thoughts

This particular artwork caught my eye. At first, I didn’t understand what it was; once I found out that it was entitled as “Hurry”, it all made sense to me. Many interpretations came to my mind while I was reflecting on what it really was. Why was it called “Hurry”? In my perspective, it depicted how people go through with their lives: day by day. You and I are just merely silhouettes (represented by the color black used in the people). Different people will just pass us by as time progresses. Each and every one of us journeys on to different directions. We come, we go. We live life as if we’re in a hurry to see what the future has in store for us while neglecting how vibrant and colorful the journey really is (as depicted of the colorful streaked streets). The world moves vigorously since the only thing constant is change (from how the strokes were done to portray avid motion).

The artwork really is a contemporary piece. Anybody who takes a glimpse of this would surely relate and process what the painting aims to imply to us. How to different aspects of the art click together is very commendable, and how one aspect compliments the other, like how the colors were used. Additionally, the use of this kind of stroke was very appropriate since it mimicked how motion is captured visually with a blur. 

“Hurry” carried a simple, yet reflective message for everyone of us to live and not just survive.

From Alice Guillermo’s article regarding the Philippine Contemporary Aesthetics, she pointed out that the aesthetic of an art also relies on the conditions underlying where, who, and when it is from. Art is ever changing as eras go by and notable events that can shape their way of living happen. Guillermo pointed out in the article that the Philippines, specifically, struggles with having one distinctive form of art compared to other Asian Countries such as Japan and China, but rather than considering it as a bad thing, it’s really a positive aspect. Since Philippine art is diverse and different in every part of the Philippines, it makes our culture richer. The colonization of our country by several different nations makes us more unique since whatever we have right now is a mashup of all the history that has happened, and that is our own cultural identity. 

Art is ever changing, and we should not let it STOP changing. Yes, we should not just patronize traditional art, and yes, we should preserve our cultural heritage, but let us not be enclosed with the mindset of building our own distinctive cultural identity through our traditional art. We should let our art form evolve into the conditions we are facing now, unlike what Carlos Botong thought of the making traditional art into something more modern. Let traditional art stay as itself, and let us create art that is fitting to tell the story of the Philippines now. It is not necessarily wrong that people nowadays just view traditional art as some kind of a relic because it is just a relic of our history. Our culture is not doomed to extinction because we can’t preserve tradition, but it will continue to flourish.

Contemporary art is the art of today.