Tarlac Artists Collaboration: Contemporary Philippine Art via McArthur Hi-way

BY JAY BAUTISTA


To remain contemporary when much of one’s environment reflects the rural and idyllic; to become authentic despite everything has become coy, commercial and crass; to be original and rogue while besotted with folklore, myths, and traditional views of art. 

Aptly situated inside a commuter bus the creative predicament of being based in Tarlac confronts these twenty young visual artists today. As the centerpiece of this exhibition Maniam Pukaque is their collective stance on these themes, issues and concerns that entailed their individual responses through oil, acrylic, ink, and water-based media; an imaginative collaboration as a way of introducing each artist featured in this exhibition with the same title; bearing their own biases and perspectives, each anecdote is interactive and flowing while characters abound each revolving around various local produce related to their beloved home province.  

With fertile grass on his mouth, a water buffalo is at the helm of this magical mystery tour. Though prime agricultural land continues to diminish every day due to commercialization and in demand real estate, much of Tarlac is still being farmed using this hard working partner of the Filipino farmer. It could also represent the Laughing Carabao symbolizing the locally crafted beer favored by the working class Tarlaquenos.
 

"MANIAM PUKAQUE" (overflowing)
Tarlac Artists collaborative Painting
243.84 X 365.76 cm
Museo ng Probinsya ng Tarlac

Other representations veer on products only found in these parts of Tarlac. Such is the Capas smoked fish as an endearing passenger; allegorically placed is the iniruban rice cake made with burned young sticky rice coconut milk and sweetener; the bignay rice wine coming from bignay berries; at the far back is a prepared ambula, formed from rice soaked in viand sauce saving much for the hungry with value for his tight budget; an ethereal vendor with an abaca fan calls out for tupig, grilled sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves over charcoal. The burnt scent in gazing smoke evidently lingers in the midst.
 
At the front seat, an absent-minded fine arts student stares blankly at the abyss with her multi-tasking tentacles dealing with various odd jobs she has to accomplish in time to finish her studies and eventually move on with her creative life. A stoic girl with eggs for eyes and a crowning nest for hair signify how Tarlac is by forced circumstance a nesting ground for the would-be artists in them. 

Behind her apathy runs deeps to a man reminiscent of an oblation-like gesture looking at the heavens while a mischievous gyrating millennial twirls, tumbles and turns in between seats. A ghostly image is portrayed at the back referring to the scary tales that haunt the tall grasses in Matatalaib. Seated in a row before him, another scary apparition mount as a ghoulish man appears wasted or without consciousness while a baby is in deep slumber, unmindful of the ongoing episode around her. The circus has just started. Others performers will follow suit. One wonders where the band is?
 
A downtrodden farmer stands in solitude reserving his yantok on the last row, a barangay in Mayantok where it came from. In the middle aisle is an allegorical post which morphs a green sugar cane into a cold steel post. This negates how Tarlac has eventually become industrial from once an agricultural lieu. 

Showcasing Tarlac’s natural treasures is a man bathing from one of the available pristine waterfalls while a rowdy black cat distracts, a Frog jumps and a Geron bird (for Gerona) gleefully cheers in the window seat. A solitary bat swarms, as if on cued performance, from above. Dead aim at the center is a masquerade masked girl in a grotesque garb staring directly as if enlightening the viewer--this is who we are and what to expect from us--at a glance.  

A remarkable plethora of divergent styles co-exist side by side in one fell swoop, debunking any associated art historical classifications. Abound in sheer magnitude this is firsthand looking at the ongoing Tarlac art scene while celebrating the rich and evolving culture these artists belong to. A visual playground flexing the every artistic muscle, this one-way trip is at the height of its vision of capturing present-day Tarlac exuding brighter hope for their separate artistic journeys for the long haul.

Jared Yokte: Art In the Era of the One Percent

BY JAY BAUTISTA |


TALL TARLAC TALES: RECENT WORKS OF HERRERA, RAMOS, AND YOKTE


(Last of Three parts)

Some 60 illustrations representing Hayop are situated as walls in a frame by frame presentation greets the viewer. A recurring scene for Yokte who has lived in vibrant cultural cities of Davao, Vigan and now based in Tarlac. An allegory of the archrivals dogs and cats, Yokte often witnesses the fight between them. How the dog would and could defeat the cat as many ways as to skin it. How the dog always wins not by the show of force but by outsmarting it. Done in firm impressionist inkblots these sketches documents for Yokte certain outdoor behavior and inherent character of each domestic creature. Only artists like Yokte can see beauty in the ordinary squabble as such. Painters Ang Kiukok, Danny Dalena, and Onib Olmedo have immortalized daily occurrence as such dogs and cats before him.

In his book Art Power (2009) art critic Boris Groys presents that art either as commodity in the art market or as a political tool for the realization of a vision for the people. Much of what are is produced today is for the galleries and commission-based auction. Not many are producing artworks for the maturity of our consciousness, or expressions of our dreams and aspirations.

Yokte applies his realist language to an installation work Those Leading a happy Life and Those Fighting a Battle to Survive Have Many Things in Common, some 120 figurines are cast in resin. In whatever situation or class you are in life, everyone is fighting their own some kind of battle. As humans we are expected to be kinder than necessary. Showing how humanity can be configured added to the visual impact of the multitude in the curation is commendable.    

Groys defines new Realism as reality as the sum of necessitates and constraints that do not allow us to do what we would like to do or to live as we would like to live. Art manifests what is often lacking in society. Compared to other community of artists who practiced outside Manila like Angono, Bulacan, Iloilo, and Cebu, to be an artist in Tarlac is doubly discriminated by the lack of government support for the arts and the need for private initiatives for legitimate arts paces to showcase art.

Bukal is a kind of revenge against all these mundane circumstances surrounding these artists. Herrera, Ramos and Yokte are stating their artistic claim to survive for other fellow Tarlac artists and the belief that there is such a person. As Bukal presents what is lacking or not normally found in the current contemporary art scene, their art may not match your décor in your living room. They disturb your peace and enable you to appreciate art on a higher social context.

So the next time you come to Tarlac you will stay a little longer. 

Jared Yokte: The Artist as Contrarian

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

The recent third solo exhibition At the Rear There is Something Contrary by Jared Yokte is one long loud sermon. His distinct unskinned images haunt us in our thoughts even after the pieces have been taken down from the walls of blanc Gallery. Mind you it is not exactly a solitary preach by a priest, pastor or what have you. More inclined to that night the adolescent you went home beyond curfew time and your parents were stubbornly waiting as you opened the house lights. Yes this exhibit is that bad that it is so good. Worse, it alters your mindset in looking at contemporary paintings these days.

At the Rear There is Something Contrary

Having been born and bred in Davao City, educated in Vigan and now based in Tarlac Yokte sizzles as the quintessential artist to finely execute these epiphanies. Having been exposed to different variants of local culture from southern to northern Philippines Yokte has somehow imbibed and could comment on that customary sense of we got used to yet not supposedly believing in.

His interiors as backdrops are from his humble abode reflect the kind of exuberant yet bland society we have ever since existed. Not invited guests rather we are like peeping neighbors to one's private tableau as everything happens indoors. It is at home where much of what we know happens even the greater war is waged here—the family.

Theory of Nonsense 1

Our elders inculcate in us that success emanates in being affluent more so if one is working abroad. One gets educated to prepare for the day he boards a ship or a plane to cross to the greener pastures. As clannish as we can be, we look after siblings after us, forced to fend for their schooling, whereas we tend to neglect even our own personal happiness. These stereo-type myths have bothered and even disturbed the peace in Yokte's sensibilities. Even superstitious beliefs, superfluous as they are, are discussed within this realm. Concepts like sukob, pagpag, pasma or sleeping while your hair is wet could make you go blind or crazy. Yokte proposes not in anger but even better he gracefully throws back at you his actuation in his linear and painterly strokes combined. The title piece, At the Rear There is Something Contrary, sees us involved in every movement as his images compose themselves and somewhat paused on canvas. They circle in round formation as the cycle called life rotates.

Theory of Nonsense 2

Theory of Nonsense Series symbolically implodes deeper this thesis in Yokte’s pieces. Composition is Yokte’s stronger elements as he is a master in harmonizing his hues. Personages lie afloat living in the quagmire we deserve. We, the viewer should not be enticed in these time-drawn myths. Inverted umbrellas reveal the reverse reasoning as we are attuned to. Resulting into the kind of broken dreams we are forced by circumstance to accept these false fatuity. As in these paintings, it is as grim as the night that has befallen and an even darker interior void of light. Yokte maybe an animal lover as it seems but these domestic creatures are no different from the kind of beings we have become, or been relegated to.

There is poetry in rendering his cast of characters. A headless man may seem a wounded negation of people eaten by the kind of heartlessness that emanates from our concurrence to what we thought all along as truth. Have we become the kind of children our parents have warned us to be? Only artists like Yokte can create such dormant scenes that feed on life’s imperfections done beautifully. As he investigates into our human condition what he unravels like secrets to a code yields our               uniqueness as it is ironically present in all of us.

When the Cat Fell Out

When the Cat Fell Out debunks that what we chose to blindly submit. Black cats represent impending bad luck whereas a cat can just be born black. Maybe Yokte’s works are even the bigger contrary to what is evidently contemporary art—white canvases featuring personalities as smiling farmers, mother and child, even coy fish on the pond. The presence of black mud-like paint is not to blot the picture but a pun right smack as intended. Being in Tarlac provides his with a vantage point--a way of seeing. He is far yet inside the art scene. Even he can be his own sordid critic.

Counterpole

One can however never get over viewing a Yokte piece. One is unmindful of the time as he was doing them. The gestalt effect that his canvases are bigger than what and how his symbolism applies. At a glance, macabre as it is, each is like rich thick moist chocolate cake with sprinkles for everyone to partake. Such as Counterpole which is a continuing reminder of the ups and downs of life reminiscent of the circus act as in his last show, Mabulaklaking Angkan. Compared to this present crop, whatever these pieces lack in humor accessibility and accessories Yokte made up with much bravura and immensely finer craft--more mature brushstrokes and a serious take on our contemporary culture. I would not be surprised if these solitary creatures will be ready to come closer and bite back at us in his next show. 

Jared Yokte: Paint Thy Neighbor

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Somewhere in a quiet nook in Tarlac, a thriving communal existence is being depicted on canvas after canvas by a very observant neighbor named Jared Yokte. Barely a year there, having decided to raise his family away from the hustle and bustle of city life, the remarkable result came in the form of some 20 paintings that comprise his first solo show mythically entitled Mabulaklaking Angkan.

He may have chosen the easiest of subjects yet Jared has rendered them in his distinct in fact very tedious visual style. His ethereal characters may have been disguised as myths only to hide their peculiar personalities and yes, identities. Collectively called Agda like an ongoing play set on stage, they all somewhat perform profusely, dimly-lighted on each featured panel. Even in the starkness of their moods, what should have been concealed has become brightly translucent. 

Mabulaklaking Angkan, 2013. Oil on Canvas

Obviously the main piece and from which the title of the show emanates is this 8 feet by 6 feet Mabulaklaking Angkan which like a welcoming door greeting the viewer as one enters Olive Creek Gallery. Its imposing magnificence shouts the futility of what we do and why we do things that matter. Trapped in their own quagmire, his subjects, pointlessly, restlessly ride the bicycle for the mere hang of it, unknowing of their destinations. Worse, some would even fall off this senseless carousel. Some would even hang on for desperate survival on its peripheries, only to be taken away without purpose. Jared wonders how have we come to this? What instances have led people to inhabit the city, to work our selves to death not even knowing what drives the soul out of us. And this cycle unrelentingly repeats through generations after generations. Replicated by education breeding the same children, only to be part of this same exercise of drudgery.  

Sumpaan, 2013. Oil on Canvas

 Upon seeing his works done in this peculiar brushstroke, intermittently one’s phobia of meeting these sort of hairy domestic creatures was eventually set aside, paving the way for their invitation to watch, neighbors or not, collector or not, promdis and affluent art enthusiasts in the metropolis. Like every promising contemporary artist of his generation, Jared explains his works are mostly autobiographical in narrative and interrelated with one another. Like comic strips these could form one simultaneous reality. They speak generally about the Filipino family. He adds: Ang pamilyang Pilipino hindi lamang nasusukat sa pagsasabi ng po at opo, pagmamano, pagbati at iba pa. Ang kanyang karakter ay kadalasan nasasaksihan sa pakikisalamuha natin sa araw araw. Mga karakter na totoong nangyayari na binibigyan ko ng komplikadong pananaw. Ang kwento ng bawat obra ay magkakaugnay.

His paintings are manifestations of his constant experiments: I love to experiment different media. My painting session always starts with experiment while serving as my appetite before my real artwork. I find my style very intriguing and mysterious although I would like to think less emotional.

At 27 and very much in love to Elle, his fellow artist-partner, Sumpaan is also proof of his being down-to-earth romantic. With common interest in the arts, they both found love in the city but he fulfilled his promise to leave Manila and raise their family in her hometown of Tarlac. Not to be downright serious, humor is typical of Jared. As shown in a sideshow in Sumpaan street dogs are more than physically engaged than the lovers in the foreground who have become willing voyeurs in the half drawn curtain.

Teleserye, 2013. Oil on Canvas

Another favored piece is Teleserye. This most uneventful activity of watching TV could be the most attractive rendering for us. Teleserye speaks of the kind of life-within-a-life Jared has led these past months, being domesticated while being a faithful chronicler in his neighborhood. Here he documents those long hours his and every household neighbor dedicates in front of the screen, like clockwork simultaneously tuning in front of the boob tube. As Jared has his canvases to fill up to earn their daily bread, he is also slowly being taken away by whatever predictable plot with its manipulative technicolors. He could not escape himself as he is also framed his own tempting sordid existence. 

 Nothing is sacred to Jared not even his irreverent grandmother in her bright colored dress such as in Materyalistik Kong Lola. Unable to stand her unusual tactics and, as the title suggest, materialist ways, she is now immortalized and is now probably owned by a collector who thought money may not be necessary the root of all evil. Interesting how flowers figure in Jared’s background, no matter how overpowering it is to over all layout of his image. 

Having known the artist since his student days in University of Northern Philippines, Jared is a deeply spiritual and even philosophical person who interpreted Biblical scenes in his early works. His sense of perfection is disquieting, a rigorous process similar to a trained athlete. He paints every single day, no ifs and buts, like a biological need to express. 

Most of the interiors in the paintings were culled from memory. Ever the observer, he paints his floors and walls as they became familiar him: here’s the old house in Davao, or the dormitory in Vigan and lately from their own abode in Tarlac. Evoking both meaning and sentimentality, the private spaces form another layer to his rich narrative. One can only imagine the complex interplay of emotions in each of his pieces typifying the migrant contemporary artist who grew up, educated in, and is now based on many non-permanent locations. Making the paintings even more valuable, with more distance covered to which they have point-by-point reminisced and emanated.    

Although he did admire some old masters during his college years, he claims he doesn’t have influences of late. He adds: I just try to open my mind about the art of today but I don’t like going any art exhibitions. Nakakaapekto sa mabuting epekto yung malayo ako sa art scene. Una, mas marami akong nagagawang pyesa dahil sa environment. Pangalawa, malapit ako sa pamilya ko na pinaghuhugutan ko ng inspirasyon. Pangatlo, life in province is very simple and stress less. I want to work on large scale works this time. 

Mabulaklaking Angkan was Jared Yokte’s first solo exhibition held at the Olive Creek Gallery last December 2103.