Ateneo Art Gallery, Cross Art Projects present “Anonymity"

The Ateneo Art Gallery
in association with
The Cross Art Projects, Sydney
present

A N O N Y M I T Y

Featuring the works of

Poklong Anading

Winner, 2006 Ateneo Art Awards

Recipient, 2006 Ateneo Art Gallery

Sydney Studio Residency Grant

10-19 November 2006

The Cross Art Projects and

Satellite Project at The National Art School

Cross Conversations with

Poklong Anading + Ramon E.S. Lerma, Curator, Ateneo Art Gallery

and Closing Reception

18 November 2006, 4.00-6.00 pm

The Ateneo Art Gallery and the Cross Art Projects, Sydney, present "Anonymity," featuring the works of 2006 Ateneo Art Awards winner and 2006 Ateneo Art Gallery Sydney Studio Residency Grant Recipient Poklong Anading.

The exhibition, which runs from 10-19 November 2006, consists of fourteen photographs in duratrans lightbox format depicting individuals who the artist randomly accosted on the street, and invited to pose with mirrors held in front of their faces - the resulting reflection of sunlight on the camera lens obliterating their identities. A satellite project is also being organized by The Cross Art Projects at The National Art School in collaboration with its curator, Katie Dwyer.

Jo Holder, Director of The Cross Art Projects, who selected Anading from among the three who received the Ateneo Art Awards, the Philippines' most prestigious annual contemporary art prize, for the Sydney residency this year says: "Anading's pun on the nature of photography is a good natured inversion of the physical process whereby light transforms image onto paper and the eye relays this image into communication with emotions and intellect. The inversion is a clever and accessible way to communicate: to his subjects and to the viewer."

"Street photographic portraiture usually isolates well-known unknowns momentarily isolated before they disappear into the mass. These images work in the reverse to the secular gaze: by resisting individuation they rise above everyday dullness and distraction. However, the work rises above the level of playful wit to announce the glimmers of reflected light as a beacon of the imagination and a reminder of impermanence. One thinks of comparisons with Bill Viola and religious painting tradition and iconography and the triumph of the anonymous masses!"

"This is original and lucid work with a keen sense of enquiry. Anading clearly is an experienced communicator of new perspectives. His originality likes in his willingness to engage with audiences. It is interesting to note how he re-visits earlier debates on the relation between community networks and artistic avant-garde."

The Ateneo Art Awards are presented annually by the Ateneo Art Gallery, the premier museum of mdern and contemporary Philippine art, to Filipino artists or collectives aged 35 years or under for significant work presented in an exhibition held at any public venue over the past year. The two other artists who received the Awards in 2006 are Maya Muñoz and Mideo Cruz.

As part of his grant, which provides him with roundtrip airfare, accommodation and an allowance, Anading will also travel to Melbourne and Bendigo in Victoria courtesy of La Trobe University as part of its 2006-09 Arts Linkage Program with the Ateneo de Manila University.

An exhibition catalogue, with an essay by artist, independent curator and 2006 Ateneo Art Awards juror Jose Tence Ruiz will be available.

For more information about this exhibition, "Anonymity," organized by the Ateneo Art Gallery and the Cross Art Projects, please contact Jo Holder at joholder@aic.net.au or Ramon E.S. Lerma at rlerma@ateneo.edu

Ateneo Art Gallery is located at Rizal Library Bldg., Ateneo De Manila University, Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

Ateneo Art Gallery is open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; open from 8am to 12nn, Sunday.