sow and till datuin n paradoxa vol29.pdf

7/31/2019 Sow and Till Datuin n paradoxa vol29.pdf

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n.paradoxa Vol.29 7

SoilOn 5 August 2011, the Cultural Center of the Philippines

(CCP) prematurely closed an entire exhibition, ostensibly

because of security threats arising from a single work deemedoffensive and blasphemous by an influential and media-genic

sector of the public generally not predisposed to

contemporary art. The exhibition, entitled Kulo (boil inFilipino), featured 32 works from artists who contributed to

the curatorial concept of revolutionary ferment in

contemporary Philippine society inspired by the life and

ideals of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero whose birthday was

the 150th anniversary we celebrated this year. Fanned by a

sensationalist and uninformed press, the fire broke out and

the pot boiled over without the benefit of proper framing and

without a text to look at and experience in actuality. Whatpasses for debate and art criticism was reduced to the

level of polemics, grandstanding and shouting matches over

the more vital meaning of art and what role artists play in

contemporary times, as the University of the Philippines

Department of Art Studies (a unit that offers Art History,

Philippine Art, Art Theory and Criticism and Interdisciplinary

undergraduate and master programs) puts it in a statemen

on behalf of its faculty. I belong to that faculty, and I was on

of those who drafted that statement urging the CCP to protecits mandate, reclaim and maintain its autonomy. CCP mus

take the lead, we asserted, not only in guarding artisti

freedom but also in ensuring a safe haven where artists a

public intellectuals have the freedom to exhibit. We assured

the CCP that we, educators will rally behind a cultura

institution that will provide the venue and platform fo

artists, educators, policymakers, students of art and th

public by no means homogenous to come together and

raise and address issues in an atmosphere conducive to

forming a community of critical audiences of art.

At that time, I was teaching two separate undergraduatcourses leading to a degree in art studies, one on Perspective

in Art History and another on Art Criticism. When the exhib

remained closed, we recognized it, not only as a dangerou

precedent at odds with artistic freedom; but as a symptom o

the sad state of art education and cultural literacy in a countr

governed by a weak state that regards culture and the arts a

Sow and Till: The Revolving SecretGarden (Reflections on a Class Project)

Flaudette May Datuin


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78 n.paradoxa Vol.29

an optional, perhaps even frivolous extra for a cash-strapped

and corrupted government. Culture amorphously defined

and understood is subject to the whims of changing

administrations. When Corazon Aquino became President

for instance, her information secretary, Teodoro Locsin,

infamously declared a major policy difference from the

previous regime: Culture is not our priority. Insteadculture was reduced to the realm of fine arts with a

Western orientation, patronized by the former First Lady

Imelda Marcos and her cohorts, who erected the CCP as

shrine to the true, the good and the beautiful. Despite a

succession of administrators who sought to wrench the CCP

from its elitist orientation, it was clear that Philippine soil is

without a robust cultural policy that is indispensable, as it is

believed in more enlightened contexts, for developing a

strong society of highly-evolved and fully developed

individual citizens. 1

TillIt is in such a bleak context that the Art Criticism class

(first semester 2011-2012) became a laboratory, not only for

writing critiques, reviews, features, but also for hands-on

practice in art education work within a Museum context. This

meant that our concept of art criticism had to broaden

and expand, to include, not just writingper se, but also tocuratorial and organizational work. In other words, the class

not just wrote about an exhibit through reviews, education

guides, wall notes and brochures, but were asked to put up

an exhibit, which they themselves conceptualized, installed,wrote and talked about in forums, organised the artists talks

and workshops, and then produced a blog/website. My

function was that of faculty-in-charge, a designation I

assigned to myself to indicate that my role is not that of an

instructor but a senior researcher and curator in supervisory

partnership with students as junior researchers and curators.

The pedagogical model aimed to be one of inquiry rather

than transfer or transmission of knowledge; and the

pedagogical strategy was facilitative rather than hierarchical.

Thus, as Timothy Jones puts it in an art seminar, the student

and faculty are encouraged to become self-taught, self-theorizing and methodologically reflexive.2 This ideal was

not always successfully realized. I tended to resort to being

hierarchical at times when the class or some members

slackened or tended to lose the initiative, and there were

times I had become more interventionist, if only to frame and

put some sense into unwieldy ideas and actions. But

whenever and wherever possible, I consciously strove to

avoid micro-managing and set the tone for students to realize

and correct their mistakes, and claim and own their triumphs.

The most mature student in the class of twelve, Manuel

Agustin Singson, became a kind of team captain/head

junior curator and it was he who first broached the idea of

conversing with the themes of secrecy, invisibility, voyeurism,and mystery played out in a contemporary installation by

Mark Salvatus Secret Garden which existedon the secondfloor of the University of the Philippines Vargas Museum,

and which became our laboratory site for the project.3

Salvatus is one of several contemporary artists conversing

with the Vargas Museums permanent collection,which spans

the late nineteenth century works of Old Masters to the post-

war era of the Philippine modernists, and which includes

works of Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Fernando

Amorsolo, Guillermo Tolentino, Vicente Manansala, Cesar

Legaspi and Victorio Edades among others. Othercontemporary artists invited to produce work in dialogue

with the collection include Poklong Anading, Roberto Feleo,

Alfredo Juan and Isabel Aquilizan, and Cocoy Lumbao.

The Secret Garden can only be viewed through a partlyajar door that refuses to budge. As one takes a frustrating

peek at the cramped space, one sees a dimly-lit carpet of

plastic plants crafted out of green plastic bottles which the

artist bought from the inmates some of whom are illegally

detained of the Quezon Provincial Jail (around 400 kilometres

south of Manila). On the wall hovering over the plants is a

graffiti of a black tiger insignia or the coat of arms of acriminal gang accompanied by the motto Do or Die. The

wall text tells us that the installation is inspired by a real

secret garden which the prisoners grew out of seeds saved

from their meals, with plastic spoons as planting implements,

as part of their livelihood program. The wall text tells us that

the installation is inspired by a real secret garden which

the prisoners grew out of seeds saved from their meals, with

plastic spoons as planting implements. Having no permission

to maintain such a garden, they kept it a secret from the jail

authorities until a lawyer revealed the heart-warming tale to a

local newspaper.

Sow

In the museum the work is placed under the thematic

cluster Light.4 Right outside the immovable door to Salvatus

Secret Garden isa well-lit and cheerful landscape by JuanLuna and opposite this painting, visitors can see the


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museums lush garden through a large window. It is in the

space right outside the immovable door that my student,

Singson proposed to install what he called a system of

three enclosed boxes on a platform, containing three artworks

that could be viewed through peek-a-boo holes bored at

strategic vantage points. To view the artworks the viewers

would have to revolve or move around the boxes,

5

likevoyeurs, and upon stepping back they would find themselves

caught in the act by their own memories and reflections, a

term that refers both to mirror-image and thought. After some

debate and a bit of resistance within the class, a consensus

was reached because, as one student writes, the themes of

secrecy and revelations are universal. Everyone has a secret

and the eventual title Revolving Secret Garden and thedesign itself suggests thatsecrecy is never ending; a new

secret is made and kept when one is brought and revealed

into the light. 6

Left with little time, as we were midway through thesemester, the greater part of which was spent on writing

workshops, I intervened to invite three women artists whose

work I knew well and who because they are personally known

to me, would most likely graciously agree to be part of a small

project, on short notice. The three artists we finally chose

were also known for their advocacies as women and as artists

and the works they submitted after reading the curatorial

brief reflect these engagements. Alma Quinto, whose body

of work involves working with communities, most of whom

are survivors of abuse, disaster, illness and the like presented

a portrait of a Muslim woman leader. Kiri Dalena submitted anever-before-screened video of a face on which flow

unwavering tears and from Lyra Garcellano, we received

framed photos of blurred and ghostly faces of undocumented

migrants in New York, which she made during a six-month

residency in the city. For a few weeks in late September to

early October 2011, these works were displayed in an

incongruously tall display system, almost reaching the ceiling

and crowding an already narrow area.

In one of the forums the class organized in connection

with theRevolving Secret Garden, Garcellano rightly pointed

out a problem with the curatorial process. She said that asartists, they were not really conversing with Salvatus

because their works already existing and in fact, save for

the Dalena video, were already previously exhibited when

taken individually and as whole, have their own integrity

and can stand on their own even without the work of

Salvatus. However, the concept holds, according to one

of the students, because of way the effect of viewing th

works initiates discovering the different forms of plight

marginalization including those of the prisoners in limbo

of Salvatus garden; in the revealing of their secret live

comes the appreciation of each work and this is why mirror

were placed around the holes where the person looking wi

be able to catch himself peeping (compelling him) tbe wary of his actions and to reflect. It is fitting (for th

Revolving Secret Garden) to be in the Light section of th

gallery like the work of Salvatus, as the exhibit brings int

light issues which are usually kept in the dark.7

In other words, the exhibit is a class installation/artwork

curatorial intervention and the artists works are artwork

within an artwork, each shedding light on secret and invisibl

lives. In Garcellano, the light is a cautious and reflexive one

as she struggles to render the plight of undocumente

migrants in pursuit of the American dream, whose blurred

and unrecognizable images adorn a homey wall, like badgeof a familys accomplishments. Nicknamed TNTs or Tagng Tago (literally always in hiding), these people are forceto remain invisible, revealed, concealed and violated by

medium that shoots people and captures their image

through light, an element integral to photography. Alm

Quintos soft sculpture renders in cloth and foam a Muslim

leader she met while conducting one of her workshops in

Mindanao (one of the Philippines major islands in the south

defiantly posed with her veil casually draped around he

face, thus bringing to an affectionate light the struggle o

women many times marginalized. Kiri Dalenas video presentan extreme close-up of the face of Gina Alajar, who kindl

agreed to weep with a constant almost blank expression

originally intended, for a Violence Against Women (VAW

campaign. Due to many reasons, the footage was neve

screened till now. The idea hit the artist when she was washin

her hair and chanced upon a No more tears ad by Johnso

& Johnson baby shampoo. In addition to this inspiration

from commercial popular culture, Dalena also draws on he

knowledge of Ms. Alajars reknown as an actress with an

impressive filmography related to the VAW issue (Oro Pr

Nobis, Kapit sa Patalim, Dukot, etc).

Show/Unveil

Doing background research for the education guide

brochures and collateral activities, we discovered an

identified threads that connect the three artists together

Poring over the artists works and CVs, for instance, we took


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became very concrete in the workshop conducted by Alma

Quinto and visiting Japanese artist, Miho Nakanishi, as part

of the collateral activities. Asking us to sew our dreams on

grids of textile, the workshop transformed this group of mostly

women participants, into a sewing circle: intently working on

our needles and thread one moment, gossiping another

moment, and when sharing time came, weeping and sharingconfidences we would normally not reveal. Perhaps this is

due to the power of needle and thread, traditionally associated

with healing across cultures, from acupuncture, to surgery,

to dream weaving and reading omens.

In this particular workshop, another of my students, Bohn

Vergara observed that the healing starts from the time we

receive and open our workshop kits, containing a needle,

some threads, a pair of scissors, and some pieces or remnants

of cloth commonly known as retaso. Torn, ragged and wornthese discarded pieces somehow resemble the participants

state, Vergara muses. As they start to sew, it is as thoughthey mend and stitch their dreams, but working within the

limitations of the retazos innate design, and finding a way

to creatively and imaginatively incorporate their own

interventions within this limited field. During the sharing

time, the participants talk about their works, and though

significant change to the person is not expected out of this

workshop it is the sense of family, companionship and

alliance that reminds all of the attendees that in order to

stimulate and accomplish our own personal healing, we will

need the help of others, making us aware about the

vulnerability and fragility of human existence.10

Quintos role in the whole undertaking was in stark

contrast to the traditional artistic persona of the artist as

solitary genius, functioning as artist-facilitator and immersed

social worker to thread together all the individual works

into a giant quilt and installation. 11

GrowAs Sue Spaid observes No matter how you slice it,

criticism eats heaps of time. 12 This class learned this the

hard way. While I strove to be facilitative rather than

interventionist, the student of art criticism and related fieldsart history, aesthetics and theory as I have intimated at the

outset is struggling to learn in inhospitable soil. The study

of arts and culture is not central to the Philippine education

system, and the token hours devoted to such subjects are

framed by narrow definitions of culture and by traditionalist,

instrumentalist and a largely unexamined creative industries

paradigm. Going to exhibits and galleries is not a public habi

and is not cultivated in families and schools.

The art educators predicament is discernible in how

Legaspi-Ramirez describes the countrys discursiv

backwardness: While elsewhere on the planet, othe

museums are tangling with how studio and text-based

collaterals pre-empt viewing experiences, discussions inthis country still remain primarily about how didactic on

ought to get, which shows will work for the proverbial nine

year old, how far from the baseline can programs comfortabl

stray without confounding or turning them away,13 and a

the Kulo controversy shows, without turning an exhibit int

a media circus.

In this context, art studies students mostly transferee

from other schools and shiftees from other programs lik

Engineering come to the program severely handicapped

not just by the larger context, but admittedly, by gaps in th

art studies curriculum itself.14

By the time they have to takup higher courses in theory and criticism, they have yet t

read the required massive number of catalogue essaysknow the requisite number of artists, have attended an

internalized exhibitions, and experienced every show

possible. Instead of concentrating on honing writing skills

which are highly deficient they have to play catch up

They have to be assigned to read this and that writer, and

told to go to this and that exhibit, and as Sue Spaid says: i

this needs to be assigned, theyre already behind! An

although some of them are experienced event organizers, o

have seen an exhibit or two, and have written the requirereaction paper or blog about a film, a play or any art even

that caught their fancy, they learn the painful way tha

organizing and writing about contemporary art exhibits com

with special demands. Thus, at several points in this projec

I had to wield a stronger hand, or had to fill in the blanks an

connect the dots for some students, still recovering from th

shock of being in alien waters, where they had to sink o

swim. It was extremely tedious work, demanding heaps o

time and patience.

I have no illusions that the Revolving Secret Garde

project has somehow turned the class into seasoned criticand curators. But I hope that the hands-on experience ha

instigated what Rebecca Leach calls the contagion effect one based on familiarity and contagiousness but no

seeming like knowledge at all. 15 Put another way, I am

hoping that at the very least, they now feel a little at home

with contemporary art, in the way that they feel at home with


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the more popular forms of culture, for example, gardening or

watching an inter-collegiate tournament. In the process, they

have recognized the need for what we hope they would

eventually grow into: reflexive and professional cultural

workers, imbued with the passion to till an arid cultural soil

and to sow the seeds of creativity that will heal, not just

economic poverty, but the poverty of the imagination andthe spirit.

Flaudette May Datuin lectures in Department of Art

Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of the

Philippines. She is a curator and art critic. Her latest multi-

pronged, multi-venue and multi-media international art project

with 50 artists selected from 18 countries,Nothing to Declare

[http://nothing2declare2011.wordpress.com/ ] Datuin is author

ofHome, Body, Memory: Filipina Artists in the Visual

Arts,19th Century to the Present(Quezon City: University of

Philippines Press:2002).

Notes

1. In Britain for example, one of Labours defining characteristics

on coming to power in 1997 was its fundamental belief that

the individual citizen achieves his or her true potential

within the context of a strong society . According to Colin

Painter: It regarded culture as central to its agenda, insisting

that the arts are not optional extras for government; they

are at the very centre of our mission. Sara Selwood Audiences

for Contemporary Art: Assertion vs Evidence in Colin Painter (ed)Contemporary Art and the Home (Oxford and New York: Berg,

2002) p. 13. The current Lib Dem/Con coalition are much more

ambivalent about the arts, preferring a return to elitism.

2. This realization came after the fact, when I was struggling to

reflect on and understand my role in the learning process. James

Elkins and Michael Newman (eds.) The State of Art Criticism

(Routledge, 2008) helped me put into perspective my initially

intuitive attempt at tea ching art criticism in such a difficult

terrain.

3. Jorge B. Vargas was the countrys first Executive Secretary during

the Commonwealth period. His political career continued duringthe Japanese Occupation when he was Chairman of the Philippine

Executive Commission and Mayor of Manila in 1942. On 1 March

1978, he donated his collection of art, stamps and coins, books and

periodicals, personal papers, and memorabilia to his alma mater,

the University of the Philippines. The museum was then formally

inaugurated on February 22, 1987. http://vargasmuseum.

wordpress.com/the-museum/about/ [ Accessed 31 October 2011].

4. The collection is arranged chronologically, under the themes

Light (1800s), Province, Unease and Passage.

5. The original concept was a revolving platform, but one of the

artists, Kiri Dalena suggested that it might be more meaningful and

practical, in terms of cost and traffic, to have the audience revolve

around a static platform.6. Bohn Vergara My First Odyssey http://therevolvingsecret

garden.wordpress.com/reflections/

7. Jacqueline Ali Secrets Unveiled: Struggles and Identities http://

therevolvingsecretgarden.wordpress.com/on-the-project/

8. Zoila Gerente Kiri Dalena: Unwavering Tears http://

therevolvingsecretgarden.wordpress.com/the-artists/

9. Jacqueline Ali Secrets Unveiled: Struggles and Identities

10. Bohn Vergara My First Odyssey

11. Lisa Ito Engaging the Social: Four Projects Pananaw 7:

Philippine Journal of Visual Arts Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez(ed)

(National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2010) p. 9712. Sue Spaid Getting Over the Hoopla and Under the Art in James

Elkins and Michael Newman (eds) The State of Art Criticism

(Routledge, 2008) p. 320

13. Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez Snob Appeal or the Art of our Dis-

affections Pananaw7: Philippine Journal of Visual Arts (National

Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2010)p.10

14. A problem engagingly pointed out by Margareth Fontanilla

http://therevolvingsecretgarden.wordpress.com/on-being-an-art-

stud-major/

15. Rebecca Leach What Happened at Home with Art: Tracing the

Experience of Consumers in Colin Painter (ed) Contemporary Artand the Home (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2002) p. 154

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