Gulo sa Bahay

Aileen Familara: Gulo sa Bahay

Aileen Familara's Gulo sa Bahay, or "Household Chaos" (2001), is an animated GIF image that is recognizable at first glance as a scientific display. Events depicted in the work are quarrels between three sisters, like seismic events occurring all across the globe. Essentially, the work shows real-time seismic events as a metaphor for human relations.

Familara explains: "The work partakes of the idiom of mapping, scientific representation. I was more concerned with modernizing the feng shui concepts of geomantic harmonies, but this time representing disharmonies."

Familara also sees the work taking on a humorous perspective on interpersonal relations, "this one examining conflict in my household of three sisters, rendered in the manner of GIS locators of earthquake events." See <http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/len>.

(© Aileen Familara, 746 Sikatuna BLISS, Sikatuna Vill., Quezon City 1101, Philippines. E-mail: <sulat_mulat@yahoo.com>).

Al Manrique: Asuang Steals Fire from Gurugang

Al Manrique's GIF animations present the many iterations he makes in producing a digital work. His Asuang Steals Fire from Gurugang (2001) consists of more than a hundred iterations depicting the volcanoes as mythological human figures quarreling over fire. Much of Manrique's work in digital media thrives on the Internet; some of the images in his composites are downloads from newsgroups fused with old documentary photographs he had taken many years ago. Manrique considers the mode of access to works on the Internet a very important development in Philippine art, and he says of web-specific exhibitions, "The response I expected was not immediate but long term. As in gallery exhibits, audience response is delayed. I expected viewers to survey my works, recall the images and maybe return for a second viewing. I expect some of them to download and save the files for later viewing, for reference." See <http://www.fineartforum.org/Gallery/2001/geocentricity/alman>.

(© Al Manrique, Bibliotech, Inc. G/F Prince David Condominium, 305 Katipunan Avenue, Logyola Heights, Quezon City 1108, Philippines. E-mail: <alman@csi.com.ph>.)

Ferdinand Doctolero: Angolo and Anarabrab

Ferdinand Doctolero used digital tools in Angolo and Anarabrab (2001) to re-interpret an ancient myth and to re-work an old illustration he had done in analog media. The myth as told: "Thousands of years ago, there came to our land a gigantic couple named Angolo and Anarabrab, who, when they walked, the earth shook, and when they spoke, their voices sounded like thunder. One day, they fought over who will get the greater number of pearls that they gathered in the Sulu Sea. The Philippines then was one great island, but after the fight the one island broke up into more than 7,000 pieces."

Doctolero surmises that the country's fault lines were a result of these quarrels. Producing work especially for a web-specific exhibition, he explains, "I do approve of the new alternative space for exhibition. . . . The difference between audiences at a physical gallery and on the Internet in my opinion is only in the sense of smell." See <http://www.fineartforum.org/ Gallery/2001/geocentricity/doctolero>.

(© Ferdinand Doctolero, Block 3, Lot 15 Laurel Street, Malacañang Village, Parañaque, Metro Manila 1715, Philippines. E-mail: <doctolero@pacific.net.ph>.

Fatima Lasay: Heaven and Earth

The works composing Heaven and Earth (2001) are "birth" charts of earthquakes in Maguindanao. I see the astrological aspect of the work as a systematized science of plotting positions of the planets at a particular time and place. Along with the birth charts, the fish is an important image in the work, as in the Maguindanao mythology, earthquake is believed to be the result of the movement of a huge fish called "limbo" that lives beneath the earth.

I see the work as an exploration towards depicting earthquake occurrences in terms of...