Contexts of Art

Having multiple, varied

contexts
Context
▪ settings, conditions,  set of background
circumstances, info
occurrences affecting
production and
reception or audience
response to an
artwork

2
Bulul
▪ indigenous pre-
colonial ritual object &
motif in he everyday
life of the Cordilleran
region

3
 Bulul
▪ ‘mumbaki’ – drench it in pig’s
blood
▪ has elements of sculpture
but not regarded as such by
its makers and people in the
Cordillera region

4
Bulul collection
at Hiwang Village,
Banaue Ifugao 5
 Though ancient in origin, it continues
to be contemporary, to be valued &
made by present people

Bulul collection
at Hiwang Village,
Banaue Ifugao 6
Bulul collection
at Bencab Museum 7
Gaston Damag
▪ exhibition system
(Paris-based or
museum)

▪ bulul & other

mundane objects from
his native Ifugao
homeland as subject
matter
8
Gaston Damag

▪ utilizes industrial materials & processes

with traditional bulul imagery to form 9
installations
Bulul crosses over from the
everyday to the exhibition
system, either as collections in
museum context or as
material/subject for a
contemporary artist

Gaston Damag 10
 “
What happens to an object when
it’s removed from its original
context and changes function?

11
 “
When a traditional form is combined
with machine-fabricated materials and
exhibited in a contemporary arts
gallery, how does our perception of the
bulul change?

12
No single definition of art.

Origin of
Circulation
objects

Practices
Contexts
in
of
exhibiting
production
art

13
What are the
different
contexts of
art?
 • mode of production
(kinds of materials
accessible, conditions

1. surrounding labor)

• traditional artist’s
Artist’s resources vs. highly
background urbanized artist
age, gender, culture,
economic conditions, social
• initiation & training in
environment & disposition art
 “
Do you know an artist who is self-
taught? How did he or she learn? Did
he/she closely observe other artists?

16
weaving
methods of
production – from
elders

17
sculpture-making
▪ Batis, Pampanga
▪ apprenticeship with
a matecanan
mandukit (master
sculptor) to make
santos

18
sculptures of red
horses as Paete
(Laguna) markers

▪ mediums,
techniques, styles in
art shared among
members of a
community

▪ unique identity /
markers of a
community 19
Gallery / museum setting

uniqueness of markers are

the art and named, works in
artist’s exhibitions and
sold through
individual galleries, fairs &
expression… functions

20
 “
Some artworks are done in collaboration with
carpenters, wood carvers, weavers who assist
the artists in underpainting, varnishing,
fabricating…their works. Although paid, they’re
hardly credited in museum captions and
catalogues. Why so?

21
 Some artists deliberately foreground their cultural
identity in their works.

22
Abdulmari Asia
Imao
▪ integrated motifs
from the culture of Place your screenshot here

Mindanao

▪ okir designs in
paintings &
sculptures using
modernist styles
23
Abdulmari Asia Imao

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Abdulmari Asia
Imao
▪ 1984 stylized S-
shaped brass Place your screenshot here

sculpture (Vargas
museum)

▪ integrates motifs
(crescent moon, star &
okir)
25
Julle Lluch
(Iligan City)
▪ emphasize her female
identity & personal
Place your screenshot here
experiences in many of
her terracotta works

26
Julle Lluch
(Iligan City)
▪ Cutting Onions Always
Makes Me Cry (1988)
Place your screenshot here

▪ self-portrait presents
cooking – associated
with women in the
home

27
Victorio Edades
1913 International
Exhibition of Modern Arts
during study in US in early
20th Century

The Sketch 28
Alfredo Juan &
Isabel Aquilizan
▪ Migrant artists
Place your screenshot here

▪ Migration –
provides different
set of material
conditions &
relations of
production
29
Passage (2011)
Alfredo Juan & Isabel Aquilizan
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Alfredo Juan & Isabel Aquilizan 31
 • materials they use

• occurrences or natural

phenomena they
2. either
imitate or use as
Nature subject
source of inspiration for
artists
T’nalak
▪ abaca fibers from
trunk of banana Place your screenshot here

tree, colored with

red & black dyes
from roots & leaves
of plants

33
T’nalak
▪ weaver produces
t’nalak designs Place your screenshot here

▪ process is evocative
of the people’s
belief that spirits
reside with people
in the natural
environment 34
Tinikling
▪ an indigenous
dance Place your screenshot here

-imitates natural
elements

35
 Ceramist Nelfa
Querubin-Tompkins

Place your screenshot here

▪ experimented with San

Dionisio clay from Iloilo

▪ mixing with river sand

and lead glaze
-elegant black pottery 36
 Nature as
provider,
source of
inspiration &
force
Environmental
one has
to contend
conditions with.
(topography,
climate)
Availability
of
resources
37
Traditional Ivatan
houses (Batanes)

▪ stones & fango for its walls

▪ roof (pyramidal Place your screenshot here
construction – thick cogon
thatch with reeds, rattan,
net)

▪ stone, lime & cogon

construction protects them
from strong typhoons &
earthquakes 38
Junyee’s Angud, a
forest once (2007)

▪ commentary on the
abuse of nature Place your screenshot here

▪ 10,000 species of
gathered tree stumps –
recreate a deforested
landscape

39
Photographs alert the public
about the alarming effects of
climate change; forces people
to be “refugees in their own
land” Veejay
Villafranca 40
Veejay
Villafranca 41
▪ effects of typhoon
Yolanda show
melancholic images

▪ absence or loss
caused by natural
disaster

Roy Lagarde 42
Fernando Amorsolo

▪ landscapes
as romantic
pictures

43
 Ricarte Purugganan

▪ nature as
uncontrollabl
e force
Toilers of the Sea (1980) 44
 • significance of
traditional art is not
only on aesthetic

3. appearance but
functionality & value to
the community
Everyday life
• personal memories,
traditional forms used in
daily private situations
circumstances that
reveal emotions
contemporary arts drawn to
scenes, objects & issues in
everyday life
Crisp Ilocano bed
covers with ubas Place your screenshot here

designs

46
Delicate Pastillas
wrappers
(Bulacan) with
Place your screenshot here

elaborate cutout
designs

47
Changes in
landscape,
innovations in
technology &
popular types of
media influenced the
way we live.

48
 Place your screenshot here

old photos & things

like worn clothes

Marina Cruz 49
 Lirio Salvador

Sandata ni Sandata ni 50
Lirio Salvador
Sandata ng
Espasyo

51
Lirio Salvador
fuses easily synthesizers & the unique forms
accessible objects: guitar strings to that look like figures
machine discords, convert them to from science fiction
bicycle parts, functional are as common as
kitchen implements instruments everyday items

assemblage assemblages
52
 Place your screenshot here

changing urban
landscape
MM Yu,
Cavite collective 53
4. • Spanish colonial art
period

Society, • Marcos regime edifices

Politics,
Economy &
History
to resist ideological
structures, inspire people,
initiate change
55
 19th century

much Suez
economi Canal Art of
Secular
c (travel / Portraitur
prosperit trade Art e
easier)
y

56
20th Century
made photography
accessible for
documentary &
artistic functions

Kodak (1928)
57
 ▪ 1st film directed
by Pinoy
Place your screenshot here

▪ by Hermogenes
Ilagan, Leo Ignacio
(live music)

Dalagang Bukid 58
 ▪ Benedicto Cabrera

▪ aspect of colonial Place your screenshot here

history, gaze of the

colonized

Brown Brother’s
Burden 59
Appropriation
transforming existing materials through
the juxtaposition of elements taken
from one context and placing these in
another to present alternative
meanings, structure and composition

60
 • museum – arranged &

5. categorized

• public – education &

Mode of leisure
Reception
when, where, & how art is
encountered
 “
What forms of street art are in
museums? What happens when
they bring their works to the
streets?

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Reception

63
 ▪ Mideo Cruz
(2010)

▪ installation – sculpture
of Christ with phallus Place your screenshot here

on his nose
-provocative elements

▪ Reproductive
Health Law
Poleteismo (Kulo/boil at
CCP) 64
65
Thanks!

66
Context-ify (appropriate)
▪ Setting
▪ Events
Sequence of events
▪ Characters
▪ Narrator or POV
▪ Tone or atmosphere
▪ Title
▪ Message 67