“eighty-one”

In this era, we basically are witnessing the overlapping of three generations of humans. The Boomers – children of the postwar world. Then we have Millennials – those who straddle the analog and digital. After these we have a generation that is basically a product of the two – enjoying the technological advances that were only best viewed in a boomer’s imagination, and the peacetime culture that Millennials beta-tested, producing the final product now easily bought in stores. Three lines form the letter of today’s dominant generation: Gen Z.best human hair wigs shopnfl nfl jersey for sale custom jerseys custom nba jerseys custom design lace front wig nike air max 270 womens cheap lace front wigs jordan shoes online nike air max 90 womens adidas factory outlet adidas yeezys nike air maxes 95 custom bowling jerseys

The number three figures significantly in various cultures the world over, throughout many ancient civilizations, and continues to influence our daily lives. A 5,000 year old triskelion can be found in Ireland. That triple-spiral symbol predates the symbol of the same name, depicting three legs, which became prominent in classical Greek and Roman art. The three-legged crow figures largely in Asian mythology and culture, going back as 5,000 BCE. Commonly seen in royal garments of China, corporate logos in South Korea, it is also popularly seen in the Japan National Football team’s official crest. To those in the Catholic sphere, this holds the most relevance in the Holy Trinity: three distinct and separate beings but all one God. In Japanese, written as three horizontal lines, it has been interpreted as a lucky number holding either “past, present, and future,” or “body, mind, and spirit.” In New Age discussions, it is considered the number of harmony,  and a so-called “angel number” is usually a digit repeated thrice, i.e. 333, 888, 999, etc.

Hence using the number three as a prompt, visual artists Jep Dizon, Ayka Go, Koki Lxx, Sid Natividad, and Rhaz Oriente pursued several paths to question, analyze, and understand it, and find a translation through their body of work. Expanding beyond the confines of his studio, Jep Dizon explores the mediums that he has worked with: painting and sculpture, then infuses an organic aspect. Utilizing trips through the outdoors, he interrogates his views of his work and of an enlightened place through nature. With much of her recent work exploring the notion of trompe l’oeil vis-a-vis personal histories, Ayka Go experiments on a third layer to her work by adding greater physical volume in order to subsume visual assumptions, where transitions from flat to sculptural are reversed. Touching on collaborative practice, Koki Lxx presents a “site-specific” work, recovering exhibition text from a past Blanc gallery exhibition, and transitioning the common exhibition component into an art object in itself. In a second piece he employs light as a “third wheel” in viewing the work. Studying the boundaries of image-making and art, Sid Natividad appropriates the concept of a stereoscope, the 1800s Victorian England device that people used to go on “virtual trips.” As his subjects usually involve experiences from his own travels, he provides this opportunity for the gallery viewer to join him on one. The idea of the third dimension remains a contentious aspect of art, and adding fuel to the fire, Rhaz Oriente’s space bending installations push limits even further by appropriating existing spaces. She subsumes a quiet corner in the gallery with the use of mirrors and glass to expound on what a cube is and how it influences color.

With some taking an approach different from their usual techniques or processes, this endeavour clearly adds a new or “third” layer to the artists’ dimensions. Applying information, techniques, and materials that came into existence from and throughout several generations, the exhibition “three x three x three x three” proposes possibilities and options beyond what we are initially willing to encounter.

– Koki Lxx