An Illumination

Above: Manuel Ocampo, Poklong Anading. Please click photo to enlarge.

Background: 'Forward to the Sweet Tranquility of the Status Quo'. Foreground: Detail of 'Agent of Good + Bad Criticism: In Need of Plumbing', 2009, mixed media, dimensions variable

Miguel Rosales (right) and hottie friend

Sandra Palomar

On reading The Philippine Spectator's entry on his show, the eminent Manuel Ocampo sent an illumination of its impetus and context. Monuments to the Institutional Critique of Myself, says its author, was inspired by squatter aesthetics. The title is ironic; it is "the unmonumental," that moves the artist, "the poetry in the use of poor materials."

He was aiming for "the color of Manila from childhood memories: sepia, charcoal, dirty white." But Mr. Ocampo's artistic reference are more worldly. "Bukowski via Broodthaers," he says.
Charles Bukowski was sometimes called "the poet laureate of skid row" for poems and short stories that dealt with poverty and his alcoholism. Of Marcel Broodthaers, I know only one work, the one made of an actual casserole, an iron one, and actual mussels stacked in it in a way that suggests they are rising from the heat. Broodthaers famously struggled in poverty as an artist for 20 years before he decided to make something "insincere".

According to Wikipedia: "He is associated with the late 20th century global spread of both installation art, as well as 'institutional critique' in which interrelationships between artworks, the artist, and the museum are a focus." Mr. Ocampo's has growingly been concerned with such a critique as reflected in the title of his exhibit. He has been caught in a paradox of attempting to break the commodification of art yet remaining legible as art or as meaning. Despite the almost squalid quality of the materials used in this show, one work is priced at P900,000, a reflection of Mr. Ocampo's stature in the international market.

And despite the apparent haphazard assembly of the installations, there is a formal coherence to the pieces. It is artful haphazardness or dissembled artfulness. And it's beautiful.

Is it art? It is definitively art. It is garbage and it's art.