Blurry Days - White Walls Gallery

Exhibition

Online

Main Gallery

April 10, 2021

Encrypted. Password. Please.

Some years back, someone’s idea of cocooning popped it out into the public. It dwelt in the subconscious for a while as it was anticipated in both cynicism and speculative pitch. It thinned out, however, under the cover of shifting technologies brokered to make it happen…by the way.

The idea got lost into the wilderness of its own makings–but not the real form–as it happened–only unnoticed. It blended through the populace as a manifestation of a new reality readily accepted, and became a centrifugal force of exchange in a diversity of mediums, subdued in silence of a busied consciousness. The labelled pronouncement once ideated was no longer the issue of the day as a collective satisfaction diffusing through the millions of its willing followers confined within the freedom walls of a cocooned nirvana is taking place.

But not so… A new spawn of some kind from the same launching deck of shifting technologies unleashed. What had humanity once stood for–and succeeded from–is ushered into a new reckoning never before imagined in the glowing avenues of pre, or, rather, postmodernism. It’s a silent roar albeit disruptive and unmerciful threatening to shank the cocoon residents out into the isolation of a darkened sky.

These are our blurry days…come in.

“Blurry Days” is a group show which aims to exhibit different contemporary works inspired by various disciplines such as painting, tattoos and mixed media.

Featuring works from Carl Dumdum, Erick Villaruz, Gigie Santiago, Incio Pacis, Ivy Floresca, Jade Abendan, Jaime De Leon Tudd II, Joseph Fraylon, Joyce Ignacio, Krizel Hidalgo, Lendl Arvin, Loren Dayrit, Oben Miralles, Pau Howard, Tupe Guillergan and Zoren.

As we enter a new year, it can’t be helped that certain traumas and feelings muster up the strength to still affect us to this day. Be it past experiences, present predicaments or future anxieties, these invisible ghosts lie insidious in the dark, holding and waiting for us to succumb to them.

For his fifth solo exhibition, artist Yao Sampana presents us with “Behind the Shadows”, a somber exposition of portraits unveiling the abstract hauntings that plague us in our everyday. The artist brandishes his signature use of bluish-hued figures over dark backgrounds and red curtains to personify one’s struggles, providing for stark contrasts between saturated and desaturated tones, a power play of sorts towards the grim subject matter and the humanity behind coping with them. Inspired by his personal journey in confronting the invisible demons that hamper his creative ventures, the show aims to recognize, materialize and accept these negativities as part of one’s growth. Yao Sampana’s drive to overcome what haunts him is evident in his use of grasping hands and contorted figures; his hyperrealist technique evident as it provides for visceral images of despair and ultimately, acceptance.