Crossings and crosses: Southeast Asian art at ILOMOCA

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By John Anthony S. Estolloso

Last August 9, Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) opened ‘Connecting Borders’, featuring Southeast Asian art from the collection of Mr. Edwin Valencia. Filling up the second floor of the museum were representative contemporary works of the region’s artists, the whole a collective celebration of distinctive cultural identities projected through artistic interpretations, as well as shared heritage, traditions, and worldviews among countries in Southeast Asia.

Cultural identity, gastronomy, clothing and costumery, literature and lore, intangible heritage, traditions and customs, social issues, and even geography come together in the exhibit. Vibrantly eclectic, the artworks explore a spectrum of themes, from individual introspections of artists to social commentaries and observations: from persona to phenomenon, from the personal to the public, all seen through a contemporary regional lens.

As it is, the exhibit is a veritable smorgasbord of cultural flavors – one senses what is unique and what is common between and among aesthetic sensibilities. Imagery by Indonesian artists Anton Subiyanto, Taufik Ermas, and Imam Santoso, among others, hang alongside Malaysian works by Syahbandi Samat, Tajuddin Ismail, and Alim Juxta. The cosmopolite Singaporean urbanity reduces itself in a contemplative canvas by Denise Jillian Tan. Vietnamese aesthetic ruminations surface in the pastel abstractions of Nguyen Quang Trung and the soft matted oils of Bui Van Hoan’s demure landscapes.

Reflecting the geographic hodgepodge that holds the exhibit together, the portrayal of location weaves through the art. Phan Cam Tuong’s train of personas arrayed in traditional Vietnamese ao dài situates and anchors his work through nuances of Vietnam’s history and culture. SC Shekar’s panoramic shots give an eloquent statement to the quiet power of the camera lens, capturing mountainous and riverine landscapes of Malaysia’s natural reserves. Referencing local narratives, Jakkapong Thapkoa’s jumble of dramatic anthropomorphic figures is a colorful nod to Thai religious and literary traditions.

Representing Filipino art, Ferdinand Cacnio’s ‘Horses’ makes an appearance again, running alongside works by Jason Delgado, Renz Baluyot, Monica Delgado, Bjorn Calleja, Raffy Napay, and Katrina Cuenca, to name a few. Both Enrico Cachero Jr.’s chromatic calesas and Gean Brix Garcia’s bricolage of images coalesce the conventional and the familiar with the modern and the surreal. Babylyn Fajilagutan’s framed assemblages of cloth elevate local (and perhaps, used) textile to abstractions evocative of memory and inspiration.

On the other side of this cultural celebration is the inescapable trace of shared colonial history. Nearly every country of the continental region has experienced some form of colonial occupation or oppression – and it shows in the artwork. Predictably, vestiges of European technique and religious sentiment or American pop nuances persistently surface through the contemporaneity: classic portraiture is everywhere; so are the ubiquitous references to pop culture.

Take Thai art, for instance: for a country never occupied by Western powers, it adheres to Western standards and techniques in art. Sans title and notes, one would have thought them as masterpieces of Western art. Granted, there is still the juxtaposition of local metaphors. Verapong Sritrakulkitjakam’s sprawling visual commentary of social tragedies portrays a mélange of figures dotted with technology alongside traditional Thai symbols. Pat Yingcharoen’s harrowing human bodies in the act of flagellation have the sordidness of a Spanish auto-da-fé. As a local parallel, Filipino artists Frelan Gonzaga and Karina Broce-Gonzaga take on a Boschian perspective and style in their own depiction of a garden of earthly delights: very Filipino yet also perceivably derivative, in a certain sense.

Viewed collectively, aesthetic expression in the exhibit becomes subconsciously an extension of neocolonial influences and neo-imperialist aspirations. Deliberately or unintentionally, Western themes and techniques are perceivably palpable albeit peripheral, and they give a glimpse of unconscious desires set to Western standards. Whether rendered as statements of acquiescence, struggle, or rebellion, the art underlines the continuing search, making, and affirmation of cultural identity among Southeast Asian countries, even while coming to terms with a past rife with foreign domination and a present beset with geopolitical instability and shared issues: where art becomes most individually expressive and sentimental, there it becomes most political.

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As a relevant aside to conclude this article, it is worth noting that the exhibit’s vernissage was graced with the presence of city government officials and ambassadors of countries from the region. Mingling with them were artistes, writers, and the crowd of connoisseurs who frequent the city’s art scene. Within the confines of the museum’s gallery, borders and boundaries turn into shared interstices where ideas and tastes crisscross: the historical becomes cultural, the cultural becomes political.

[The writer is a language and literature teacher in one of the private schools of the city.]