Category: art writing

  • The Wild Walls of WIPZ and RESTOK

    The perimeter of the university wall along Katipunan Avenue from the gate on Shuster Street to the one on Magsaysay Avenue – all 430 meters of it – is the Freedom Wall. This long stretch of wall has been a canvas by often anonymous makers for their graffiti and street art sprayed in vibrant colors…

  • Paulo Vinluan – Parabola

    Paulo Vinluan – Parabola

    August 12 – September 5, 2022Finale Art FileMakati, Metro Manila Paulo Vinluan wants to tell two stories: an Aesop fable on one canvas and a Greek myth on three spheres. Fabricated within A Fabled Still Life is “The Crow and the Pitcher,” while the Objects for Sisyphus, the titular character. There’s also a hidden narrative…

  • Certified Copy: Ambiguous authenticities moving in time and space

    Certified Copy: Ambiguous authenticities moving in time and space

    In Abbas Kiarostami’s 2010 film Certified Copy, British author James Miller (played by William Shimell) wrote a book of the same title (i.e. Certified Copy) which has echoes of Walter Benjamin’s landmark essay on mechanical reproduction. In Miller’s words, his intention is “to try and show that the copy itself has worth in that leads…

  • Judelyn Villarta – Never Ending Joy

    Judelyn Villarta – Never Ending Joy

    January 14 – February 4, 2022Finale Art FileMakati, Metro Manila Davao-based artist Judelyn Villarta is no stranger to festivals in Mindanao. She has been an avid attendee since she was in high school, finding joy in the general atmosphere energized by people coming together to celebrate their culture through performances, costumes, and parades. Sparked by…

  • Exhibition Proposal – Puncture Map [Excerpt]

    Punctum as theme “[An] element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces” (CL26) — this was how Roland Barthes defined the concept of punctum in his book Camera Lucida: Reflections of Photography. This curatorial exhibition aims to explore the concept of studium and punctum in photographic works through…

  • Ricarte Puruganan – Pushing and riding the waves of Philippine art

    I love seascapes – from The Great Wave off Kanagawa, to Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, to Stormy Seascape. Such affinity drew me to Toilers of the Sea by Ricarte Puruganan as I randomly flipped through my copy of 100 Years of Philippine Painting. The overall Impressionistic quality of the painting and incorporation of Filipino fishermen…

  • We are not what we seem

    This was submitted for the Modern Art & Ideas course by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Coursera.