Juan Alcazaren's 'Sisyphus 3' and Bembol dela Cruz' 'Nothing Here is Given'

Juan Alcazaren’s ‘Sisyphus 3′ and Bembol dela Cruz’ ‘Nothing Here is Given’

September 11, 2010 |

I haven’t been updating in the last few days, I know. I’ve been experiencing a lack of motivation to do anything (and I do mean anything, aside maybe from Tumblring and breathing) as of late. But I’m trying to get back on my feet and do what I do, so here’s an art update! These shows have been up for a while—a week today—but it’s still up for public viewing until the 27th.

So, last September 3, Finale opened 3 shows: a big show curated by Nilo Ilarde Cube and two solo shows by Juan Alcazaren and Bembol dela Cruz. Because Cube is kind of really massive, I’ll reserve it for another post.

Starting off with Bembol dela Cruz’ Nothing Here is Given, which is mounted on Finale’s second floor space called Upstairs Gallery. It’s pretty obvious that the show revolves around the skateboarding culture. I mean, if you couldn’t tell from the actual skateboards and the paintings themselves (not to mention the video set-up), then I weep for you.

The exhibit is a mixture of large-scale (almost as tall as me, I am around 5′) paintings, installation pieces and a video reel of people actually engaging in the sport. I actually thought that the reel, even though it is one of the smallest parts of the exhibit, did a lot to highlight the incorporation of movement in the series of works. While the paintings capture skateboarders in action, they are still, in themselves, static. It was nice to see how the people actually moved, via the video.

Nothing Here Is Given, I think, is a nice, solid show, with pieces that speak to each other. I really don’t know anything about the skating culture, here or elsewhere (I’ve abandoned that dream a long time ago), but I think that this somehow elevates it a little bit, at least in the eyes of people who are more inclined to perusing fine art than going to skate parks. I think I might be stereotyping a little bit here, but I really think it’s a great marriage of fine art and skateboarding, especially since the art typically associated with the sport concerns street art and graffiti. So, it was nice for me to see it represented in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I found the paintings really well-rendered, and the muted palette really gave the show a quiet, gritty quality that bounced off the installation pieces (mostly broken skateboards and some individual parts) really well.

While Bembol dela Cruz' work involves a lot of pieces, Juan Alcazaren's Sisyphus ³ had two separate pieces (as far as I could tell), which worked together. A white cube stands beside a projected stop motion video of presumably the same block falling down a flight of stairs to cartoon-y sounds. When I peered into the room, I was a little underwhelmed, because I honestly thought, “Wait, this is it?” Turning to leave the room, though, I was met by the title card of the piece:

And I pretty much died from utter glee after that. Sound familiar? No? Let me help you out:

Nude Descending the Staircase No. 2
Marcel Duchamp (1912)

That classic Duchamp piece is best known for scandalizing art-lovers at the time it was made. (They weren’t really as accepting of experimentation back then.) You can read all about it here.

So, upon reading that obvious throwback to Duchamp’s infamous work, it instantly won me over, and it really made me think about how ideas are communicated, and how text is sometimes necessary to get to the underlying essence of a piece of art. I don’t think I would have really appreciated this piece if it weren’t for the accompanying title, because it was just a loop of a cube going down the stairs. But taking into account the title, my appreciation grew, because it suddenly assumed a historical and artistic meaning.

At first, I thought it was part of Cube (it’s not), so finding out about the title of the show was also very exciting for me. Sisyphus ³ is a modernized version of the Greek story of Sisyphus, who was doomed by the gods to roll a huge stone up a hill, only to have it fall back down again, for all of eternity. It made me think of this useless form of punishment, about how it achieves nothing, and about how the installation was an endless loop of the same reel, over and over again. The story of Sisyphus was also used by philosopher, Albert Camus, as the basis of his work, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” which confronts the significance of humanity, in the light of existentialism and absurdism.

I don’t know if it was a commentary, but I’m glad to have thought about how greatly piece titles and show titles affect our understanding of a work, and how meaning can be assigned to a particular thing, based on a person’s existing knowledge of other things in relation to it. A person who was not familiar with Duchamp will probably not be able to comprehend why I thought the title was so refreshing and humorous (as it is pretty much a literal description of the video). Similarly, a person who was not familiar with Greek mythology wouldn’t have probably made the same connections (or assumptions haha) as I did. I don’t quite know what the super-scripted 3 in the title is for, though.

I wish I had taken a video of that tumbling box. It was pretty cute.

A Funny Story: After some light beers each, my dad sent me to the backroom, where they keep all the beer and the food, and the manong said they were all out. My dad did not believe me and went to see if they really didn’t have any more. He came back with a light beer for each of us. LOL apparently the manong just didn’t want to give me a beer because he knew I was my dad’s daughter. Or it could be that he saw the protrusion of my belly:

You tell ‘em, skateboard.

BEMBOL DELA CRUZ

2 Comments Filed under art, exhibits |

kat says:

September 12, 2010 at 5:29 am

“I don’t quite know what the super-scripted 3 in the title is for, though.”

– means cubed or cube root of (i think). prolly just to say “it has something to do with cubes.” hehehe!

carina i love reading this. thank you. you do know you’re my art teacher, do you? haha! thanks dear. :)

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Carina says:

September 13, 2010 at 4:56 pm

Kat, OKAY THAT MADE ME REALLY STUPID. Hahaha. I was thinking kasi “raised to the third power” haha. Galing galing, you are also my teacher, apparently! Thank you for such a nice comment. :)

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