61. Abstract art in the Philippines | Curated by Tony Twigg

However informed by Western traditions, Philippine Abstraction can be seen to have evolved independently into an idiosyncratically regional idiom. 

The painter H.R. Ocampo was a young journalist in the 1930's when the influential teacher Victorio Edades returning from studies in the USA introduced a Modernist understanding of painting to the Philippines. Ocampo read Modernism as “Neo-Realism. He explained “In my pictures I am more interested in how hues, values textures and lines interact on one another in spaces than a photographic semblance of nature. I am preoccupied with the creation of new realities in terms of strain and stress rather than the portrayal of such conventional emotions as hate, love, anger, jealousy."

During the 1950's, Lydia Arguilla prompted Neo-Realist exhibitions in her Philippine Art Gallery. Arturo Luz an artist and an abstractionist opened an influential gallery in the 1960’s that celebrated local abstract painters.

Gus Albor, one of the many who showed there explained to me that as a child in a remote provinces he believed he invented abstract art, however by the time he was exhibiting with Luz he was aware of the international school of abstraction. Theinfluence of Western “minimalism painting” is obvious in his work. But what would an Asian perception add or subtract from the heroic Western idea of minimalist 

abstraction?

It is a question that can be asked of successive generations of Philippine abstractionists ranging from Romulo Olazo (b.1934) to Rock Drilon (b.1956) and one that is partially answered in the work of Roberto Robles, a colleague of mine at Galleria Duemila in Manila. His work employs an aesthetic vocabulary that evokes both Western and Asian traditions. This pragmatic amalgam has become his way of making a painting. That is his process of painting, which is also the subject of his painting. 

While it may seem far-fetched to include myself in this survey, it was through exhibiting in the Philippines that I shifted my practice from figuration to abstraction. To me abstraction presented the possibility of entering a regional dialogue rather than maintaining a culturally specific narrative through figuration. As a consequence my work has evolved in a Filipino context and adopted some Filipino positions.

By the end of the 20th century Roberto Chabet had emerged as the influential teacher of his time. He brought a localised understanding of conceptual art and installation to the youngest generation of artists. Among them, MM Yu (b. 1978) has successfully translated his ideas of placement into paintings that achieve images of lasting retinal satisfaction and invite a reading out side the western cannon.

Tony Twigg

This new work by Tony Twigg, Night ride is from a suite of timber constructions that will be shown at the Damien Minton Gallery 27 April – 22 May this year. The forthcoming exhibition titled ‘Ricochet’ will be the first show that Tony has presented in Australia since 2004. However, he has not been idle over those 5 years. In total there have been 9 solo exhibitions in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, and a book has been written about his work in Asia. 

This single work pre-view in SLOT captures the kind of visual energy and sensual palette that has characterised Tony’s work of recent years. His work has increasingly focused on the movement between positive and negative space – where the spaces between the sequential units of the work are read as drawn ‘white’ elements – the two “tensioning” the eye across the area of the work. 

As the title of the work suggests, its surface has the velvety quality of a sky caught between dusk and dark. Suggesting a zone of transition, that could also reflect his living and working across our region in a way that challenges conventional definitions of ‘place’ and the way we identify ourselves. 

Damien Minton Gallery is located at 61 Greater Buckingham Street, Redfern. All are welcome to view Ricochet, 27 April – 22 May 2010

Charles Cooper has long been interested in the language of the road - speed bumps, pedestrian crossings, round-abouts, carpark markings, – symbols and forms that we read intuitively. They locate us within the urban environment in the same way that his installation of silk-screen prints and painted panels connects SLOT with the traffic congestion and asphalt that surrounds it.

The three central paintings of this installation reference a traffic light motif painted in 1993 when they were exhibited in a window along King Street Newtown as part of its week-long fair.

Paired in SLOT with Cooper’s ‘Round-about’ screen prints of 2009, the circles play off each other. Their precise geometry reads as western modernist art, equally the mottled birds-eye view of Cooper’s roundabouts evokes the landscape read as it might be in Aboriginal painting. 

Ambiguously, a reading of the red, orange and green panels as a traffic light offers a cosmic connection, their luminous flare on a black background reminiscent of a lunar eclipse. Blinking to regain focus, we see a world of pixelated purples, white lights and black spots that diffuse the articulation of the circle. Again we are reminded of an indigenous use of signs and symbols to map the landscape that is a metaphor for the signs and symbols that articulate the urban landscape of roadways.

Charlie Cooper’s screen prints were printed at MARNLING PRESS in Chippendale. This exhibition coincided with Cooper’s solo Peak Oil Paintings at Annandale Galleries, a new body of shaped canvases that seemingly lift off the wall. 

You are here (Forensic flow project) 

This collaborative work explores systems and patterns employed to map a place both in physically and virtually space. The place, colloquially identified by giant orange ‘you are here’ icon – is SLOT - yes you are here.

Process is key to this project. These Sydney-based artists are collaborating by approaching the same subject from different modes of analysis. Gail and Sue have spent the past month gathering data and information about this address – its spaces and its people. Gail has undertaken an online investigation of geographical, 

meteorological, demographic data, on google earth and in historical sources that map this site. Her findings are collaged into the digital animation seen in SLOT. Sue has undertaken a physical examination from the bench outside SLOT observing and recording the pedestrian traffic, measuring, talking to people, photographing and drawing - that is making first-hand unmediated observations she has projected into the space.

They have pooled their collected data - filtered, layered and analysed it to create a poetic installation. This is the first in the Forensis Flow series of mixed realityinstallations that will occur over the next two years in alternative spaces, some as distant as Vietnam and China. Collectively they are mapping our regional 

neighborhood. 

Looking at this cluster of assemblages they appear simultaneously familiar and remote. Made from found or discarded timber and metal elements they are evocative of minarets, mythic towers, missiles and phalluses. Geoff commented - “My temples are not scale models inspired by any particular buildings but rather a universal reference to places of worship. Style and architectural forms are borrowed from many cultures. Essentially, they embody the meeting of East and West in a unique way.”

Some of the sculptures resemble Western architecture with their distinctive Christian domes and columns, while others evoke the finely proportioned towers and minarets of Islam. All convey a dignity that transcends their origin as discarded material. 

Geoff’s constructions, offer more than a consideration of the marriage of a turned table leg and metal grater. The spirit of his objects acts as a metaphor for worship that provokes an identification with these forms in an individual manner. This is a sensitive and astute installation that points to the merits of co-existence, harmony and an acceptance of a divergent humanity.

Joy Hopwood is a television actress, a film actress, writer, illustrator, film director, producer. From 1995 - 97 she was the first Asian presenter of Play School, an ABC T.V. program that has delighted generation upon generation of Australian children since 1966. It has charted the evolution of Australian culture from a clone of British life to one that is alert Australia’s ethnic diversity. It also introduces a consistent theme to Joy Hopwood’s work - being Asian in Australia, finding acceptance and creating an atmosphere of acceptance for others. These are her paintings.

A day at the beach with the family, playing sport and becoming a big star are the games that childhood play. Joy Hopwood presents them to us as illustrations that would speak to children, set out as a sort of randomised comic in three parts. They are also the clichés of Australian life. Beach, sport and success that in Joy’s paintings take on the unbridled sincerity and playfulness of a Childs vision. 

There is an arcadia in these paintings populated by people of a generalised identity that is perhaps a child's vision of a multi-racial Australia. Secure in her vision of Australia, Joy Hopwood weaves a moral tale that is her autobiography where the overriding idea is that “life is not a dress rehearsal”. A glance at Hopwood’s list of credits indicates that it most certainly is her motto.  This glorious life of hers is encapsulated in a ray of sunshine - not unlike play school.