Bomba

Kawayan De Guia
18 June 30 November 2010 3F North Wing Gallery About the Exhibition The exhibition at the Third Floor Galleries of the Vargas Museum features disco balls fashioned into rocket bombs of different sizes suspended at varying heights from the museums ceiling. In the exhibition Bomba, artist Kawayan de Guia recalls the days of disco with the mirror bombs radiating at variable speeds coupled with pop music interspersed with random sounds, signifying blasts. Bomba, aside from its reference to military weapons, also evokes a local film genre of hardcore porn of the same name. The latter is referenced in a video projection, rapidly flickering montage of scenes of violence, sex, rituals of domination and power. These hark back on the exhibitions elements functioning from automata. Another component of the exhibition is a re-worked jukebox housed in acrylic plastic. It heightens a sense of longing, an act looking back while highlighting the machine-driven and semiautomatic character of the installations. Themes This education guide is designed to help facilitate discussions and activities for classes in Art Studies, Fine Arts, Psychology, or Film Studies. It is highly encouraged that the course tutors visit the museum before the classs actual visit. Themes covered in this guide include POPping Questions, Mirroring, and Artist as Bricoleur. POPping Questions summons students to examine images as representations of a particular time. This section establishes the notion that images and sounds encountered on a daily basis are not neutral. They are texts laden with meaning and therefore have political implications. As such, they have the potential to be examined in a critical light. Activities in this section will encourage them to consider the different visual and aural elements of the exhibit and how they induce recall and influence the production of certain meanings. Drawing on the video projection as one of the key elements of the exhibition, Mirroring references Jacques Lacans concept of the mirror phase. The theme taps into the ways viewers are affected by images, the films potential to illicit pleasure or repulsion, and the capacity of the medium to articulate desires through the practices of looking (Cartwright and Sturken, 2001) Artist as Bricoleur probes De Guias artistic practice. It considers facets of production involved in the installations.

I. POPping QUESTIONS: Queries on Pop Culture Kawayan de Guia evoked the past through references to popular culture. For De Guia however, this longing for the past becomes an informed reworking of nostalgia, an excavation of ghosts past that haunt us till the present. Pre-visit Brief the class about the exhibition they are about to view. Ask the class about their notions of pop culture. Pop culture is defined as a set of generally available artifacts such as music, fashion, film, or other records that are a part of mainstream culture. Heavily influenced by the mass media, pop culture impacts us in a myriad of ways. Actual visit Ask students to write down their impressions of the exhibition. What are their reactions to the rotating mirror bombs? The video projection? What are their comments on the sound installation? What about the Naked Jukebox?

Vargas Museum Educational Guide

Bomba

Page 1 of 5

Post-visit activities Assignment: Divide the class into four groups. Each group will be assigned a particular component of the exhibitionmirror bombs, video projection, sound installation, or the jukebox. Students will be asked to research by interviewing parents or relatives. Their interviewees will be asked to recall their impressions, experiences, or attitudes on certain elements of pop culture. Students are free to formulate their own questions based on the following suggestions: 1. Mirror bombs: Disco culture-music, local disco clubs, fashion 2. Video projection: Bomba films-titles, actors and actresses, common plots 3. Sound installation (tip: students can take down notes on specific sound clips)- World War II pop music 4. Jukebox-songs, jukebox design, context Classroom Activity: After the students have conducted interviews, students can report to the class about their findings. The following can serve as discussion points: 1. 2. 3. 4. How does pop culture frame or interpret current events? What time period in Philippine history is recalled by the images and sound elements of the exhibition pieces? What do you think are the qualities of pop culture? What do you think is the connection between high culture and popular culture? What distinguishes the former from the latter in terms of production and consumption? 5. Do you think pop culture is an indicator of a societys progress? Or is it a mere semblance of advancement? Writing Assignment Students can choose to write a paper about a specific element utilized in the exhibition pieces (an image from the video clip, the disco ball, backdrop sound for both video and mirror bombs, and the jukebox) and trace reinterpretations in contemporary popular culture. They can describe similarities or differences in form and discuss in depth the changing meanings given to these pop culture expressions. They can also investigate the specific contexts in which these forms and meanings thrive. Suggested Readings Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: BBC, 1972. (UP College of Arts and Letters Library) Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989. (UP College of Mass Communication Library) Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. In Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. II. MIRRORING: Reflections on Film and Psychoanalytic Theory Psychoanalytic Theory can help viewers understand the relationship between images and their consumers. As cultural scholars Sturken and Cartwright assert, we have an intense relationships with images because of their power to give us pleasure and to allow us to articulate our desires through looking. Psychoanalysis was first conceived by the Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). According to Freud, the unconscious and desire have a role in determining a persons actions, feelings, and motives. Later, Jacques Lacan, a renowned French psychoanalyst revised some of Freuds theories. Lacans theories emphasized that the term subject implies that individuality is constructed through ideology, language, and representation.
Vargas Museum Educational Guide Bomba Page 2 of 5

The mirror phase according to Lacan is a stage in infancy encountered at about 18 months. The infant feels a sense of alienation (splitting between what they are capable of and how they imagine themselves- powerful, more capable) when it realizes its separation from other human beings. Lacan stresses that infants start to establish their ego through the process of looking at a mirror-body image, which may be their own mirror image or another figure like their mother or another person. Infants recognize their mirror image to be both their self and yet different, but as more whole and powerful. The sense of separation experienced by infants forms the basis of alienation, but also enables them to grow. Mirror Phase and Film: whats the connection, then? Lacans mirror phase provides cultural theorists a framework to analyze emotions and power ascribed by viewers in images as a kind of ideal. When a viewer watches a film, her ego is lost momentarily because she identifies with the events unfolding on screen; similar to the ways an infant encounters the mirror image. The viewer experiences a sense of illusion of owning or controlling the bodies being viewed. This identification however, is not with the actors on screen, but with the cinematic apparatus. The viewer takes the role of the camera, the projector, and the screen. Pre-visit Prior to the museum visit, the class can discuss Lacans concept of mirror phase. Students can also be introduced to the concept of the gaze. In everyday conversation, this pertains to intentional looking or staring. In psychoanalytic film theory, it refers to the viewing relationship contingent on a particular set of social circumstance. Film theorist Laura Mulveys essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema can also be assigned to the class before viewing the exhibition as a springboard to post-visit discussions. Actual visit Instruct students to look specifically at the video projection and observe how Lacans mirror phase relates to their experiences of looking. Post-visit Guide questions for class discussion: 1. Recall clips from the exhibits video projection. Name some movies or TV shows where the clips were derived. What do you think is the theme of the video? 2. Comment on how the flickering images affect viewing experience. Describe the kind of narrative suggested by the video installation. How is your experience affected by the sound installation? Or by the light reflected by the rotating mirror bombs? 3. Describe the power relations between the viewer (you) and the viewed (video). Do you think that certain clips are subservient to a particular kind of gaze? Which subjects are being objectified? Cite specific examples. Suggested Readings Clark, Kenneth and George A. Miller. Eds.Psychology. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1970. (Main Library, Social Sciences section) Metz, Christian. The Imaginary Signifier. Bloomington: Indiana Press, 1989. (College of Mass Communication Library) Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. (College of Arts and Letters/ CMC Library)

Vargas Museum Educational Guide

Bomba

Page 3 of 5

Williams, Linda. Ed. Viewing Positions: Ways of (CMC Library) III. ARTIST AS BRICOLEUR

Seeing Film. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995.

(The mirror bombs are) Floating altarsIn times of war, we abdicate our faith to higher powers (The biggest challenge in being an artist is) finding your voiceto get in touch with that creative source, and to be brave enough to get it out and share it with the world, even if they may not understand it. My tatay calls it following ones sariling dwende -Kawayan De Guia i Kawayan de Guia is a Baguio-based artist and son of Kidlat Tahimik (Eric de Guia), a respected pioneer of the indie film movement in the country. He has exhibited both locally and abroad. He is the first recipient of the New York Arts Project residency grant of the 2008 Ateneo Art Awards. He received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artist Awards in 2009. His recent work titled Katas ng Pilipinas: God Knows Hudas Not Pay is shortlisted for the 2010 Ateneo Art Awards. De Guia is a painter and muti-media artist. His works deal with the human condition, socio-political events, and colonialism, evoking popular culture and local artifacts in his engagement of these themes. His recent works include reassembled jukeboxes fashioned to look like jeepneys. The artist explains that these jukeboxes are legacies of an empire. Some keywords Bricolage is the practice of working with materials at hand. It also refers to the activity of using consumer products and commodities and making them as ones own by giving new meaning. Kidlat Tahimik and Santiago Bose are some examples of Filipino artists engaged in the practice. Ideology is the shared set of values and beliefs within a society and through which individuals function in relation to social institutions and structures. It refers to the ways some concepts and values are made to seem like natural and unavoidable aspects of everyday life. Installation art is a site-specific, three-dimensional work intended to alter the notions of space. It incorporates everyday and natural materials, media such as video, sound, or performance to evoke memories and create meanings. Pre-visit Prior to the visit, the class can be introduced to or review concepts such as bricolage, ideology, and installation art. (You may check www.drawingroomgallery.com to view De Guias works online) Actual visit 1. Play music with the jukebox! Seek the help of the museum personnel stationed at the Third Floor galleries for instructions on how to operate. 2. The following questions can serve as discussion points: a. What can you say about the artists choice of title? Aside from the obvious references to the suspended mirror bombs and bomba flicks, what are the installations ideological implications? For instance, what do the bombs signify? b. Describe the qualities of the materials and media used in the installation. What are their possible significations? For instance, visual effects and meanings are also contingent on the artists choice of materials and their mechanisms, if any. Had the artist not shaped
Vargas Museum Educational Guide Bomba Page 4 of 5

the disco lights into bombs, what could have been the outcome of the installation? If the mirror bombs were not rotating, would it have made a crucial difference? c. Look at the Naked Jukebox. How often do you encounter them? The jukebox industry is now defunct in the country, making the machine a vintage piece. Kawayan de Guia sought the expertise of Mr. Roger Berdon, then jukebox technician residing in Olongapo. What aspects of recollection are embodied by this jukebox piece? 3. If you wish to adopt the post-visit activity below, request a copy of the floor plan of the Third Floor Galleries of the Vargas Museum from the museum personnel stationed at the exhibition area. Post-visit Classroom Activity: Be a Bricoleur Today! Ask the class to decide on a specific issue in contemporary society. Divide the class into groups. Instruct them to bring coloring materials, cartolina, scissors, glue, and old magazines. Each group will conceptualize an installation by reworking the concept of bomba/bomb using the Third Floor Galleries of the Vargas Museum as exhibition site. The floor plan can be used as reference. Make a visual plan of the installation by drawing and/or collage. Each group will share to the class their proposed projects. It is suggested that students mention the following in their report: 1. 2. 3. 4. Title and brief background of the project Materials and new media to be used and their specifications Significance of the project to the group and audience Underlying concepts and meanings

Suggested Readings Eagleton, Terry, ed. Ideology. New York and London: Longman Press, 1994. (Main Library, Social Sciences section) Hertz, Richard. Theories of Contemporary Art. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985. (College of Fine Arts Library) Minor, Vernon Hyde. Art Historys History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994. (CFA, CAL Library) Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. (College of Arts and Letters Library)

Vargas Museum Educational Guide

Bomba

Page 5 of 5