Visual artist Santiago Bose (1949-2002) eluded characterizations. In a critique of Filipino art, titled “Notes in Transit,” the late Baguio native wrote about how art critics conveniently applied the term “Philippine indigenous art” to all contemporary art practices outside Manila.
“Labeling,” he wrote, not only encourages misrepresentation of tribes, but “restricts mixing and reduces critical engagement.”
Bose’s aversion to the shackles of labels and assignations extended to his own art practice, which was marked by conscious evasion from a single recognizable style.
While he pushed to raise awareness of the country’s cultural concerns through his subjects, his techniques varied widely and was usually flat-out experimental; he often used indigenous media in his work, from bamboo to volcanic ash, to cast-offs, debris and found objects.
The extensive range of his works are showcased at Silverlens’s ongoing exhibition, titled Bare Necessities, on view until September 14. Featuring Bose’s acrylic on boards on one end and mixed media mounted on plywoods on the other, with more in between, the show opened over the weekend and kicks off an exhibition series titled Santiago Bose: Painter, Magician.
“Santi Bose was one of the more important pioneers of contemporary art in the Philippines,” said Silverlens Gallery Director Isa Lorenzo. “He made his own world of art, and he brought along people with him.”
Behind the project is curator Patrick D. Flores. In the spirit of Bose’s continuous attempt to escape from being boxed within certain definitions, the intent of the series is to present him as someone much more: more than just an artist of Baguio, or an artist of anti-colonialism, or of anting-anting. Flores wanted to peel Bose’s body of work layer by layer, starting with the ongoing first exhibition, which explores the subject’s “artistic language,” parsed into pieces, objects, archive and surface.
“Before Santi produced, he committed to the vocabulary of techniques, and that’s what we see in this exhibition: the horizon of his artistic language,” Flores said.
“Santi made a lot of works in many different mediums, so you can’t really just do one show,” Lorenzo added, saying Silverlens is going to do one show every year over the next four years to explore the different aspects of Bose’s practice. “And, as Patrick said, we’re going to do that so that people don’t assume this was all he did.”
The name of the exhibition series was lifted from Bose’s artist biodata for the prestigious Thirteen Artist Award granted to him by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1976, in which he wrote under “Present Occupation” the words “Painter; Magician.”
Examining Bose’s personal and artistic lives reveals the answer was not a stretch. In a talk, titled “Santiago Bose 101,” which preceded the exhibition’s opening, Flores and Santiago’s daughter, Lilledeshan, discussed the artist who was established as someone with a strong sense of humor, as well as unique perspectives.
Bose was born in Baguio and moved to Manila to study at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines between 1967 and 1972. He continued his studies abroad, at the West 17th Print Workshop in New York.
He returned to Baguio in 1986 and began his explorations into the effects of colonialism on the Philippine national identity, particularly on the resilience of indigenous cultures, like that of his home region, the Cordilleras.
Bose cofounded the Baguio Arts Guild, and served as an educator, community organizer and art theorist. He has exhibited in major international events, receiving several prominent grants and fellowships. In 2006, he was posthumously shortlisted for the National Artist award.
“He taught me how to use my voice,” said Lilledeshan, a journalist who now lives in Southern California. “He always challenged us to look at things at specific perspectives. He gave us all cameras so we could take pictures of what we saw, just to see how different our perspectives were from each other.”
Flores said Bose basically worked around three worlds.
The first one was Baguio, which represented American colonialism, but also indigenous culture. Next was Manila, where the UP was valuable in “reeducating the self,” as Bose got glimpses of what it meant to be Filipino. (Flores quoted one of Bose’s essays, wherein the fun-loving artist wrote, “I began to question why Filipinos would sing ‘White Christmas’ in the sweltering heat of Manila.”) The third world was New York, which, in Flores’s words, was the “gray area of the artist life of Santi,” where there was possible tension between his political perspective of the United States and his presence in it.
Meanwhile, Flores said Bose’s biggest legacy is his extensive locality, and his expansion of the postcolonial archive in terms of imagery, combined or topped together, to produce pictures or forms.
“It was not entirely new, but Santi had a high-level of idiosyncrasy and humor.”
Image credits: Silverlens