นิทรรศการศิลปะ "Manila Heartaches and Hangovers"

Submitted by mod on Sat, 2019-06-29 10:14

นิทรรศการศิลปะ "Manila Heartaches and Hangovers" ผลงานโดยศิลปินชาวฟิลิปปินส์ Crist Espiritu จัดแสดงระหว่างวันที่ 6 - 27 กรกฎาคม 2562 และจะมีพิธีเปิดในวันที่ 6 กรกฎาคม 2562 เวลา 19.00 น. ณ มิตรไนซ์ แกลเลอรี่ : MIDNICE Gallery

Manila Heartaches and Hangovers
Street Art Exhibition by Crist Espiritu

Crist Espiritu prowls, skims and marks the streets of Manila with art, his presence creating indelible impressions on walls, wallbound works and even human skin. Drawing from and, in turn, visually chronicling the travails of congested city life in Manila Heartaches and Hangovers has led him to the creation of both love letter and breakup song for a beloved locality’s streetlamps, dark corners, surprise pleasures and endured pain. Aside from his oil on canvas paintings, the artist presents drawings on paper, in color and in stark monochromes.

MIDNICE Gallery, located at 1fl. Diamond Apartment, Chokchai 4 soi 18, Ladprao, Bangkok, presents Manila Heartaches and Hangovers on the 6th of July, Saturday, at seven o’clock in the evening. Show runs until the 27th. For more details, please contact the gallery at 086 282 0282, midnicegallery@gmail.com and www.midnicegallery.com.

Gashes, Grins and Gnashes
As it takes some deep love to pen a letter or write a song, it must be deeper to find one's self portraying phases and phantasms with a paintbrush. In Crist Espiritu's Manila Heartaches and Hangovers, any emotion may be used to label the intensity of the energy the artist applies on canvas and on paper, except, perhaps, apathy. Each artwork is a subtle ode to everything the city makes one feel-- derision, regret, repulsion, passion, hope, belonging. Phantom bodies are fleshy yet faceless, whether posing seductively, lying prone on the floor or passing through portals drilled on walls. Objects of desire abound, proud birds and dainty flowers and three-eyed cats stare placidly with wisdom they keep to themselves. Orphan mouths frolic and froth, grind teeth and grimace, seemingly bottling pent up emotions further before letting them abandonedly, carelessly, finally boil over.

Espiritu's triangular canvases stay grounded on earth as they reach for the sky, with bold titles that tell their own stories. Manila Heartbreak is paired with Manila Hangover, while Running with the strays fits perfectly beside Laying with street spirits. One can vividly imagine the tales behind the pieces, the desire and despair, the drunken stupor on side streets. Golden moons and streaks appear every so often, gilding pinup-shaded memories and fantastic dream scenes one cannot possibly hold onto, or might even prefer to forget.

Mascots are seen, but they are firmly planted on the ground as they haplessly, helplessly wriggle their feet up in the air. Planets appear within reach, yet hide behind thin covers, still detached from touch. Spirits, true to Espiritu's name, seem to perform their own dance as the artist coaxes them out of thin air, out of flaming pipes, out of a familiar blue bottle of liquid sin, creating swathes of ephemera or mushroom clouds.

In his Manila Savages series of black and white drawings, he uses the same figures for his maudlin stage, and sends not so cryptic messages in between. Texts are brazenly hand printed on pristine sheets with intentional dabs, drops, and clouds, to be taken at face value or given meaning as read by the viewer. In Manila Heartaches and Hangovers, Crist Espiritu seems to utilize art not just as part of the cathartic process, but as a powerful weapon that exorcises pain from visible wounds and heals gashes and bruises, knowing that somehow it will resonate beyond street corners and even national borders. After all, we all have hearts that ache every once in a while, and once the hangover wears off, we find ourselves right back where we were, broken but still whole and with all our parts intact.

Kaye O'Yek
June 2019