JEF CABLOG: CONFLUENCE
5TH Solo Exhibition
Alliance Francaise de Manille
March 07 to April 20, 2018
Opening March 07, 6:30pm
Text by: Ricky Francisco
In 2015, Baguio-based artist Jef Cablog
was awarded an artist’s residency in Ile de groix, Brittany, France through the
assistance of Alliance Francaise de Manille and the NCCA. Like all epic journeys, the artist returns to
Alliance Francaise de Manille transformed, and with a powerful message for us: to be aware of our impact on the environment,
and be conscious of how modernization is changing culture.
An accomplished artist, Cablog has
exhibited in France, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and
Korea, aside from various cities within the Philippines, since being a finalist
in art competitions like Metrobank Art and Design Excellence in 2010. Born in Barlig, Mountain Province, he has
always been aware of how unique his culture is, coming from the Cordillera
region, which successfully resisted over three hundred years of Spanish
colonization that most other parts of the country have not been able to. Living in a mountainous environment engenders
a respect for nature, as resources like water, fertile topsoil, and animals for
hunting, are greatly affected by human activity; as not doing so usually means
scarcity or hunger. Unhampered by
colonial requirements, their culture has evolved to meet this balance over
millennia in their own terms, and in a healthy relationship with nature. This predisposed our artist to be sensitive
to the needs of both his community, and of nature at large.
The relative isolation of the Cordillera
region, and the balance its peoples have achieved, have all been put to the
test when Baguio, and neighboring areas became rapidly urbanized. Along with
unplanned progress came an uncontrolled increase of population. The cool climate made it a favorite
destination for Filipinos and foreigners alike over the decades, since it has
been converted into an American hill station.
With the influx of people came an imbalance which resulted in the
depletion of forests and the increase of trash, as well as a crisis in culture.
Cablog says that biking around the city, specially at touristy areas, he would
notice lots of discarded plastic bottles which affected him. The connection that locals have with the land
is probably not shared by those who visit.
This prompted him to continue painting images from his culture, which
has been his trademark, as well as start something new; to experiment with
plastics, which not only affects Baguio and its residents, but end up
inevitably in landfills, and in our seas.
To do so, he collects the bottle caps of plastic bottles and augments
them with buttons, accessories, and other materials taken from discards and in
the “wag-wag” or “ukay-ukay” which has been associated so tightly with
Baguio. Plastic wrappers of the food he
and his wife ate in trips abroad over the past two years also found their way
in the works, blending in the memories of personal experiences, as well as the
global nature of the problem of plastics. To this end, he has been able to make
his “Raft Series” which play on the layered ideas that plastics float, that we
need to hold on to rafts for our survival in a climate changed world, but
likewise to zoom in on the fact that they pollute the oceans. His “Fin series”
focuses on how animals of the seas end up swallowing plastics, either killing
them, or causing problems for us when we eat fish with microplastics in
them. By melting plastics, manipulating
them, and exhibiting works made from them, Cablog puts these issues to our
attention. Complementing these mixed
media works are heavily impastoed paintings of images which relate to his
culture. The “Howl series” seem to be
warnings for a culture at risk of being lost, or of a culture asking us to look
into the root causes of the problems of our overconsumption, which have not
been a problem before, but which has become the main determinant of our
survival as a species. Seventeen works
from these series comprise “CONFLUENCE”, Jef Cablog’s 5th solo
exhibition and homecoming to Alliance Francaise de Manille. As the title seems to imply, we are at a
confluence of several matters which need our full participation and undivided
attention. We are again in a situation
where the future is in our hands.
CONFLUENCE runs from March 7 to April
20, 2018 at the Alliance Francaise de Manille.
For inquiries, please call 02-895-7585, e-mail: info@alliance.ph or visit www.alliance.ph.
