Form | Kata
Recent Works | Post-Sculpture Works | Anthropocentric View WORDS BY LEC CRUZ
B
eyond an inscription found on a statue or a headstone lays traces of memory; a journey lived in a lifetime: an idea that surpasses the person’s transience. The inscribed name and date bears a weight tenfold the heft of an entombed marble stone. These ‘footnotes’ parley an entirety of the past to be relished in the present and to be discovered in the future. In each cast concrete is groundwork to personal and collective history. In Form | Kata, Roberto M. A. Robles showcases works that highlight the simplicity and rawness of forms. Their facile feat is a testament to Robles’ immersion to traditional oriental sculptural practices in which forms are carved down to their
essential forms. Within each block of forms is a historically charged narrative, a personal biography condensed to its basic materiality. His integration of texts on each object serves as a hint, a provenance of idea behind every piece. Devoid of color and ornamental designs, their minimal and abstracted forms invite viewers to engage with the sculptures in an introspective manner. In most of his sculptures for Form, Robles uses his 2013 solo exhibition entitled The Calling of Saint Matthew, Images into Metaphor as a starting point. His abstract paintings and sculptures from his previous show are now further abstracted and take a sculptural form. In Matthew Work No. 3 (St. Erasmus) Robles alludes to his painting referencing “Wright Cycle Co.,” a company owned by the Wright Brothers, where he painted an abstract image of geometrical shapes. The images somehow resemble the sculptural figures in his current piece. Atop the vertical rectangular piece is an object inscribed with St. Erasmus inspired by Poussin’s painting of “Martyrdom Of St. Erasmus.” A mere acquaintance to Poussin’s depiction of the scene opens a clear view on how these two works are related. The picture depicts a stripped naked Erasmus lying on his back while being tortured by a man standing beside him. Robles’ creation of an abstract form of the same scene resulted into a two level platform, forming an L-shaped object that seemingly relates to the position of Erasmus and his torturer. The story of Erasmus is a story of triumph of faith and unyielding will of man to defy a colossal obstacle. This theme is echoed by the Wright brothers’ invention of the first biplane. Their understanding of wheeling a bicycle and experimentation allowed them to one day defy the force of gravity. The assemblage of these three sculptures now serves as an anecdote that looks back at Robles’ artistic history and a memento of man’s technical and moral accomplishment. In his work Matthew Work No. 8 (Laocoon and his Sons), Robles uses his previous painting of a ventilator-duct with industrial attributes highlighted with gray hues to advent his sculpture of a single air duct. The view of the painting suggests homage to the Greek sculpture of the ‘Laocoon Group,’ an iconic image depicting human agony. The mythology of Laocoon entwines with Robles’ personal
experience at a gas station in 2011 - of being disturbed by the ventilator-ducts’ clattered noise. The once painted cluster of ducts reminiscent of the Laocoon Group sculpture is further transformed into an arresting object made of cardboard. The unraveling of the sculptures’ detail circles back to the Greek mythology of the priest Laocoon’s tragic story, who met his fate during his attempt to expose the truth behind the Trojan horse. The piece showcased, can be viewed as a version of the Trojan horse with its deceiving external attribute of an actual ventilator-duct and a completion of a narrative foretold through the subconscious. Matthew Work No. 9 is a nod to Michelangelo Carravagio’s painting ‘The Calling of St. Matthew’ where a ray of light touching the pavement is directed towards St. Matthew. Removing the human figures in his 2013 work, Robles painted the same scene accentuation the ray of light, inducting its importance to the picture. In its sculptural form, the rectangular white object denotes the end point of the painting light, where it touches St. Matthew’s awestruck expression. The cone-shaped plaster cast object entitled Matthew Work No. 12 ruminates around the concept of foundations of figurative sculpture. Robles recreates a ‘joint’ used in largescale figurative sculptures inspired by a photo of French sculptor Auguste Rodin working on a sculpture of a famous person. An initial version of the joint connotes assemblage – the single unseen part of a sculpture that allows it to be erected. The recreation of another joint holds a different meaning as Robles attempts to encapsulate the visceral image of a disassembled sculpture of the Socialist leader, Lenin during a protest rally in Kiev, Ukraine in 2013. Embodying Robles’ vantage point on local social struggles and issues is his Homage to Plane, the Ass and the Old Shepherd. Providing an abstract image of a flat plane object, we find a negotiation between Aesop’s fables, the state of the Filipino masses and their relationship with the change in our government. As each changing head of state, there retains a status quo of the poor, providing a ‘nominal’ kind of change.
In an isolated room, we find a three-layered sculpture of Mindoro marble, with three sides partially refined to reveal the marble’s natural streaks of color; and on one side, rough edges are retained, conjuring the Japanese idea of ‘wabisabi’ or art revering the imperfect. The massive volume of Robles’ sculpture and his minimal intervention reflects his artistic vision of ‘Kata’ or form. In it, he allows the marbles’ stained surfaces and crevices relay a story of nature and an interconnected history between man and nature. In it, we see a fossilization of the metamorphic rock’s unique characteristics that leaves poetic undertone promoting conservation of our own Filipino heritage, culture and identity. - leCruz MICHAEL JOHN ‘LEC’ CRUZ LIVES AND WORKS IN Q. C.. CRUZ IS A GRADUATE OF BA PHILOSOPHY AND STUDIED FINE ARTS MAJOR IN STUDIO ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, DILIMAN. HE IS ALSO AN ACTIVE ART WRITER SINCE 2015 FOR ARTIST EXHIBITIONS IN VARIOUS METRO MANILA-BASED ART GALLERIES AND IN THE HONG KONG ART BIENNALE.
Matthew Work No. 9 2016—2017
Plaster of Paris with burlap inside 17.5 × 35 × 4.5 CM / 6.90 × 13.79 × 1.77 IN
N-21
2016—2017
Philippine Mindoro white marble 107.9 × 141.5 × 120 CM / 42.51 × 55.75 × 47.28 IN
Matthew Work No. 12 Objet 2016
Plaster of Paris with burlap inside 47 × 30 × 30 CM / 18.52 × 11.82 × 11.82 IN
Matthew Work No. 3 12/16 (St. Erasmus)
2012
Plaster of Paris with burlap inside and plyboard 62 × 13 × 13 CM / 24.43 × 5.12 × 5.12 IN
Homage to Plane, Aesop 5 C. The Ass and the Old Shepherd 2016—2017 Plaster of Paris with burlap inside 179 × 41 × 13 CM / 70.53 × 16.15 × 5.12 IN
Form Matthew Work No. 8 (Laocoon and his sons)
cardboard 139 × 47 × 86.00 cm; 54.77 × 18.52 × 33.88 in
2011—2013
ROBERTO M. A. ROBLES BIOGRAPHY
Roberto M. A. Robles was educated in the Philippines and Japan. An accomplished artist, his work has been exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines; Vargas Museum; 17th Asian International Art Exhibition Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, South Korea; Jiyu Group Exhibitions, Tokyo Metropolitna Museum, Japan and at Beaux Art L’art dans le Monde Pont Alexandre III in Paris, France. His oeuvre has been surveyed in a retrospective show at the Ateneo Art Gallery in 2011. He recently exhibited at the Yuchengco Museum last 2016.
M AY 6 - 27, 2017
A RT D I R E C T O R
Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz
EXHIBITION TEAM
Johanna Labitoria Thess Ponce Mayet Taluban Ulysis Francisco Jose Jeoffrey Baba
Bing Francisco Roy Abrenica Edgar Bautista Gabriel Abalos
EXHIBITION NOTES
Lec Cruz
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Anna Rafanan
Copyright 2017 Galleria Duemila, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system transmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the abovementioned copyright holders, with the exception of reasonably brief excerpts and quotations used in articles, critical essays or research.
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