Gunita : The UPCFA Studio Arts Degree Thesis Works of Batch 2022 Graduates

GUNITA

The UPCFA Studio Arts Degree Thesis Works of Batch 2022 Graduates

The University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts (UPCFA) is one of the oldest arts and design institution unit in the Philippines. Since 1908, it has produced premiere visual artists whose training and orientation is aligned with the state universities credo of honor, excellence, and service to the Filipino society. The College has provided its student constituents with a diversified atmosphere conducive to the spirit of creative inquiry which encompasses issues from the personal to the societal.

The UPCFA Bachelor of Arts graduates from Batch 2022 successfully hurdled the challenge of defending the required individual thesis projects in June 2022.

As a way of imparting the knowledge and experience garnered from the year-long study, research, and execution of the creative works of art to the public, an online group art exhibition is held via the social platforms Facebook and Instagram in July 2022.

The 2022 Studio Arts Degree Show is a celebration of the graduating class’ perseverance and academic life. The group exhibit is a welcome change to the isolating experience of creating art in a pandemic. After years of study and practice in their own chosen art forms, 17 artists created their thesis works not just a mark of their artistic prowess, but also a manifestation of their stories, personal experiences and beliefs. In a way, it is commemorating these things or “paggunita ng mga pangyayari o bagay.”

Entitled “Gunita”, the exhibit primarily explores themes of reflection and healing. The 17 artists developed their own theses separately but ended up traversing the same waters: Healing. Identity. Experience. The show is an invitation to listen to their stories, and dive deeper into their own unique topics such as: memory, experience, emotions, anxiety, trauma, coping mechanism, reconciliation, gender theory, queer experience, diet culture, religion, politics, oppression, time, and transience.

Dissonance and Resolution

Several thesis topics addressed the concept of dissonance and resolution involving personal trauma and identity issues conflicting with societal and cultural expectations. Georgina Pomajeros’ Driven by Pain, Lifted by Hope: On the Therapeutic Role of Visual Metaphors (1) dealt with emotions felt upon the passing of a loved one. “The work is a manifestation of the artist’s own personal loss, having been able to process her bereavement through the aid of visual metaphors. It is inspired by memorial lantern and is about grief, resilience, and letting go.” Margaux Stephon Genito’s Boxed In: An Autobiographical Visualization of Compartmentalization through a Metaphorical Dollhouse (2) is an “allegorical work portraying compartmentalization as a psychological defense mechanism through a dollhouse-like structure. It addresses troublesome domestic situations from a young age.” Tamiya Dela Fuente’s Cutting the Calories: A Visual Narrative on Diet Culture and Its Impact on the Body (3) “describe the body issues one can experience due to what is consumed from the media in this day and age. It is an associative visual narrative of a doll not being able to fit into a keyhole due to being too fat with cake sculpted around it.” Asaliah Reiiel Reyes ‘ Tao Rin Ako (I am also a person): Experiencing the Trauma of Being Queer in a Postcolonial Filipino Society (4) concerns being a member of the LGBTQ community , identity struggle, and the trauma of being ‘crucified’ by the institution that preaches universal love and acceptance. His artwork The Abomination Shall Not Inherit the Kingdom of God is a graphic allegorical portrayal of the persecution suffered throughout his early years in life.

Healing and Reawakening Inquiries about personal healing and reawakening to selfhood were also tackled by the student artists in their theses. Jea Gavina’s Kindness is Punk Rock: Self Care and Tenderness as Healing (5) is a “documentation of the artist’s personal healing throughout the years, as well as reflection of the necessary foundation of healing through painting, needle-punching, and crocheting.” Nicole Bitas’ Mundane Encounters: Painting Emotions and the Passage of Time (6) are “inspired by the mundane scenes of everyday life during the pandemic. It explores time perception and recurring emotions such as anxiety and boredom caused by daily repetitive encounters within a domestic space.” Justine Olmedo’s Trail of the Lone Firepecker: A Series of Narrative painting about Recovering from Isolation (7) “is a story of journeying away from a place of fiction, confronting personal struggle with isolation, and seeking true recovery back in reality. The character can return to reality and find hope in living with society.” Isabella Salvador’s The People of Everywhere and Nowhere: Third Culture Kids (8) is about coming to terms with being a product of two cultures. “The thesis sheds light in third culture kids community as well as the struggles to form a connection and develop a sense of identity. It represents feelings, experiences, and memories associated with their culture.”

Collective Experience and State of Transience A broader scope involving collective experience and the state of transience were explored in the theses of a number of student artists. Ilya Katrin Irasusta’s Wish-to-Cart: A Cardboard Installation and Video about Online Shopping as a Form of Escapism (9) is about consumerism through the online platform. “Promoters of online shopping have become a viable option to promote materialism as a means of escape. The recycled cardboard boxes are a representation of suffocation from accumulations of impulsive purchases over time.” Gillian Aypa’s Metro Liminal: Painting Liminal Spaces to Resist Transience and Feelings of Surveillance (10) “explores painting liminal spaces that serve as comfort from the feeling of surveillance from dominant spaces and painting them to confront the transitory nature of places of passage.” Sophia Sotolombo’s Reading Room (11) “explores the idea of utilizing space as a means of tstory-telling, derived from Lefebvre’s idea of space as a unity of physical, mental, and social space. “ The installation of cartographic mapping tracks her life experience of navigating the community she belongs with. King Tan Gana’s Kanlungan o Kulungan (sanctuary or prison): Domestic Space in Time of a Pandemic (12) “is a visual, sensorial, and metaphysical materialization of home quarantine during the pandemic. It implicates a correspondence between the activity movement patterns of the quarantined inhabitants within the typified marginalized dwelling and provides a parametric translational interpretation using geometric architectural maquette structure and forms. Ding Royales’ Trip to Jerusalem: The Game of the Faithful, the Powerful, and the Damned (13) “shows the conflict between politics and religion and how the Filipinos cling to the leader who can fill their needs. The leaders of State and Church use the poor as their support in promoting their own agendas.” Andree Tiongson’s Kalma , Ako Lang ‘To (calm down, it’s just me): Mold as an Active Agent in Corrupting the Male Gaze and Reclaiming the Female Form (14) “explores the materiality of molds ( a type of fungi) as a medium and destructive agent towards an art object, specifically a copy of Fernando Amorsolo’s Lavandera painting which represents the issue of male gaze and the idealization of the female form.”

Precious Tarun (15), Jom Aguirre (16), and Koullet AB (17) also presented their thesis and successfully defended their thesis works. The UPCFA BFA Studio Degree Batch 2022 were able to cultivate the cumulative years of artistic and critical training in their particular fields as showcased from their respective thesis works. It is their common goal to utilize such foundation as a take-off point in furthering a career in their chosen discipline and practice as oriented towards the development and upliftment of Filipino art and culture within the Philippines as well as in the global art scene.

*statements in quotation marks are all provided by the student artists *link for Facebook and Instagram: @upcfagunita2022