Space and the Distances It Connects
Much has been said about space’s incongruous relationship with distance, scale and perspective, suggesting that in as much as space defines itself, it also expands its bounds.
Aklan-based visual artist Gary Custodio treads on this paradoxical aspect of space in his first solo show in Cebu – implying that space is a tangible concept that can be had without being held, be lost without being foregone.
Titled “Expandable” and presented by Qube Gallery in its new location at The Crossroads in Banilad, the show focuses on Custodio’s penchant for the aesthetic philosophies of modernism’s constructivist movement. Popularized by Russian painter Vladimir Tatlin, the movement gained traction in the early 1910s in Russia, and is a style that combines “faktura” or the material properties of an object with “tektonika” or the object’s spatial presence.
A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas’ Fine Arts Program, Custodio holds various national art awards under his belt
– the grand prizes of the 2014 GSIS Art Competition and the 2011 “Tanaw, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Art Competition” to name a few. His works have been exhibited in various group shows in Luzon, Visayas and Mindano, with “Expandable” being his first solo show in Cebu.
“Expandable,” treats viewers to samplings of a Filipino artist’s interpretation of an art-making style that was popularized by the Russians. Working with complementary colors whose relationships are made dynamic through a masterful use of tones, tints and shades, the show’s featured works engages viewers to lose themselves by taking in the ‘space’ the artworks metaphorically encroach – to ‘venture into’ canvas-bound creations with their mind’s eye.
Equal parts decorative and thoughtprovoking, “Expandable,” which runs until June 2, plays up the concept of how the distance between two points is not always necessarily a straight line – that in as much as space can divide, it can also connect.
descriptions are breathtaking. When climbing the “Tree of Life” in Costa Rica, he happened to come upon a sixfoot iguana, which he refers to as an “arboreal dragon.” When in Borneo, he paused midway up a tree, closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the rainforest. When he opens his eyes, the view “rushed at me from every direction, as if a veil had been lifted. The jungle was so much greater than the sum of its parts, and I was nothing more than an atom adrift within this overwhelming tide of energy.”
As this passage suggests, Aldred’s devotion to these natural spaces verges on spiritual. Aldred gives the reader a real sense of his embodied experience. He describes all varieties of bugs – ants, bees, wasps, spiders – and how they crawl on his skin as he scales the trees, as well as the sheer exhaustion of tossing a rope over an ever-higher target. He recalls incredible primates – gibbons, gorillas, howler monkeys and so forth – and envies their climbing expertise. He spies lumbering elephants, stealthy cats, colorful birds, graceful butterflies and determined tree frogs.
Truly, Aldred offers a feast for the imagination, one that will draw his readers back to the landscapes that they’ve loved and pull them forward toward new ones. This wide-ranging and beautiful book, brought to life with expertise, affection and respect, is not to be missed.