Now this is a show! Boredom must count as the biggest peril to an art blogger—well, it is mine. When art overdose sets in, exhibits start melding into one another. I feel as though I’ve seen them all before.  It becomes difficult to muster excitement from the pieces that stand before you.  So when I come across an exhibit that makes me rush back to my computer, eager to post my photos and my thoughts, I know that the thrill of art has come back.

Poklong Anading:  Miracle Healing and Other Hopeful Things, which opened last night at MO Space, has made for a wonderful break from the spate of group shows of the past two weeks.  The premise of the show is nothing new:  the ordinary and the everyday have been given new life, new purpose, as art objects.  But Poklong, being Poklong, delivers this statement as a marvelous experience.

By using market-bought rags (basahan), metal poles, wires, used cans of paint, and old tires, Poklong has transformed the gallery space into a carnival of colors.  The viewer steps into a landscape strewn with bits of cloth scattered like confetti.  The brightly hued, rounded snips of fabric have been assembled as giant slinkies and multi-colored arcs and spirals popping out from canisters, rubber pots, and plastic bottles.  The mood is festive and exuberant, all the more so because this has been derived from humdrum, decidedly nondescript, materials.  And therein lies its brilliance.

Poklong has documented his search and gathering of materials in a video that will play during the exhibit’s run.

The healing and the hope in Poklong’s title refer to the renewed intent he has imbued onto the discards of others.  To me, they apply to the refreshing douse his exhibit has poured on to perk up this occasionally jaded art observer.

Poklong Anading:  Miracle Healing and Other Hopeful Things runs from 9 July to 7 August 2011 at MO Space, 3^rd Level, MO Design Building, Bonifacio High St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.  Phone (632) 856-2748 loc. 2 or 3, or visit http://www.mo-space.net