Sneak Peek at Ateneo Art Awards 2012

The Ateneo Art Awards Shortlist for 2012

A three-channel video installation documenting seafarers from a small Visayan island, two multi-piece sculptural installations, and a video celebrating the quirkiness of the jeepney: this year’s Ateneo Art Awards went to works firmly rooted on local sensibilities, translated by three talented artists with global perspectives.

There are winners and there are those who are first among equals. The 2012 awards clearly belong to Martha Atienza and her Gilubong Ang Akon Pusod Sa Dagat (My Navel Is Buried In The Sea). Members of the panel of jurors readily admitted that they were unanimous in choosing this as one of the winners. UP Professor Leo Abaya calls it a piece that works just as well in a gallery setting as it does as a community project.

Perhaps the least recognized name among the twelve finalists, Martha, 31, a half-Filipina, half-Dutch artist, commutes between the Netherlands and her family’s hometown of Bantayan Island, off the coast of Cebu. She had previously made it to the Ateneo Art Awards shortlist in 2009 for Man In Suit, shown in Green Papaya Art Projects. This time, she did not just win the jury’s approval, she walked away with three of the five residencies at stake: the Liverpool Hope University grant in the UK, the La Trobe University Visual Arts Center grant in Bendigo, Australia, and the Artesan Gallery grant in Singapore.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the exhibit’s Manila run, at Pablo X, in April 2012. We owe this backgrounder to curator Lisa Chikiamco, from her press release to coincide with the work’s stint at Bacolod’s Orange Gallery:

“Gilubong Ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat (My Navel is Buried in the Sea) is a video installation by artist Martha Atienza which focuses on fishermen and seafarers from Madridejos, Cebu. It explores the relevance of the sea and its relationship and impact on those who use it as a source of livelihood. Through a three-channel video projection, the work proffers varying scenes and perspectives in simultaneity, briskly balancing alternating rhythms in settings and emotions throughout its roughly 30-minute duration. It traverses multiple sites, goes above the sea and beneath it, and navigates far beyond Madridejos into distant waters and diverse terrains. While reflecting the Philippines’ historical and geographical relationship with the ocean, Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat brings the sea into its contemporary reality, as a metaphor of necessity and opportunity, and of both community and isolation.

Gilubong ang Akon Pusod Sa Dagat was originally shown last August 2011 to the community of Madridejos, Cebu. It’s showing in Bacolod marks its first exhibition and screening in the Philippines outside of Madridejos.”

I have known Riel Hilario, 36, the second of the three winners, for as long as I’ve followed Manila’s contemporary art scene. I’ve seen him start off with such promise, falter, then fall, unable to continue with his work. But best of all, I’ve seen him push his way back into relevance, using his talents to propel him to new heights. This award caps an incredible run that saw him chosen for the Alliance Francaise Philippine Artists Residency Program in Paris, set to begin this October, and for an Asian Cultural Council grant in New York from February to August 2013. He has also just been cited as one of the CCP’s Thrteen Artists, recognition given every three years to artists 40 years old and below.

Trained in a family of woodcarvers, Riel has taken the Ilocano traditions he grew up with into the realm of contemporary sculpture. Art Informal organized a special exhibit of Perro Amoroso, It was a paradisical state: a body was allowed to be a body, the two pieces recognized by the awards, after collectors who commissioned the works agreed to a limited run. (See previous post here)

Annie Cabigting, one of Manila’s most in-demand painters, winner of the 2005 Ateneo Art Awards, and a member of this year’s panel of judges, describes Maria Taniguchi’s Untitled (Celestial Motors) as a sculpture made using film as medium. Maria’s video goes over every shiny bit of a newly fabricated jeepney, celebrating every incongruous detail, according it with a reverence that consequently pokes fun at this ridiculous scourge of our streets. (See previous post here)

Maria, 30, this year’s third winner, also won last year for Echo Studies exhibited at the UP Vargas Museum. She works seamlessly across a variety of media. Her pieces, whether paintings, drawings, video, or sculpture, are sophisticated and challenging, all fastidiously put together. She regards art as a process, a practice that needs daily nurturing—and one she obviously more than excels at.

After the initial round of deliberations, Dindin Araneta, another juror, told me that good art will always stand out. The Ateneo Art Awards makes sure that we catch them when they do.

The 2012 Ateneo Art Awards winners are Martha Atienza, Riel Hilario, and Maria Taniguchi.

Also in the 2012 Ateneo Art Awards shortlist: Kawayan de Guia for A Lot of Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing (The Drawing Room), MM Yu for Inventory (Silverlens), Dina Gadia for Regal Discomforts (Blanc Compound), Patricia Eustaquio for Cloud Country (Silverlens), Zean Cabangis for Shade My Eyes So I Can See You (Silverlens), Vermont Coronel for Spirit of A Place (The Drawing Room), Goldie Poblador for The Ghost In The Machine (Liongoren Gallery), Mervy Pueblo for Project: Stone Meditation (The Black Gallery, MCAD Whittier’s Studio Gallery, Minneapolis), Mark Valenzuela for Zugzwang (Art Informal)

The Ateneo Art Awards 2012 exhibit runs from 3 to 13 August 2012 at the Grand Atrium, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City and moves to the Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo De Manila University Campus, in Loyola Heights Quezon City from 22 August to 22 September 2012. For more information, visit http://www.ateneoartgallery.org/art_awards.php