Cover Photo: Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center

The Vargas Museum's new exhibit opens the door to questions on displacement, belongingness, and the status quo

There's a certain abstraction that comes with the new exhibit at UP Diliman, one that can be hard to grasp, at least at first.

At the entrance, guests are greeted by a litter of sculptural sea urchins both antagonistic and plentiful. They are black, sharp, and obviously out of place. Bree Johnson, an artist known for incorporating ferocity into her work, has created these as a disorienting centrepiece to "Displace, Embody", a new exhibit now being hosted at the Vargas Museum. 

Walking through the spacious rooms of the museum itself, one will notice that its current artworks are rebellious and challenging of perspectives. They evoke a feeling of disorientation, one that is akin to the feeling of staring at an Escher for a minute too long. There's an uncertainty about how to understand the subject at hand, leading one to wonder: why has it been placed this way and what comment does it make about society today? 

The two keywords presented are, obviously enough, "Displace" and "Embody". But to shorten it further, Vargas Musuem has put it in a context of prefixes: "Trans", which speaks of time and space, and "dis-" which is the "inflected resistance" to the forces of a supposed society. In other words, it is the displacement of an object and how such—whether human, animal or mere thing—relates or rebels to its new surrounding. Some pieces speak on "transborder sex work", others in mutated animals, and one on mutilated fruits. 

 

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Above Photo: Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center

Patipat Chaiwitesh's Surgery Project features bananas that have been assaulted by corkscrews, nails, springs, and metal. It's a thought-provoking piece, one that carries a striking contrast (the sweet, soft fleshiness of a banana and cold hard metal) that it cannot be ignored. 

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Above Photo: Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center

Garbanzos' set of collages entitled Idle Portraits is another eye-catcher. At first glance, it seems funny, but its sardonic nature has both political and religious leanings. Gian Delgado, Museum Assistant at the Vargas Museum, says that making these collages became a coping mechanism for the artist amid troubling times. And in fact, there's a distinct kind of lightheartedness in each of the collages, one that I could argue, is a distinct attribute of Filipino humour. In some collages, the artist had interlaid photos of himself along with stock images of animals—baby chicks, fishes, birds. There's also spoofs of various Internet memes, some of which are funny, others which have more serious societal commentary.

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Above Photo: Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center

Interactive pieces are also front and centre at the exhibit. Eisa Jocson's SuperWoman KTV Room is an installation that, surprisingly, features a popular Mandarin song reworked in Tagalog. The Moon Represents My Heart, one of Teresa Teng's classics, had been reinvented to show women dancing along a busy street in Manila. It's a confusing twist to a song I'd grown up with, especially as the original Mandarin lyrics can still be seen underneath the newly reworked Tagalog ones. 

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Above Photo: Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center

On the second floor comes works from Thailand's Aura Contemporary Art Foundation. One installation features a collage that testifies to the life of displaced Thai sex workers. Aside from a collage, there's also a video installation of a man dancing, with his mind on other things. Despite its bright colours, it's a sobering depiction of modern reality. The collage, which stands right outside the video room, shows portraits of tattooed men in their underwear alongside advertisements for "Hot & Wild Shows". Inside, a masked dancer wonders about his mother as he dances in slow motion. 

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Many more distinct artworks decorate the halls of the Vargas Museum, all of them rebellious or questioning ways in their own ways. From this, I've learned that the wide spectrum of questioning extends not just to the status quo, but also to the art and the avant-garde. The relationship between life or object to its surroundings is paramount to understanding what belongingness is—and what the consequences are when belongingness cannot be achieved. 


To make an appointment, please e-mail vargasmuseum@up.edu.ph at least TWO (2) DAYS before the desired schedule of visit.