Holding a mirror to the present
Jose Tence Ruiz and DengCoy Miel challenge today’s artists
Jose Tence Ruiz and DengCoy Miel challenge today’s artists
“It is finally great to see works that want to say something,” a collector remarked, during the opening night of “Toggle: Engage-Disengage” at ArtInformal, a two-man show featuring the latest creations of Jose Tence Ruiz and DengCoy Miel.
As he remembers the feedback, Ruiz shares his own observations on the high capitalist inclination in the art scene with fervor and passion, pointing out that the collector “may have been already jaded with a lot of the trivialized formalisms that attempt to pass as good art.” He also laments the prevalence of art where the trivial gets blown up and the significant gets sidetracked.
This is just one of the many instances where Ruiz calls it as he sees it, something similarly characteristic of Miel, and largely evident in both veteran artists’ oeuvre. “Toggle” is no different, with the show being a marriage of two minds that view critical thinking as the highest expression of our capacity as human beings—one that is not exercised to its full potential in modern society.
The interaction between Miel and Ruiz is born from a long-standing bond. Ruiz recounts having known Miel since post-EDSA 1, working alongside him at intervals, with both artists crossing continents to assist one another on joint and individual projects. While their synergy was undeniable, the ArtInformal show’s pressing deadline—a mere eight months—coupled with the gallery’s immense space posed as a challenge.
“Then again, as newspaper people, we could respond very quickly to situations,” Ruiz says. “I myself still behave that way, although I do prefer to plan long ahead.” By September, he shares, he had the idea for “Toggle.”
“One button, two opposite effects. On or off. Like most of our gadgets. Like most of our sensibilities in this age of over information. Turn on, turn off, and on again,” he adds.
“When we did have ‘Toggle,’” Miel says, “we basically worked with our instincts, focusing mainly on how this conflicted and constant binary oscillations within all of us could be addressed visually.” The driving force, he explains, has always been to make sense of everything, with the show providing ample opportunity to showcase these concerns.
These concerns became a common ground for both artists, who have expressed interest in issues such as “local and global crises of freedom, corruption, decadence, the anxieties of a world with capitalism under question, the prevalence of non-truth, false promises, and dictatorships,” Ruiz points out.
Their artistic chemistry was palpable in “Toggle,” which was a showcase of both their command over color and composition, as well as their propensity to go beyond traditional mediums, culminating in a collection Miel describes as reflective of the current, dark milieu society is in. “It seeks to find some hope and answers,” he says, adding that the works are meant to be “an inquiry into these systems of inequity.”
For Ruiz, a critical editorial mind and a deep-rooted sense of nationalism, as Filipinos touched by the history of the archipelago, has informed much of what he and Miel has done throughout their career. Admitting to being more restrained in nature, compared to Miel’s more sanguine state, Ruiz stressed that beyond their respective innovations in form and narrative, both artists partake of a painting tradition that has sought to mark its own time, which is intrinsic and fundamental to their artmaking process.
Miel also recognized their “shared response to the emergencies of our time.” He adds that “being longtime Manila newspapermen at one point has sharpened this acuity. The aesthetics are dictated by this need to amplify with the utmost urgency the burning issues of our time.”
This, Ruiz affirms, continues to the development of pieces that that are “situated, historical, current, yet cognizant of the universal and time-stretched thread of human behavior.”
Both artists continue to be significant voices that hold a mirror to society and to the industry they operate in, standing in opposition to the worrisome trends in Philippine art today. Ruiz says he sees an increasing premium being placed on“large sales and big prices over content, meaning, and social relevance.”
Miel adds that, while Philippine Art is in the upswing, having made inroads globally, it has become more beholden to market forces. “In this so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is a feeding frenzy that certainly favors some, usually the untried and the untested. This forced maturity produces art that masks certain inadequacies, both technically and conceptually,” he explains.
Ruiz stresses: “Art as a way to make sense of the crises of the present gives way to art as a way to escape hard truths and wallow in a pillow of false assurance. The monetary reward to compliment big capital is quite large, quite lucrative.”
For Miel, market correction poses as a scary prospect “for a young Filipino artist who is living the good life of a ‘made’ one.” This, he says, creates “fertile ground for a mild, creeping neurosis to balloon and render the artist inutile and unproductive.” There must be constant redefinition of the approach to image-making that would somehow serve as an index to being a Filipino, he adds, advocating the need to be “mindful of the perils of repetition.”
While the industry may well be on its way to correct itself, Ruiz emphasizes the importance of being aware of the direction the art world is headed in producing art that emphasizes the formal instead of a total context, potentially making the work more ornamental and less critical. “It will speak poorly of us to future generations who hope our work today helps them understand why things have become what they now have,” Ruiz adds.
“Toggle” by Jose Tence Ruiz and DengCoy Miel is on display until Jan. 19, 2019 at at ArtInformal Greenhills,
Both artists continue to be significant voices that hold a mirror to society and to the industry they operate in, standing in opposition to the worrisome trends in Philippine art today.