Three Hundred Fifty Four | PANCHO FRANCISCO

As one of the most fervent 3D collagists and painters of his generation, Pancho Francisco once again commits to the aggregate of layers and their possible outcomes. 354 in total—all in all, to achieve fourteen new dioramic objects that are visually stunning in their illusory depth. This commitment to seeking profound ways to conduct three-dimensionality vis-a-vis the flatness of cut-outs, paint, and paper, establishes Francisco as a process-informed artist, closely monitoring and assembling an almost incomprehensible amount of layering with clear resin to fulfill each object.

In this exhibition, the stockpiling of layers transform the cut-outs and collages into seemingly glass-encased objects. Once they have achieved volume, the viewer’s perception is reeled in towards their three-dimensionality, administered by the different planes and surfaces combined where each cut-out is placed. Francisco likened this experience with the viewing of aquariums and terrariums, to which when he was a young boy he would stare with amazement. According to him, it was like “looking at an entirely different world,” where the familiar objects and organisms suddenly become part of something else–a world removed from ours, when situated in a ‘small confined space.’

He is a creator of ‘space’ in his own right. And in these confined and secluded spaces he builds small worlds where one can get lost in. His enduring theme has proven to become flora and nature. He has lifted them from a variety of used books and prints, giving new life and new context to the soon to be discarded. In a way, his new resin-encased worlds become a resuscitation, and these once-dead pictures become a living museum in full view once again–like preserved and terraformed gardens.

The series of works that depict plants demonstrate a botanist’s propensity for experimentation. The re-arrangement and fusion of plant species, which are hand-cut from different sources, exemplifies the collagist turned botanist. These new ‘arrangements’ are then anchored into a ‘dragon stone’ where everything is pulled together. For Francisco, these new sets of hand-cut flora signifies the inner workings of terrariums—enclosed within its own ecosystem, where the point is to exist again or to survive.

This process of layering has also brought Francisco into making clouds. Same as with his collages, he became interested in how  the combination of layers can bring about a three-dimensional form. In some of the pieces, he combined them with grains of aquarium sand. While the diptych “Oh Adam” is a throwback to his previous shows where he placed images of characters from old paintings. In the same way,  these images and prints are re-contextualized when the page achieves three-dimensionality; and becomes a point of reference to his previous processes and the different ways one can view his work.

Pancho Francisco, in terms of layering collages, has become a class of his own. Amidst the world of two-dimensional paintings, he is one who has remained steadfast in honing a craft that is deemed meticulous and exacting. Three-dimensionality is a construct—as one philosopher or physicist might say. And Francisco has made the material correlative to this notion for all of us to examine. These encased resin boxes, these worlds, these small, confined spaces, carefully layered together, for an artist such as Francisco have become the epitome of his own way of looking at reality: layer over layer, an event after another, and all the unexpected moments before they crystallize—they have become the parts we are forced to live by, and to ultimately, add the next.

/CLJ