JAY BAUTISTA
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| Sprout 1 |
Campos softens his stance from the surly and macabre fables
of his last offing. Tired of the norm and often considered archaic elements of
painting, besides it being too toxic and long to dry, Campos impatiently prefers
crafting these simple building supplies with basic thought processes expected
similar to a pragmatic carpenter. As the urgency of his volatile message, his
experiments transcend more than the ordinariness of the household functions of
their concrete and chemical nature.
Priming his canvases with white wall paint for extra texture,
he initially counters them with all-weather industrial paints for his preferred
thinly applied hues. He then would mix acrylic paints with alcohol to melt the
pigments then pour a hint of muriatic acid, which is the hardest to handle as
it initially boils and eventually balloons in form. This process dampens the
luminescence of colors, as he follows through by combining cement neutralizer with
glue and water to slightly conceal the result.
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| Erosion |
He then exposes the worked on surface to the natural heat of
the sun. Depending on his desired intensity, it is in the cement cracks that
organically dictate his pieces. Espousing a sort of rusting or decomposing
appearance, he often repeats the process until he gets his achieved crackling. Through
these intended cracks his previous colors would hint and provide accents by
peering through them. He traces some parts using graphite pencil and highlights
his paints by retouching through various brushstrokes.
Deferring on the intent of his materials, on what about
the degradation of our surroundings he feels strongly about, the instructions
would vary from here. Physicality impacts content--a kind of do-it-yourself
memento in saving Mother Earth--will soon emerge. He would add other media like
doormats, artificial grass and other suggesting green symbolism; spikes to
connote hindrances to progress like dire poverty or greediness of people; or the
crisscrossing of ropes as political stance against land grabbing; or plastic price
tags resembling as budding grass to impart small victories and new beginnings;
or dried leaves as petals portraying lushness and optimism. The strength of
Campos is his being a handyman’s familiarity with domesticated materials.
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| Sprout 6 |
Employing persistence to his germinal idea, Campos finishes
off with gesso, wood stains, latex, or elastomeric paints leaving up to which color
compliments his compositions. Finalizing their three-dimensionality with
emulsion to illuminate and protect the renewed painting.
Materiality dictates whatever behavior an artist preoccupies
with or whatever representations he expresses his sentiments. Although his
method remains complex, Campos seems unbound of the complexity of his artistic
production. Paying attention to how it works, it is time or situation-based, as
he reflects his familiarity to his preferred media by painstakingly juxtaposing
his skills in breathing life through them. He re-frames the meaning of his
objects to a higher aesthetic experience. However more than the personal or spectacular
that is prevalent to the artworks in the current art scene,
Campos veers towards the sublime though saving the environment could be an easy theme tantamount to his task. As more artists respond to the immediate commercial demands of the art market, even fulfilling them to the hilt, Campos pursues his noble narratives by alerting and concerning us all. Being a father to his son, he has a responsibility and has devoted his body of work to this lofty cause.
It was during his college days at the Technological University
of the Philippines that the young Campos honed his resourcefulness in art--the
make-do attitude were taught and inculcated in them by professors who were also
struggling artists themselves. Knowing how to contextualize time, a sense of rhythm
permeates his canvases. Campos eschews a moment of reflection or a call to
action defying the grim and determined manner of forceful protest in reforming climate
change or global warming that he advocates. He instead contributes to the imagining
of reality with a discerning visual language on a higher realm; conducting
fresh logic of thinking in approaching artistic production beyond political
dialectics and artistic research.
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| Sprout 3 |
He is constantly been challenged by the insistence of
dialogues and the persistence of change by injecting multiple layers of
identity and meaning. Enveloping an artistic encounter marked by these
experiments and explorations, more innovated pieces concur and through each
piece churned out, a more pedigreed practice by Campos transpires.
Doing art may not be the most decisive way of protecting and
conserving our fragile earth. The indirect approach may even be inconvenient in
viewing his art yet it is in this inconvenience that Campos has been revealing
the truth in every well-effected story.
Sibol is ongoing at the West Gallery until October 21, 2017.
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