Sugarcoated realities in twin solo exhibits
WHAT passes at first glance as an innocent, surrealist depiction of a class picture of white-uniformed students reveals a grim element at closer inspection. Lurking in the background over the shoulder of one subject with a splitting face is the personification of death, its head tilted toward the direction of the unsuspecting young girls and its hallow eyes darted at their souls.
While the subjects’ pose and the artwork’s title itself suggest the common photo-shoot practice, something feels amiss, judging by the long faces and disoriented eyes. Are the girls obeying the photographer’s command to look at the camera, or are they consciously looking ahead and away from the darkness after them?
Nothing is what it seems in Nika Dizon’s Class Picture. By extension, nothing is what it appears to be in the show that features the piece, Safe Space, nor in its concurrent solo exhibition, Paola Germar’s It’s Still Life, which both opened on Sunday at Kaida Contemporary Gallery.
Through candy-colored pieces and even literal candies and cake installations, the two exhibitions draw viewers with saccharine appeal that coats the bitter realities of today’s world, from myriad social inequalities to the threat of sickness and death amid the global health crisis.
According to Kaida Contemporary gallery assistant Elle Lucena, their new pair of solo exhibitions feature two young and up-and-coming women who are known for their playful use of bright and vibrant colors.
“I think this change in tone is very important nowadays as the end of the pandemic still remains rather distant,” Lucena said. “The works, while touching on topics like social inequality, still manage to provoke and stimulate the senses. Simply put, the works are fun, engaging, and a breath of fresh air.”
For her debut solo show, Dizon offers treats beyond oil paintings. She whipped up cakes, popsicles, and lollipops using plaster and resin, all dipped in sweet colors and neatly laid out on a long table and a glass cabinet. When the visual sugar rush passes, however, the edges of razor blades and knives inside the assortment of snacks and desserts come into sharp focus.
Also marked with playful mischief and the balance of inviting colors and threatening premise are the works of Paola Germar. The artist has always displayed a penchant for toying with skeleton characters and the theme of death, making the ideas dance and socialize in lively settings. At a time when death has become a pressing, everyday concern for most people, Germar reaches out to her usual subjects yet again.
In It’s Still Life, the artist explores the ways how we have adapted to these most unusual times, when the past year in quarantine feel like a millennium and a blink at once. Germar portrays people stuck at home, such as in Single Seating Cinema and In-house-treasure Hunting. Both pieces showcase skeleton figures that come to life to the touch, much like a mosaic, through the artist’s use of hand-cut textile strips.
It’s Still Life by Paola Germar and Class Picture by Nika Dizon are on view until March 16 at Kaida Contemporary at 45 Scout Madriñan Street, South Triangle, Quezon City.