The work of Joon Claudio entitled: “NTT” being showed at the Cinematheque Iloilo Gallery of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will continue this October in order to enable more Ilonggos to view his works.
Since its formal opening last August, Claudio’s mixed media work had drawn interest from local artists, art students, scholars, academics, and the public in general. The showing of his work is extended until October 12, 2016.
The “NTT” has also solicited public interest about the artist having been born in Pampanga but has now lived in Iloilo in the last three years.
Claudio who earned a degree in Fine Arts from the Philippines Women’s University was based in Paris for 14 years with his family. It is the first time for many Ilonggos to be introduced to both the artist and his works which imparts the dominant influence that he acquired from Spanish and minimalist art of the 90’s.
In his “Boy with a Flute”, Claudio created a figure of a boy offering his music to nature.
“At first glance, the viewer will see nature while the flutist gradually emerges into sight, like the swelling melody his instrument develops,” explained Allyn May Canja, gallery coordinator of Casa Real Gallery.
“Toto Prinsipe”, on the other hand, presents a playful figure of a boy smiling as his yellow crown floats in the same earthly brown, noticeably a principal color in the collection. The work is a mixed media mounted in a 4ft x 5ft frame.
One familiar title among Ilonggos in Claudio’s collection is “Pangaluyag” or courtship in Hiligaynon. A mixed media in a 4ft x 8ft frame, “it tells a story of love between different colors bounded by the glow of love in gold and red,” shared Canja.
The over-all theme of the collection is described as an embodiment of telluric entities; as such, the pieces appeared like they were painted having the ground as the canvas. The brown is presented in different shades and it illustrates his choice of tone.
Claudio, who is also a musician, shares his keenness at listening on the voices of the earth and the elements from nature; hence, evident in his choice of color and manner of illustrating the subject in his current collection.
His work communicates the parallel sources by which the artist draws out inspirations – nature and music. Claudio was also one of the artists that formed the Waling-Waling band in the 80’s, a group that tackles nature and environmental themes in music.
Joon Claudio’s “NTT” is the 14th exhibit organized by the ViVa ExCon Organization of Iloilo this year. It is part of the yearlong series of art events which will culminate in the four-day Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference (ViVa ExCon 2016) set on November 17 to 21, 2016 in Iloilo City.
The ViVa Excon is the longest running and the biggest art biennial in the Visayas region. It was first held in February 1990 in Negros led by the Black Artists in Asia of Bacolod.
*Photo credit: Eric Barbosa, Jr. – ATMOS.PH