“Every theory of painting is a metaphysics” – Merleau-Ponty.

Sameness and Difference are central to a perception of all Being as one. Sameness is that quality of a thing to be seen in relation to others, to realize its value as a part of a group. Difference is what makes the same thing be perceived as separate and unique from all the rest. Sameness and Difference reside in one object. They are two but perceived in one being.

In Art, we have a metaphor for Being. In painting, being is the work of art. In this work, Sameness is that which allows for a link to other works in the history of Art, or simply in the individual artistic resume, while Difference is that which allows for a work to be seen as unique in visual space.

This exhibit revolves around these ideas of Sameness and Difference and the parallel inquiries of Art and Metaphysics.

The Use and Misuse of Evil

A painting that attempts to capture the spirit of a sawhorse completely covered with rusted 1 ½ inch nails which stands in front of someone’s house somewhere in Cubao. That sawhorse could not be sat on, no clothes were hung on it, nobody would dare take an interest in taking it home and finally, none would dare question its claim to the space.

The drawing of a deformed half-face, which in the Middle Ages signified an evil nature, complements the piece of wood possessed by nails in protest of the popular interest in painting as just another decorative item. Do not sit on this painting!

Language –Games 1 + 2 and Fields 1+2

A thing relates itself to another in one way, then to the next thing in another way. The two things which stand on the opposite sides cannot be joined in the same way. Yet the three can form a line. In this way, Art jumps between meaning and pictorial possibilities. In scrabble we must make a meaningful word, a real word, but its value is dependent on its ability to join with the other words already placed on the board, the letters it has and the allotted space. We seem to jump in thought from one type of ontology to another quite so easily that makes all thinking somewhat suspect.

Pull Yourself Together + Field 3

Drawing random lines such that by their intersections we begin to perceive planes or forms is one interpretation of Cubistic practice. These lines were drawn at attempted random fashion and should not make sense. But our desire to see something in them, often guided by what is familiar to experience, our perception is made to value some lines over other and make forms out of the chaos. It is as if what we perceive and believe to be Being is simply a result of our efforts to put form into what will always be a part of Chaos. Is Being merely a fleeting possible appearance of Chaos? Is Art its representation?

Expectation

We walk for miles and miles around our houses, yet we never call these exertions of the feet a trip. A trip must have expectations for each is a search or carries a hope that at the end there will be something there. What is that something? What constitutes something? Painting is a trip on the canvas. Paul Klee likened drawing to taking the line out for a walk. But what is it we hope to find at the end of our walks? Do we find Being or just come to have a glimpse of our limited understanding of it? If any case, do we

pursue the familiar or try for something unfamiliar which seems equal to what we already know?

No Exit

No Exit is the title of a play by Jean Paul Sarte in which he interprets living (Being?) as a form of in escapable curse. We may differ in thought regards life, but Being is truly inescapable in the sense that we can never think our way out of it. In relation to artistic practice, we can see how our perception of Being determines our perception of what makes something a thing, what turns a composition of lines, color, shapes, found objects and surfaces treatments into a thing-in-itself, or a sum of parts into a whole.

Standing Room Only + Paint Sound

Each day we are confronted by images of what is often unattainable: a life of no worries, without responsibilities, with no aging or death, and at the end of the day we are left with nothing but a desire which can only be quenched by a greater desire. Thus, we become prey to impossible proposals and so we are deluded into thinking that this life is not ours, that our true life is to be found elsewhere. Here in constant desire, we find no rest.

WORKS

DOCUMENTATIONS