(GR 12)

Schools Division of Parañaque City

CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE ARTS FROM THE REGIONS
Second Quarter
Week 10
Materials in Contemporary Arts

Learning Competencies (Essential Competencies)

Discusses local materials used in creating art (CAR11/12TPP-0c -e-11)

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

1. research on techniques and performance practices applied to contemporary arts;

2. identify local materials used in creating art
3. critique available materials and appropriate techniques .
4. justify the use of materials and appropriate techniques.

Lesson 1. Materials in Contemporary Arts

Mediums or materials are not just tangible objects which artists use to make
art; they are also bearers of ideas and knowledge from people and places that can be
translated in ways that are meaningful and understandable to audiences encountering the
work.

In this lesson, examples will be drawn from performance art, a category from the visual arts,
which, like the performing arts of music, dance, literature and theater, also integrates various
mediums in a way that stresses location, space, and process. Performance art may also
involve only one artist or a full production very similar to theater and may include one or
more sites.

Learn About It!

Often, artists will most likely use materials available to them; this means that the
resources their locality have is important for their art. The “local” can refer to material that is
easily available, like bamboo. The local can also refer to wherever the artist finds himself or
herself.

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 For Diokno Pasilan, a neo-ethnic musician-visual/performance artist and one-time art
director from Negros the “local” involves various places: Baguio, Bicol, Palawan (where he
resided for a long period), and most recently Victoria, Western Australia, where he resettled.
This process entails interacting and immersing with host communities.

FIG. 1.1 Going Fishing by Diokno Pasilan

For example, in a performance for the Third Bagasbas Beach International

Environmental Art Festival in the Bicol region, Pasilan communicates the need to be more
aware of our natural environment by painting his body green, the color of the environmental
movement. Like a bungee jumping human anchor, he thrust himself toward gongs tied
together unto a bamboo structure - bamboo being material that is still easily available around
Bagasbas’s fisherfolk communities. These communities provided information and support for
Pasilan and other participating artists to create their performance and site-specific work on the
Bagasbas public beachfront. Another work which used bamboo as basic material is Digital
Tagalog, a collaboration between Lani Maestro and Poklong Anading, artists who are
known for creating multi-sensory environments that come out of their research about the
contexts of spaces and communities. Shown in Mo Gallery in 2012, Digital Tagalog used
bamboo to construct physical nodes and create sounds. They also used found and crafted
sounds, some of which were inspired and sourced out of the digitized audio files of National
Artist for Music Jose Maceda (housed in the UP College of Music Center for
Ethnomusicology). This collaborative and combined use of the visual and musical made the
work particularly interactive. The artists encouraged viewers to be active creators themselves.
Within a small room, visitors could make up playlists which not only could be streamed through
personal listening devices, but also could be amplified within the larger gallery space. This
larger site was where bamboo-made music they themselves produced could overlay the
digitized sound selected by the impromptu musician-deejays working with sound in the smaller
room.

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 Fig. 1.2 Locsin’s Moriones for Ballet
Philippines

Still other artists create work by reinventing

not just tangible objects like bamboo, but
other art forms sourced from the performing
arts of ritual, music and dance. Davao-based
choreographer Agnes Locsin used the
techniques of modern dance to reinterpret a
component of the Moriones Holy Week festival of Marinduque. The Moriones narrates the
story of Roman centurion Longino’s conversion to Christianity upon the healing of his
blindness by the dying Jesus whom the soldier had been ordered to guard. Performed in
France (as Ballet Philippines’ entry to the Recontres Festival Du Danse) by male dancers
moving to “Serra Pelada” of the avant-garde composer Philip Glass, the dance reinterprets
the story through costumes (centurions are shown without full masks, hefty breastplates, nor
swords or spears) and movements not associated with classical ballet and folk dances. Bodies
of the dancers are sharply angled, with unpointed toes, contorted anatomical positions, and
staccato military gestures to dramatize the soldiers’ search for the centurion turned fugitive.
The dancers’ bodies are made to leap and address each other in flawless precision as a unit
at one moment and break up into individual cadence at another. With minimalist lighting and
stage design, the dance combines the familiar and unfamiliar: audiences are still able to
recognize the story, such as the chase scene, but at the same time, they are also viewing the
story through another lens and from another perspective.

Artists’ initiatives such as Project Space and DiscLab also present us alternative
support systems that provide the environment for facilitating production and the circulation or
distribution of art. Rather than becoming fully dependent on the state and private businesses,
these initiatives are largely independent. They band together and reach out to communities
from which they draw their knowledge, ideas and materials. The stereotype of the artist
working alone in his studio is no longer applicable in such collaborations. Artists are reaching
out to their audiences, who have become—especially in interactive works—very much a part
of the creative process.

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 We have also seen how artists are able to collaborate by benefiting from technology,
which has become not only a tool for research, but also as platform for disseminating their art
and building and sustaining networks with their communities and beyond—from face-to-face
encounters on to virtual networks and spaces. We also note that in the aforementioned
performances, the shift from one space to another figures in the way art may be received.
Note the transformation, from the communal and private spaces of Boac, Marinduque to the
proscenium stage in France and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. We see this too in how
encountering art shifts from personal listening device to a shared platform in the case of Digital
Tagalog, and from the streets of the Lucban to cyberspace in the case of Pahiyas-timed
Lucban Assembly/Systems of Irrigation project. Such relocations lead us to ask questions
about the experience of witnessing the dance and the installations.

This fusion is evident in another example, where the “local” can also refer to language,
staging and techniques, and the ways by which they can be used in adapting and translating
foreign material. The playwright Rody Vera adapted from a play for children by the Indian
writer Rabindranath Tagore entitled The Post Office by retitling it Ang Post Office. First
staged at the PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) Center, this adaptation of a
tragic 1910 tale of a dying Indian boy coming to know of the world through the people he
encounters in the course of a day was restaged at TXS, Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro.
Finding parallels in Philippine contemporary society, the local staging made references to local
culture: characters playing taho (a semi-liquid soya variant) and sampaguita vendors. Music
from the Kilyawan Children’s Choir rendering a fusion of Bengali and indigenous Filipino sound
pegs, Ellen Ramos’s digital animation, and a spartan bamboo set, among others, were also
introduced as new elements in this production.

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 Fig. 1.3. Promotional material for PETA’s production of Rabindaranath Tagore’s 
Post Office,
adaptation by Rody Vera


In other adaptations and reinventions, local materials could also refer to folk stories.
Take the case of the staging of Fugtong: The Black Dog by the community theatre group,
Aanak di Kabiligan (Children of the Mountains) which was organized through the efforts of the
Cordillera Green Network. The production revolves around a folk story about a family
ostracized for keeping a black dog commonly perceived as bringing bad omens. On one level,
we can interpret the narrative as being all about how the different is seen as dangerous or
threatening. On another level, while the story was introduced by a brief English annotation of
the plot, the narrative itself unfolded in multiple languages as the performers from Ifugao, Mt.
Province, Kalinga, and Benguet spoke in Kalinga, Kankaney, Ilocano, and Ibaloi. It was a
deliberate means to keep the atmospheric feel of the story taking place in the Cordilleras.
Fugtong was directed by theater artist, Rey Angelo Aurelio who is also behind another
community theatre production featuring Smokey Mountain-based youths rapping, dancing,
and acting in Bakata: Battle of the Street Poets, which was also staged at the Tiu Theater
in May 2015. The young people Aurelio works with come from informal settler communities
struggling to deal with problems such as unsustained education opportunities, unemployed or
underemployed parents, and lack of secure housing, among others. Working with these youths
is one way by which artists may creatively respond to these conditions through immersion and
sharing their know-how about performance, movement, projection, etc. Teaching these
children how to express themselves may not bring big solutions to their complex problems,
but at the very least, they could build a stronger sense of identity as they learn to process and
express their emotions and thoughts.

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 Let us not forget that what we have been discussing so far are works performed live
before a group of people. In that case, the experience of encountering artists’ bodies physically
moving through a space shared by audiences brings an altogether different dimension to the
reception of the work. The experience of light, sound, motion would not only be felt up close
but would be subject to much more immediate feedback like applause, silence, transfixed
gazes, perked up ears, and so on.

Fig. 1.4 Limen by Lani Maestro (2014)

To further play up how the bodily senses figure in how we receive and make sense of
art, we take another work, this time something Lani Maestro produced as a commissioned
project called Limen (2014) in France. Here, she carefully considered where the work was to
be placed, how people might relate with it, and what sort of past or backstory the site had. The
space is known as the Bata compound and was primarily an industrial site. Much like in most
mechanized factories, workers performed rigidly defined and repetitive, mind-numbing tasks.
In response to the above considerations, Maestro decided to build a see-through bridge that
poetically took people out to a liminal point, as the title suggests—the verge or edge of a
garden. Limen marked off a place the artist construed as “anti- thesis to industrial space,”
something that alluded to a “landscape of everyday life” as the artist writes in her Artist Notes
for her 2014 public commission in Bataville, France. Limen was also meant to metaphorically
allow the visitor’s body to fuse or extend toward the outlying green space visible through the
tunnel structure that did not have walls nor clear beginning or end points. The bridge was also
suspended from a low height so that whoever came might sit on it and not be fearful of falling
off.

Given this potential of a bodily experience, and even if unaware of the backstory of the
bridge to a garden providing a rest place for workers, beholders of the work then could still
take away a physical memory. With many installations such as this, the viewer-beholder’s
decision to engage is precisely what enables art to take on more layers of meaning, and thus
makes him/her a participant in making the art experience richer and performative.

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 Check Your Understanding
Recall

The ______ can refer to material that is easily available. 


The combination of ________ events like the fiesta and web platforms illustrate how the

local and traditional can converge to generate ________ and forms of expressing and

communicating, in local, global and cyber spheres. 


Application

3. Why is Ang Post Office considered a contemporary artwork? 


4. What was the message Pasilan tried to communicate in his performance in the Third

Bagasbas Beach International Environmental Art Festival in the Bicol region? 


Synthesis
5. In adapting foreign materials, why is it important to color it with local elements?

Let’s Try (Evaluation)

DIRECTIONS: Read each question and choose the letter of your answer. Write your answer
on your answer sheet.

1. Which Davao-based choreographer used the techniques of modern dance?

A. Agnes Locsin C. Juan Lucas
B. Mideo Cruz D. Teddy Locsin
2. Which two artists collaborated on Digital Tagalog?
A. Lani Maestro C. Angel Ariba
B. Poklong Anading D. Jose Maceda
3. What is the title of Rody Vera’s adaptation of the Post Office?
A. Ang Post Office C. Ang Bigayan
B. Ang Sulatan D. Isang Munting Poste
4. Which of the following characteristics describe Diokno Pasilan’s work as contemporary?
A. Site-specific C. Odd
B. Interactive D. Long in duration
5. How did Maestro respond to the rigidity, repetitive and highly mind-numbing tasks in most
mechanized factories?
A. Maestro decided to build a see-through bridge that poetically took people out to a
liminal point
B. Maestro decided to paint an abstraction of the mechanized factories in the manner
of the contemporary

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 C. Maestro sculpted what these factories look like using local materials
D. Maestro made a 3D artwork portaying the hardships and pain on the factory’s
workers’ faces

6. Why is “Ang Post Office” considered art work?

A. It has parallels in Philippine contemporary society, the local staging made
references to local culture.
B. It required people to interact with it.
C. It is site-specific
D. It is a play written in contemporary and local times.
7. In adapting foreign material, which elements can “local” refer to?
A. Language
B. Staging
C. Race of character
D. Origin of material
8. Why is the resources their locality have important to the artists?
A. As these are the materials readily available to them.
B. As it is expensive to shop for other products
C. As it is less expensive for the artist
D. As the audience will appreciate it better
9. What was the message Pasilan tried to communicate in his performance in the Third
Bagasbas Beach International Environmental Art Festival in the Bicol region?
A. The need to be more aware of our natural environment
B. The need to fish responsibly
C. The need to ban straws and plastics
D. The need for responsible tourism
10. How did Maestro and Anading make Digital Tagalog interactive?
A. By encouraging the viewers to be active creators themselves
B. By giving them the chance to create a playlist in a small room
C. By letting them touch the artworks
D. By giving them audio tour guides

Source: Quipper

Enrichment Activity

Let’s Create

You are almost done in your lesson for this week. You are doing good so far. For your
culminating task, you are going to write a feature essay.

Goal To write a feature essay about traditional style of art but portrays the
techniques and practices and unique materials used in contemporary
arts

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 Role You are a famous artist in your region, you will design an art that
draws on the tradition and intricacy of drafting techniques and
practices and unique materials but depicts to witness your culture and
its traditions in the context of today’s changing times.

Audience Classmates and the learner’s family members/ The people in your
region who will be the eyewitness to your art presentation that will
represent the international art competition.

Situation You will present your art and craft that has traditional style with
techniques and practices and unique materials to illustrate the
appreciation of contemporary art.

Product/ A feature essay

Performance

Standards Your feature essay will be checked using the rubrics below.

Feature Essay
Excellent Good Decent Score
Standard
(5) (3) (1)
All 5 information are 3 out of 5 information 1 out of 5 information
Content detailed, accurate and are detailed, accurate are detailed, accurate
relevant and relevant and relevant.
The content uses 5 The content uses 3
The content uses1 data,
data, tenets and/or data, tenets and/or texts
Organization tenet and/or texts
texts cohesively and cohesively and easy to
cohesively
easy to understand understand
Total