By Tesa Celdran
CLOUD CANYONS No. 31’s catalogue details read as:
David Medalla, B. 1942.
CLOUD CANYONS NO. 31, Plexiglas tubes, wood, fibreglass, water, soap and oxygenators; 254.2 by 199.5 by 199.5 cm. 100 by 78-1/2 by 78-1/2 in. (installation dimensions variable) Conceived in 1964 and executed in 2016
PROVENANCE The Artist, another vacant space, Berlin.
EXHIBITED, Lyon, 14th Biennale de Lyon, 2017-18; Wakefield, The Hepworth Wakefield, Hepworth Sculpture Prize, 2016-17
David Medalla’s works have been shown and/or are in permanent collections in London, New York, Paris, Madrid, Queensland, Auckland, Munich.
Yet the artistic world of David Medalla has remained extremely remote from the Philippine audience. Only recently has an understanding of what is required to be an exemplar artist in the intimidating and complex world of art (international relationships of artists, collectors, museums, galleries, markets, auctions, fairs). David Medalla’s cofounding of Signals in 1960s London was considered a radical move because the gallery had taken its name from what was then a heavily criticized form of the avant-garde, kinetic art. This was a time and a place where the margins of modernism revolutionised the idea of art as so much more than a flat, disembodied filtering of time. That art can be and is a sensual three dimensional experience of science/technical and the aesthetic/magical. Moreover, Signals was a pioneer in featuring artists from as far as the Philippines, Venezuela, and Brazil. There is an underground brilliance when artists work together and inspire newer forms of expression.
Mr. Medalla’s recognition as a key Filipino artist falls short of the eminence he deserves. Being fortuitous as many in the art world know, can be fleeting. Happenstance can be just that, of a time and a place that can quickly be replaced or forgotten. David Medalla is 77 years old and has had two strokes as his partner/collaborator, Adam Nankervis relays, “Speaking is difficult for him now.” Mr. Nankervis explains that despite Mr. Medalla’s health difficulties, in the last three decades, such issues have not laid pause in his genuine consummate belief, almost unwavering obsession, in his art. Mr. Medalla’s art practice has spanned painting, sculpture, installation, kinetic and, performance art abroad (for most of his life) and still continues even as he resides now in Manila. When asked about Mr. Medalla’s current work, Mr. Nankervis replied, “he’s still painting, he still becomes extremely focused, even obsessed with work, that’s why we were a bit late to the reception,” confirming that what seemed like patterns on Mr. Medalla’s dress shirt were, in reality, paint stains.
Cloud Canyons No. 31, now permanently installed in the lobby of BDO Unibank, Inc.’s Corporate Center, deserves applause for laying circumstance to favor the Philippine audience in, finally, discerning for themselves the artistic world of David Medalla and Cloud Canyons No 31. The audience may be baffled, unsettled, even unsure of what to think and feel when viewing Cloud Canyons No. 31 as a progressive, seminal, and iconic artistic expression in the perplexing world of art.
Or such notions may be pushed aside leaving just the delight and childlike wonder of blowing bubbles.
A cue may be taken from Mr. Medalla himself during an intimate reception held by BDO Unibank, Inc. for the artist last Saturday, Aug. 31, where he playfully tossed the bubbles up in the air and blew into them (also, upon being handed a beverage by Mr. Nankervis, Mr. Medalla blew bubbles into the straw more than sipping the refreshment).
Whether confused or charmed, nonplussed or entranced, thrown or elated, we should act accordingly by graciously welcoming, both David Medalla and Cloud Canyons No. 31, home.
