“Constructions of Truths” features the video works of nine artists and art groups at MCAD Manila, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. The exhibition is presented by the museum in partnership with The Han Nefkens Foundation and in collaboration with Edouard Malingue Gallery, Kurimanzutto, the Ruya Foundation and Silverlens.
“Constructions of Truths” asks us to reflect on the truth of images that populate our everyday, and how these affect our daily lives and views of the world. The artists in the show use the projected image as a metaphor for the images that are projected onto us, and question the way they are constructed through formal, aesthetic and narrative explorations.
The exhibition at MCAD Manila encourages the viewer to negotiate and question the perceptions of reality that are constantly shifting and changing, presented as differing truths through diverse channels, be they political, mediatic, fictional or other. More often than not, we have come to accept, unquestioningly, the veracity of images, more than that of words. However, in a time when the construction of images is a rather simple process, the question about their authenticity, and thus about the truth they claim to represent, becomes of paramount importance. We must look deeper into the images we see in order to reflect on what is reality and what is not. Twenty-first century digital technology has allowed for an unprecedented manipulation of the photographic and moving image in post-production, which has lead to the creation of virtually an infinite number of possible truths. The original image is so far removed from the final one that it becomes invisible. “Constructions of Truths” at MCAD Manila thus interrogates:
For what is now the originating image? When we are inundated with images everyday, what happens with our perception of the world and its realities? Are we able to distinguish realities from constructed ones? Are we able to reconcile what is believable and what is not?
Martha Atienza’s Man in Suit (2008) captures the everyday routines of working men in Bantayan Island, Cebu, and the riles in Manila, offering a snippet of Southeast Asian life. In the video, a man is pushing a cart down the railway track, another man is making bread, and there is even a man paddling his bangka in the open sea. All are taking pride in their everyday work, and nothing seems out of place, other than they are wearing tailored suits. The image of these labourers going about their daily tasks in suits is paradoxical. And this is exactly what Atienza wants to achieve: she is suggesting that we have grown accustomed to thinking that success is depicted by a man wearing a suit, and not one pushing a cart. However, these common men deem themselves successful in their own world. If they had the same power as men in suits, what changes would they bring about? The artist encourages us to rethink the meaning of success.
Ho Tzu Nyen tackles the issues of Southeast Asia as a region never unified by language, religion or political power. When he started The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia (cdosea) in 2012, he posed the question: what constitutes the unity of Southeast Asia? The subject revealed itself to be so complicated that it required extensive research, which has lasted for years. The Dictionary proposes 26 terms, one for each letter of the English / Latin alphabet. Each term is a concept, a motif or a biography, and together they form a sort of tattered tapestry of the region.
Maria Taniguchi’s Untitled (crystal palace + gauguin) features a slideshow of images taken at the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Court in London, accompanied by a voice over describing an unnamed Gauguin painting and posing the questions: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?. The voice describing daily ruotines and the images of dinosaur statues create a humorous juxtaposition, while also pointing to ideas about past and progress.
In “Constructions of Truths” at MCAD Manila are also the commissioned work of Shuruq Harb, winner of the 2019 Han Nefkens Foundation – Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Award, and Thao Nguyên Phan, winner of Han Nefkens Foundation – LOOP Barcelona Video Art Award 2018.
Shuruq Harb’s single-channel video The Jump (2020) explores the psychological terrains of leaping into the void. The work is set in the Jordan Valley and weaves multiple stories narrated by a robotic voice. The artist is interested in the possibilities of storytelling through fragmentation, which she views as a technological condition of the contemporary era. This can be seen in the way we navigate in the virtual world and our short attention spans. Moreover, fragmentation also references the artist’s own geographical and historical condition as a Palestinian. Harb is committed to finding new ways of narration, presenting sound and image without the abstraction of the human subject.
Thao Nguyên Phan‘s Becoming Alluvium (2019) is the result of her ongoing research on the Mekong River, which crosses China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. With a poetic innuendo, the work observes the environmental changes to the river brought on by the expansion of agriculture, overfishing and the economic migration of farmers to urban areas. The artist explores pressing questions on food security and our ecological responsibility towards the agricultural environment. While focusing on the perceptions of the impact of such environmental changes on nature and human life, Phan proposes alternate versions of reality through different levels of narrative, simultaneously depicting real and imaginary worlds.
“Constructions of Truths” is on view from 6 February to 12 April 2020 at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines.