ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

The enigmatic figures that dominate Jared Yokte’s “All Along the Watchtower” are harbingers of the ambivalence of time. Shadowy forms appear to have grappled in a situation where they are pitted against their existence’s precarity as they move around in confusion. The portrayed conundrums in these narratives are now all too familiar as we live in an era filled with unpredictability. Here, a life-size sculpture of a human form carries a mass of clouds on its back in what might be a bristly adaptation of the myth of Sisyphus. The question exists not for the futility of the task but rather in the clouds’ unknown weight. In a time when we are forced to live with the threat of the pandemic, the heaviness of this undertaking is uncharted.

Yokte perfectly describes this time as being stuck in a quicksand— it would not sink you into the bottom, but it would not be easy to pull yourself up once you are in it. A terrifying feeling crawls over the viewer when we are confronted with images that portray our qualms and anxiety. The works in this exhibition draw from the artist’s perspective of the spirit of the times. A zeitgeist of our generation that, perhaps, will define our actions in the future.

The terrifying sense of danger and peril looms over chaotic scenes in works like “A Parable of Some Sort” and “The Sledge Hammer”. Yokte depicts this fear in the mise-en-scène. The dazzled look in every subject’s face represents our inner feelings filled with anxiety and survival instincts. In “Aswang,” another figure wrestles with a mirror image of himself. The bleakest of times can leave us to second-guess ourselves, our old secured persona transformed as vessels of predicament.

In working for this exhibition, the artist started to process his thoughts inside a treehouse that he had initially built for his daughter. When the world turned into a halt and mobilization had been restricted, he found himself using the structure instead, as he watched over the situation in his immediate environment. “All Along the Watchtower” is the culmination of this period of circumstances, which inspect and respond to the pandemic.

Yokte’s body of work is centered among creatures that are neither human nor animal. Their bodies are marked with lines that mimic the markings printmakers make in Lino blocks and plates. He begins his works by creating multiple studies of the intriguing form then transfers them into the canvas. His paintings and sculptures often chronicle our entrenched reality through the ambiguity of creatures that imitate earthling movements and yet, carry faces that emit human emotions in a disturbing but forthright manner.

Jared Yokte received his BFA from the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. His works were presented in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums. He is the recipient of the Luzon Juror’s Choice at the Philippine Art Awards.