Contexts of Art

Having multiple, varied contexts

Context

▪ settings, conditions,  set of background

circumstances, info
occurrences affecting
production and reception
or audience response to
an artwork

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Bulul
▪ indigenous pre-colonial
ritual object & motif in he
everyday life of the
Cordilleran region

3
 Bulul
▪ ‘mumbaki’ – drench it in pig’s blood
▪ has elements of sculpture but
not regarded as such by its
makers and people in the
Cordillera region

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Bulul collection
at Hiwang Village, Banaue Ifugao 5
 Though ancient in origin, it continues to be
contemporary, to be valued & made by
present people

Bulul collection
at Hiwang Village, Banaue Ifugao 6
Bulul collection
at Bencab Museum 7
Gaston Damag
▪ exhibition system (Paris-
based or museum)

▪ bulul & other mundane

objects from his native
Ifugao homeland as
subject matter

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Gaston Damag

▪ utilizes industrial materials & processes with

traditional bulul imagery to form installations 9
Bulul crosses over from the
everyday to the exhibition system,
either as collections in museum
context or as material/subject for a
contemporary artist

Gaston Damag 10
 “
What happens to an object when it’s
removed from its original context and
changes function?

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 “
When a traditional form is combined with
machine-fabricated materials and
exhibited in a contemporary arts gallery,
how does our perception of the bulul
change?

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No single definition of art.

Origin of
Circulation
objects

Practices in
Contexts of
exhibiting
production
art

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What are the
different
contexts of art?
 • mode of production (kinds of
materials accessible, conditions
surrounding labor)

1. • traditional artist’s resources vs.

highly urbanized artist
Artist’s
background • initiation & training in art
age, gender, culture, economic
conditions, social environment • formal schooling, workshops,
& disposition by themselves
 “
Do you know an artist who is self-taught?
How did he or she learn? Did he/she
closely observe other artists?

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weaving

methods of production
– from elders

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sculpture-making

▪ Batis, Pampanga
▪ apprenticeship with
a matecanan
mandukit (master
sculptor) to make
santos

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sculptures of red horses
as Paete (Laguna)
markers

▪ mediums, techniques,
styles in art shared
among members of a
community

▪ unique identity /
markers of a
community
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Gallery / museum setting

uniqueness of markers are

the art and named, works in
artist’s exhibitions and
sold through
individual galleries, fairs &
expression… functions

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 “
Some artworks are done in collaboration with
carpenters, wood carvers, weavers who assist the
artists in underpainting, varnishing,
fabricating…their works. Although paid, they’re
hardly credited in museum captions and
catalogues. Why so?

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 Some artists deliberately foreground their cultural
identity in their works.

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Abdulmari Asia
Imao

▪ integrated motifs
from the culture of Place your screenshot here

Mindanao

▪ okir designs in
paintings &
sculptures using
modernist styles
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Abdulmari Asia Imao

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Abdulmari Asia
Imao

▪ 1984 stylized S-
shaped brass Place your screenshot here

sculpture (Vargas
museum)

▪ integrates motifs
(crescent moon, star &
okir)
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Julle Lluch
(Iligan City)

▪ emphasize her female

identity & personal Place your screenshot here
experiences in many of
her terracotta works

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Julle Lluch
(Iligan City)

▪ Cutting Onions Always

Makes Me Cry (1988) Place your screenshot here

▪ self-portrait presents
cooking – associated
with women in the home

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Victorio Edades

1913 International Exhibition

of Modern Arts during study
in US in early 20th Century

The Sketch 28
Alfredo Juan &
Isabel Aquilizan

▪ Migrant artists
Place your screenshot here

▪ Migration – provides
different set of
material conditions &
relations of
production

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Passage (2011)
Alfredo Juan & Isabel Aquilizan
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Alfredo Juan & Isabel Aquilizan 31
 • materials they use

• occurrences or natural
phenomena they either

2.
imitate or use as subject

Nature
source of inspiration for artists
T’nalak

▪ abaca fibers from

trunk of banana tree, Place your screenshot here

colored with red &

black dyes from
roots & leaves of
plants

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T’nalak

▪ weaver produces
t’nalak designs Place your screenshot here

▪ process is evocative
of the people’s belief
that spirits reside with
people in the natural
environment
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Tinikling

▪ an indigenous dance
-imitates natural Place your screenshot here

elements

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 Ceramist Nelfa
Querubin-Tompkins

Place your screenshot here

▪ experimented with San

Dionisio clay from Iloilo

▪ mixing with river sand and

lead glaze
-elegant black pottery 36
 Nature as provider,
source of inspiration &
force one has to contend
with.
Environmental
conditions
(topography,
climate)

Availability
of resources
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 Traditional Ivatan
houses (Batanes)

▪ stones & fango for its walls

▪ roof (pyramidal construction – Place your screenshot here

thick cogon thatch with reeds,

rattan, net)

▪ stone, lime & cogon

construction protects them
from strong typhoons &
earthquakes
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Junyee’s Angud, a
forest once (2007)

▪ commentary on the
abuse of nature Place your screenshot here

▪ 10,000 species of
gathered tree stumps –
recreate a deforested
landscape

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Photographs alert the public about
the alarming effects of climate
change; forces people to be
“refugees in their own land”

Veejay Villafranca 40
Veejay Villafranca 41
▪ effects of typhoon
Yolanda show
melancholic images

▪ absence or loss
caused by natural
disaster
Roy Lagarde 42
Fernando Amorsolo

▪ landscapes as
romantic
pictures

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 Ricarte Purugganan

▪ nature as
uncontrollable
force
Toilers of the Sea (1980) 44
 • significance of traditional art
is not only on aesthetic
appearance but functionality &

3. value to the community

• personal memories,
Everyday life circumstances that reveal
emotions
traditional forms used in daily
private situations

contemporary arts drawn to

scenes, objects & issues in
everyday life
Crisp Ilocano bed
covers with ubas
designs
Place your screenshot here

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Delicate Pastillas
wrappers (Bulacan)
Place your screenshot here

with elaborate
cutout designs

47
Changes in landscape,
innovations in
technology & popular
types of media
influenced the way we
live.

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 Place your screenshot here

old photos & things like

worn clothes
Marina Cruz 49
 Lirio Salvador

Sandata ni Gemma Sandata ni Shiva

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Lirio Salvador
Sandata ng Espasyo

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Lirio Salvador

fuses easily synthesizers & the unique forms

accessible objects: guitar strings to that look like
machine discords, convert them to figures from
bicycle parts, functional science fiction are
kitchen implements instruments as common as
everyday items

assemblage assemblages
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 Place your screenshot here

changing urban
landscape
MM Yu,
Cavite collective 53
 • Spanish colonial art period

4. • Marcos regime edifices

Society, Politics,
Economy &
History
to resist ideological structures,
inspire people, initiate change
55
 19th century

much Suez Canal

(travel / Secular Art of
economic
prosperity
trade Art Portraiture
easier)

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20th Century

made photography
accessible for
documentary & artistic
functions

Kodak (1928)
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 ▪ 1st film directed
by Pinoy
Place your screenshot here

▪ by Hermogenes
Ilagan, Leo Ignacio
(live music)

Dalagang Bukid 58
▪ Benedicto Cabrera

▪ aspect of colonial Place your screenshot here

history, gaze of the

colonized

Brown Brother’s
Burden 59
Appropriation
transforming existing materials through the
juxtaposition of elements taken from one
context and placing these in another to
present alternative meanings, structure and
composition

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5.
• museum – arranged &
categorized

Mode of • public – education & leisure

Reception
when, where, & how art is
encountered
 “
What forms of street art are in
museums? What happens when
they bring their works to the streets?

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Reception

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 ▪ Mideo Cruz (2010)

▪ installation – sculpture of
Christ with phallus on his
nose Place your screenshot here

-provocative elements

▪ Reproductive Health
Law

Poleteismo (Kulo/boil at CCP) 64

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Thanks!
Prepared by
Ms. Danna Mae Yuzon
DepEd Teacher

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Context-ify (appropriate)
▪ Setting ▪ Title
▪ Events ▪ Message
Sequence of events ▪ Target audience
▪ Characters
▪ Narrator or POV
▪ Tone or
atmosphere
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