THE THIEF OF SACRED THINGS
curated by Alessia Terzaghi
The Grey Space
331 P.Guevarra street, San Juan, Metro Manila
Saturday, Oct. 7 from 4:00 pm will be the opening of the group exhibition "The thief of sacred things" curated by Alessia Terzaghi at The Grey Space gallery.
Participating in the exhibition are artists: Pablo Bermudez, Jigger Cruz, Auggie Fontanilla, Doktor Karayom, Robert Langenegger, Marlo Montoya, Manuel Ocampo and Jan Sunday.
"Thief of sacred things," is how we could literally translate the latin word “sacrilegus”. Sacrilegious is something offensive or irreverent toward sacred institutions, with this attitude the artists part of this exhibition steal and desecrate iconographies of the Christian religion that for centuries have been at its exclusive service; investigating and reinterpreting its symbolism in an irreverent way.
Images such as Madonna and Child, Blessing Christ, or the crucifixion, which we spot daily, hanging in offices or on billboards along the streets are repurposed according to the styles of the various artists.
Iconographic compositions now part of the collective imagination, are stripped of that sacred, intimidating and submissive character thus highlighting their hypocrisies and contradictions.
Auggie Fontanilla with the prison jumpsuit and tattoos, Pablo Bermudez with the reference to jeepney metal, an image-carrying vehicle, and Robert Langenegger with the basketball hoop seize on elements evocative of working-class neighborhoods where religious iconography is already itself decontextualized and mixed with pop elements, creating a stylistic contrast.
Manuel Ocampo's Madonnas with Child transgresses normal representation, being muddy, libidinal and impure figures; qualities opposite to those attributed to the Virgin Mary, pure white and incorrupt. The artist also wonders what is the point of continuing to paint subjects so widely abused by art over the centuries, going so far as to produce kitsch representations today.
Doktor Karayom with a very personal language tells a story of the loss of faith and thus a consequent destruction of all that had been believed in: images, ornaments, altars and offerings.
Other artists resort to a method of post production, destroying, breaking down and reassembling cult objects or images to elaborate their own critical language.
Jan Sunday, with her works composed of red loincloths and religious tapestries cut, torn and sewn up, offers a provocative and sensual key with a feminist gaze.
Jigger Cruz and Marlo Montoya use post production of pre-existing objects or images, such as ancient altar sculptures or photographs of popes.
