Bembol Dela Cruz
The History of Things
4 to 30 April 2006
Mag:net Gallery ABS

  “History is made of clouds of stories, stories which are told, invented, heard, and acted out. A people does not exist as a subject, it is an ensemble of billions of futile little stories which sometimes agglutinate to the point of becoming great narratives and sometimes dissipate into vagrant elements but which generally do stay fairly close together to form what is called the culture of a civil society.”
 
-Phillippe Parreno

These stories are embedded in objects as either the direct outcome of such stories, evidencing the stories’ verity or to be hemmed in seamlessly to the greater tapestry of its own myth or legend. But still they persist through their impermanence, imminent fluidity.

Bembol dela Cruz’s exhibit The History of Things opening at Mag:net Gallery ABS April 4 verily manifests this in his paintings of various objects realistically rendered on a ground of elastometric sealant fedseal. This same ground was also used to cover same actual objects accompanying these paintings. More than this trompe l’loeil like rendition is the actualness of the size of the painted objects which further emphasize their “objecthood”. How he paints as based on the objects themselves not on photographs, gears him for this engagement with these objects.

This hardware material that’s hardly used for painting, preferred as it makes paint adhere to the surface also gives these painted objects also a certain density and distance to what these objects are, what may they represent. It also serves a metaphorical function as to the symbolistic concealment of man’s motives towards these objects. These objects - grease gun, canteen, saw, chisel mallet, pliers, saw, golf club, 40 mmhe, fork, verry tank, book w/ chain & lock, coping saw, shovel – are commonly used as tools that help get the work done yet oftentimes they may also be helpful in snuffing out the life of another man or even in diminishing their humanity by torture, the gradual death. Take for instance one panel which has a bucket, a Mickey Mouse key chain and lighter. Dela Cruz has encountered in his research a particular torture method where a rat is trapped in a bucket then placed on a bare stomach of a victim, then with a lighter, bottom of bucket is lit, this will then send the trapped rat to panic and scramble for an exit, finally to resort to eat and bore through the victim’s stomach.

His previous series of painting employing the same techniques also depicted objects, tools for construction, tools used for the painting itself. He has only excluded some like nails, pencil, wood & canvas as being part of the painting already. The rest like the ruler, hammer, etc. ended up being painted. This is like an illustration of the adage “painting is its own essence’ or paintings being objects themselves.

Dela Cruz summarizes his intent by maintaining that this series of works are representation of the “metamorphosis of objects, of tools – its use, disuse and abuse.”

Does painting also fall into this same cycle of use, disuse and abuse?

The History of Things is made possible with the generous support of Fedseal Elastometric Sealants.

Opening cocktails will be at 6:30 PM . The show will run until April 30, 2006 .

Mag:net Gallery ABS is at The Loop, ELJ Center , ABS-CBN compound, Mother Ignacia Avenue corner Eugenio Lopez St. QC. For details please call 410095 (Shey) or email magnetplus@gmail.com or visit www.magnet.com.ph