Art Appreciation-KULO CCP

                            
   (I took this picture of the Virgin Mary amidst the cocks, the cocks and the barrel men in Burnham, Baguio City a couple of years ago.)

I was looking at the pictures of the controversial exhibit on the internet and I felt nothing. I was not offended nor did I feel anger. Maybe it’s because I am not present in the actual exhibit or maybe it’s because I have read some of Nietzsche’s writings. When one has read Nietzsche, these exhibits are mere commas and period to his contempt and vitriolic criticism of organized religion and society in general.

Anyway, while watching the grade six section 4 check their test papers I did some doodling to pass the time and came up with 4 steps to appreciating weird, abstract and the offensive iconoclastic art (I don’t know if this is the appropriate term for this kind of art) exhibited at the CCP.  I am talking about the Kulo exhibit.

1.       Look at the exhibit. See it with your eyes and whatever emotions you feel, just keep quiet and let it play in your mind. This is normal; art is supposed to elicit emotions. Now if you feel angry, enraged and furious just let it burn in your mind but avoid talking about it with anyone. It is important to keep thiese emotions to yourself so that your experience will not be tainted by the opinion of others. The important thing, at this stage, is not to talk anyone lest these emotions specially anger be inflamed into violence by the goading of people with violent tendencies. Keep away from them.

2.       When you felt your emotions whether it be anger or frustration or disappointment  or all of them has ebbed, sit down and ponder and process your emotions. What do you want to do about it? Ask yourself these questions: 

• Should I form or join a mob and stage a rally in front of the exhibition hall?
• Should I flash cards and banners with the messages ANTI-CHRIST, IMMORAL, AMORAL, BLASPHEMERS, GO TO HELL etc?
•  Should I scare the hell out of the artists and the people responsible for the exhibition by calling on the wrath of GOD, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Family and the heavenly hosts of angels, cherubim and seraphim to fall upon them?
• Should I murder the artists and bomb the exhibition hall?

If you have thought about these things and have decided to do one of them or have done one of   them, stop reading this blog. If you have thought about these things and came to the conclusion that these things are inane and insane, proceed.
 

3.       Once you have processed your feelings and think you can control the emotions you have felt, go back to the exhibit to take a second look. This time relax and let your imagination work. Let it run wild; let it take you wherever it wants to go, allow it work on what you have seen, the exhibit. Understandably, at first you cannot make head or tails of this exhibit. I have seen the photos of the exhibit and it was overcrowded to the point of overwhelming, but let it not stop you. Be patient and just keep looking.

4.       You feel frustrated and angry because you feel you have been cheated because you are expecting something else. This is understandable. You have been inculcated by the educational system with a very limited vocabulary on art. You are brainwashed into thinking that Filipino art should depict the rural life: art should portray the beautiful, the innocent, the serene, the peaceful.

       Be patient.

Though your mind is rebelling because it cannot find the basic elements of art, it cannot find symmetry, it cannot find sanity in color, hues…you are assaulted and insulted because you cannot understand. 

Be patient.

In the absence of order, in the absence of form, your mind begins to look for other way to comprehend the art work before you. Then slowly you see something else, the seemingly little unrelated, unconnected pictures…somehow there is a recurring theme…there is something that connects them you just can't  figure it out.

                               (Jesus wearing a Mickey Mouse ears and nose.)

Then you realized, the exhibit is the portrait of your hypocrisy. Either you are humbled by the experience or you  feel deeper hatred than when you first came to see it.