Re-Construction with JoeBau
Galleria Duemila | Manila
The Perspective of Transforming
Seconding his exhibit at the Galleria Duemila in 2019 entitled, ‘Vertical and Horizontal Dreams’,
Joe Bautista pays homage once again to his architectural musings in ‘Re-Construction’. This time, he toys with the idea of space and form. Flat, acrylic paintings pervaded ‘Vertical and Horizontal Dreams’ but this time, Joe Bau added depth and played with heights through the use of conventional construction objects.
His process starts out with a recognition of form, a visible shape or configuration. In architectural terms, this may refer to construction. In a way, Joe Bau constructs and re-constructs paintings. In adding depth, space is bound to occur. In this case, space may be defined as a three-dimensional extent in which objects manifest and have relative position and direction.
The artist uses industrial materials found in construction sites such as discarded blocks of wood, tiles, pieces of plywood sheets, cement, tiles, nails, bolt and nut, and turns them into a set of relief paintings that mimic a topography of land where structures stand still. In a way, Joe Bau drives down the idea of the physicality of location through his paintings.
For him, his compositions are re-constructions. Re-mades. His concept ideates the perspective of transformation. These pieces take on a whole new remembrance of form.
In Plato's underpinnings, form is the essential nature of a species or thing, especially regarded as an abstract ideal. The rawness of Joe Bau’s materials highlights his brevity to showcase stripped-off and exposed versions of structures. He varnishes and casually paints over them using acrylic, oftentimes working on two or three layers to achieve his desired look. The resulting elements are blocks of color, acrylic washes, and doodle-like elements as painterly gestures.
It is worth noting that Joe Bau, in his early days, won first place in sculpture competitions, thus the inclination to both two-dimensional and three-dimensional use of elements. The advertising background of the artist is evident with the use of magazine cut-outs, a widely-available graphic rendering of images and form.
The artist has a penchant for height, stacking up elements on both orientations. Rigid shapes like squares and rectangles are depicted in different painting techniques. The monochromatic and sometimes neutral colors of the paintings are contrasted with little pops of color such as yellow, orange, and green tucked away in little blocks and corners. These serve as highlights to an otherwise muted composition. At a distance, the same shapes arranged on several orientations hint at pathways and roads, structures that take an individual from point A to point B.
In the Form & Space series, blocks of wood frames and sheets of plywood form the middle part of the painting, setting the tone of the whole exhibit. Afterwards, two paintings entitled Free Standing Wall Outside Frame and Reclining Wall Outside Frame reveal the artist's inclination in disorienting form.
In Centripetal Force Over Space I, sheets of plywood are stacked over each other with bolt and nut. In this particular work, the artist exposes an obvious process in construction.
In Spiritual Depth of a Space, a painting technique by the artist made a part of the painting look like a granite tile.
In Dualistic I, the color field and hard-edged lines express a modern influence and are made contemporary by putting a decorative tile and a cut-out plywood sheet with dried cement.
The Naked Wall series are square-shaped relief paintings that are composed of plywood sheets with dried cement and covered with varnish mixed with color. At the upper right portion of Naked Wall II, a thin layer of wood flaked to reveal the inner sheet. The artist professes that this accidental flaking is a welcomed component of the work, displaying the artist's preference for showcasing alterations whether fortuitous or not.
In Duo I, a green canvas sets the background. Three different planes capture the eye of the viewer. On the right side, a thin linear scratch amidst the black background contrasts the orange and gold color. The artist uses a chemical to scratch a thin line, a conscious action of his to reform the composition.
In Row Concrete II, two window-like panels display the techniques employed by the artist. In the first panel, a rectangular wash-like contrasts the four dots. The other panel, in symmetry, initiates depth through the use of thick, discarded wood. In Tranquil Tension II, a printed image of a hollow block superimposed on a rigid square is contrasted with curvilinear, almost doodle-like elements on the side.
The presence of installations in the exhibit introduces Joe Bau’s hope to interact with his audience through participatory art. These installations emulate the processes in the construction site. At the left wall of Gallery A, the artist continuously applies cement on a black-painted plywood and encourages everyone to do the same. The repetitive action enables the artist and the viewer to join in construction (the process of application) and re-construction (the style of application) in a bout of space and time. This particular installation is an exercise of the imagination. Joe Bau emphasizes that the audience is free to interpret his work. After all, as a conceptual artist, he believes that the artworks in the service of the mind.
Meanwhile, a set of free-standing sculptures entitled Concrete Solar Panel I, II, III, IV, V, and VI is a concrete solid stone and used plywood with a stain of cement drawn with white lines made to look like a solar panel.
Untitled is an individual floor installation composed of a bag of cement that is struck by a glass. Here lies two sides: the glass tip with no cement and the end with the cement. It represents point A to point B; the change that happened after the fact; the transformation of when the artist acts upon the form.
The set of relief paintings and installations crosses media and categorical boundaries. Joe Bau’s inclination to architectural forms and space united with his conceptual processes allow an intellectual exploration of both. After all, both space and form grounds the viewer and allows for an individual place-making and place-sensing. Static industrial elements made into works of art are superficially transformative but the highly-individualized theme and concept continue to be boundless and remain on the minds of the spectators as products of imagination allowing it to be reshaped, reworked, and re-constructed.
-Johanna Labitoria
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