines, Museum Ng. Maynila (Museum of Manila), Manila, Philippines Sponsored by the Mexican Embassy 1998 First Bow, Hiraya Gallery, Manila, Philippines GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 2016
2015
2014 2005
2004
Curated by Frederico de Vera, Ayala Museum, Philippines Heartbeat of Asia, Art Stage Jakarta, Element Art Space, Indonesia Assemblages, Provenance Gallery, Philippines Chrysalis, JOYA Julian Ongpin Young Artists, Philippines Memory Stains, Untitled Gallery, New York Memory Stains, Art Fair Philippines, Philippines, Map of the New Art, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy Traces, Finale Art File, Quezon, Philippines Systems of Irrigation, Lucban, Quezon, Philippines Petals and the Evergreen, Pablo Galleries, Taguig, Philippines New Natives, Lightbombs, Hong Kong, China Art Connexions, Australian Center of Photography, Sydney, Australia Art Pavillion, Manila, Philippines Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur International Center of Photography Educational Department, New York, New York Residencies
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2017 Art Archive, The Japan Foundation. Manila, pg. 81 2016 Leidy Proser Yun, Treasures of Asian Art, The Asia Society Museum Collection, DelMonico Books. Prestel, pg. 331 COLLECTIONS
2015 2014
Asia Society New York Imago Mundi, Philippines: Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2014 2005 2005
Shortlisted for 2014 Ateneo Art Awards Representing the Philippines in Art Connexions Project with Goethe Institute Sherman Galleries with Art Connexions, Sydney, Australia, 2005
PROJECT
Photoma.info (Kristoffer Ardena, Joseph Yap, Gerome Soriano, Arthel Tagnipez)
g al leria duem ila was established in 1975 by Italian born Silvana AncellottiDiaz. Duemila means “twentieth century”, and it was this vision that inspired Duemila’s advocacy in promoting and preserving Philippine contemporary art. To date, it is the longest running commercial art gallery in the Philippines maintaining a strong international profile. With the vision to expose its artists locally and within the ASEAN region, Duemila complements its exhibits with performances, readings and musical events in its custom-built gallery in Pasay City, Manila. Galleria Duemila takes pride in being the only local gallery to publish and mount retrospectives of artists as part of its advocacy in pursuing art historical research and scholarship. With the collaboration of institutions, Duemila has mounted the retrospectives of
Roberto M.A. Robles (Ateneo Art Gallery, 2011), Duddley Diaz (Vargas Museum, 2009), Julie Lluch Dalena (Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2008). It has also published a book on Diosdado Magno Lorenzo (National Library of the Philippines, 2009) and produced a major Pacita Abad exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2004. The gallery maintains close ties with museums throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. Its futurist vision keeps it at the cuttingedge of Philippine art, making and archiving history as it happens.
s e rv i ce s : conservation an d r e s t or ation of p a i n t i n g s , consu ltancy s e rv i ce s , c om m issions and i n s t a llat i on