Two artists look at the effects of the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program
WHILE A beauty pageant contestant unabashedly admits she knows nothing about the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program, two Filipino artists look at its ideations and reimagine the sociopolitical effects of the policy.
On view until April 3 at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Gallery, artists Ritchie C. Yee and Marvin Angelo Rafols Oloris present …As We, Constructs.
Amidst the ideals of industrialization, modernization, development, and change, the two artists created altered environments through the overlaying of plastic paints, ink, and found materials.
Despite sharing similar techniques, Oloris and Yee have made two distinct bodies of art, but with one goal: to critique the Precarity of society amidst the notion of stability and progress.
“Precarity,” a term used by sociologists, means the instability of having a livable life (i.e. unstable job, marginalization, abandonment of welfare, etc.)
Yee is focused on the tenacity and decomposition of the things we’ve always seen, made, and built but taken for granted, while Oloris’s works are fragile visions of what has yet to be built.
The two artists’ works look into the destruction of the “Build, Build, Build” dictum that plague society: martial law in Mindanao, the war on drugs, the killings, and the rise of poverty and criminality.
Through their art, these two men essay to round out a variety of social truths, no matter how base, stolid, or distressing they may seem to be, and in the process evolve into active critics of their contemporary milieus.
…As We, Constructs is on view until April 3. Viewing is from Monday to Sunday including holidays, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., at the NCCA office at 633 General Luna St., Intramuros, Manila. Appointments for viewing can be done by sending a message to the NCCA Gallery at nccagallery09@gmail.com. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman
