DIOKNO PASILAN
STATEMENT
"Studio practice + Art = Interaction This installation and performance developed through my on-going residences in Palawan, Philippines and Perth, Western Australia.
Images of a Palawan house are projected onto the mosquito net representing the illusionary home transporting it to its new neighbourhood.
Inside the net will be my transient studio where people can interact and play the instruments provided.
Diokno also provides workshops in batik-making and for anyone interest in learning to play traditional musical instruments from the Philippines. "
BIOGRAPHY
Diokno Pasilan born on the island of Negros Occidental in central Philippines 17 August, 1963.
Self-taught visual artist and musician. Had numerous group and solo exhibitions both in Australia and the Philippines.
Conducted various workshops including batik-making, handmade paper and community art projects in the Philippines; Australia (Brisbane, Perth, Pitjantjatjara community in Amata, S.A. and in Switzerland).
From 1993-1997 co-ordinated with the Australian Embassy (Manila) by assisting and collaborating with various visiting Australian artists funded through the Asialink program. Some of the artists included Mike Parr, Pat Hoffie, Keith Lobby, Virginia Hilyard and Jimmy Pike.
Granted Australian residency in 1995, permanently moved to Perth in 1998 and undertook formal study in fine arts at the W.A. School of Art, Design and Media, Perth (Diploma of Arts - Fine Arts).
Recent solo exhibitions include "From the Islands", Kurb Gallery, Northbridge, W.A. (April 2005); "Tao-po" Lumiere Gallery, Manila, Philippines (2004); "Kemdeng", Galeri Kamarikutan, Palawan, Philippines (2004); "Time Will Tell", Drawing Room, Manila, Philippines (2003); "Halad" Boat Offering, Viva Vincent, Hyde Park, Perth, W.A. (2000); "Pahiyas" Kulcha Building, Fremantle, W.A. (2000).
Group exhibitions include "Sungdu-an 3: Making The Local", National Commission on Culture and the Arts national tour exhibition (2003-04); "Tubbataha Reflection", Palawan, (2002); Dinner Vision, Artrage Festival, Perth, W.A. (2000); Robertson Park Artists Studio, Halverson Hall, Fitzgerald Street, Perth, W.A. (2000).
Chosen by the Philippines National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) as one of five artists to represent the region of Luzon in a national travelling exhibition held during 2003 and 2004 in various locations in the Philippines. The exhibition was based primarily on how migrant artists engage and integrate themselves in their adapted community.
REVIEWS
"ART AS LIFE
Makati habitu’s may have recently enjoyed viewing “ Gantangan Diokno Pasilan’s art installation in one of the stylish cafes at the Ayala business district. On one of its walls are many lighted rice boxes with images of bahay kubo juxtaposed with mirror reflections of their inhabitant’s faces. There is more to these boxes than just curios. Diokno, a painter, stage designer, ethnic instrumentalist, film scorer, and performance artist, initiated and organized the MASINLO, acronym for Magandang Sining Logar , with the support of the local government and schools. It is a house-and-garden beautification movement in San Vicente, Palawan where Diokno lives with his Australian wife and son. Gantangan is both metaphor and document of how simple people of Barangay Kemdeng learned to meet and enhance their barest necessities of food and shelter. The boxes or ganta, a unit measure of rice, contain images of the bamboo-and-nipa shacks which the Palawenos transformed into artistic homes with lush floral or fruit gardens, proudly expressing the individual owners’ personality and identity.
“Diokno developed this concept further by creating another installation entitled “Enter Net” for the Sungdu-an National traveling exhibit recently held at the Kamarikutan Gallery in Puerto Princesa. He installed the familiar cotton mosquito net as a temporary shelter at the gallery grounds where the village people, the barangay leader, the herbal healer, the priest, the teachers, could meet eat, socialize and rest from their four-hour drive to the city to attend the exhibition opening. A transparent image of the best- winning bahay kubo was projected outside the kulambo for gallery viewers to admire. "
Imelda Cajipe-Endaya (Dec. 2004), Business Day, Philippines, page 30-31
“… Diokno Pasilan's panel of wooden framed metal plates bitten and splattered with elegant brown faces cancelled by black crosses epitomises the relationship between humble materials and sophisticated imagery that runs throughout the group.
Pasilan is an artist from Negros in the Philippines. His work embodies both the recent radical history of the Philippines and the inescapable imagery of its Christian legacy. On each side of the central panel single lines of small bitten deeply panels spread out like wings bearing complex alchemical landscapes of black pitch, silver and gold.
This is in itself a religious framework an accessible invitation to ritual way of looking. Pasilan is also a musician. He works with everyone who wants to play, invoking community through daily action. On opening day music will bind the artists and their audience together in full expression of their community.”
Bromfield, D. (2000), The Robertson Park Group Exhibition, Robertson Park Artists Studio Catalogue essay, 18-14
“Etchings by Pasilian also provoke questions, about colonialism and its effects. His works display a plethora of symbols, from serpents to basketball courts, sharing the surface with a disembodied friar's robe. The prints play with shapes, lines and values to offer an interesting field for the play of ideas.”
McGrath, J. (1998), Review: Wellman Street at ArtsHouse, at website: http://www.artseen.vbw.com.au/wellmanst.html
“Pasitan's more conventional etchings recall a well-known legend of the priest's cassock which took on a life of its own.”
Bromfield, D (1998) Young Idealists show their wares, The West Australian / Big Weekend, Dec 12, 7
“DIOKNO Pasilan's performance symbolising the ritual of life and death has been a talking point around Northbridge. Dressed in black cloth, the Wellman Street Studio artist walked along James Street to Artshouse on December 11 where he used needles and condoms to create a form on the pavement. Bells and chimes accompanied Diokno's 20-minute performance. Diokno's statement was an introduction to the Wellman Street Exhibition - a collection of works by four artists from the Wellman Street studio, Mt Lawley.”
Four show their art, Guardian Express, Dec 15-21 1998, 14.
To me, Pasilan's etchings are less obviously political and more romantically and mysteriously allegorical, as we find coats without bodies flying through parks and other, stranger, landscapes.
Cook, R. (1998) Reviews: Hit and miss Boyd show, The West Australian Arts Today, Dec 23, 6
Links for more information
http://www.gracenono.com/taomusic/tao_metronomad.html
"Studio practice + Art = Interaction This installation and performance developed through my on-going residences in Palawan, Philippines and Perth, Western Australia.
Images of a Palawan house are projected onto the mosquito net representing the illusionary home transporting it to its new neighbourhood.
Inside the net will be my transient studio where people can interact and play the instruments provided.
Diokno also provides workshops in batik-making and for anyone interest in learning to play traditional musical instruments from the Philippines. "
BIOGRAPHY
Diokno Pasilan born on the island of Negros Occidental in central Philippines 17 August, 1963.
Self-taught visual artist and musician. Had numerous group and solo exhibitions both in Australia and the Philippines.
Conducted various workshops including batik-making, handmade paper and community art projects in the Philippines; Australia (Brisbane, Perth, Pitjantjatjara community in Amata, S.A. and in Switzerland).
From 1993-1997 co-ordinated with the Australian Embassy (Manila) by assisting and collaborating with various visiting Australian artists funded through the Asialink program. Some of the artists included Mike Parr, Pat Hoffie, Keith Lobby, Virginia Hilyard and Jimmy Pike.
Granted Australian residency in 1995, permanently moved to Perth in 1998 and undertook formal study in fine arts at the W.A. School of Art, Design and Media, Perth (Diploma of Arts - Fine Arts).
Recent solo exhibitions include "From the Islands", Kurb Gallery, Northbridge, W.A. (April 2005); "Tao-po" Lumiere Gallery, Manila, Philippines (2004); "Kemdeng", Galeri Kamarikutan, Palawan, Philippines (2004); "Time Will Tell", Drawing Room, Manila, Philippines (2003); "Halad" Boat Offering, Viva Vincent, Hyde Park, Perth, W.A. (2000); "Pahiyas" Kulcha Building, Fremantle, W.A. (2000).
Group exhibitions include "Sungdu-an 3: Making The Local", National Commission on Culture and the Arts national tour exhibition (2003-04); "Tubbataha Reflection", Palawan, (2002); Dinner Vision, Artrage Festival, Perth, W.A. (2000); Robertson Park Artists Studio, Halverson Hall, Fitzgerald Street, Perth, W.A. (2000).
Chosen by the Philippines National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) as one of five artists to represent the region of Luzon in a national travelling exhibition held during 2003 and 2004 in various locations in the Philippines. The exhibition was based primarily on how migrant artists engage and integrate themselves in their adapted community.
REVIEWS
"ART AS LIFE
Makati habitu’s may have recently enjoyed viewing “ Gantangan Diokno Pasilan’s art installation in one of the stylish cafes at the Ayala business district. On one of its walls are many lighted rice boxes with images of bahay kubo juxtaposed with mirror reflections of their inhabitant’s faces. There is more to these boxes than just curios. Diokno, a painter, stage designer, ethnic instrumentalist, film scorer, and performance artist, initiated and organized the MASINLO, acronym for Magandang Sining Logar , with the support of the local government and schools. It is a house-and-garden beautification movement in San Vicente, Palawan where Diokno lives with his Australian wife and son. Gantangan is both metaphor and document of how simple people of Barangay Kemdeng learned to meet and enhance their barest necessities of food and shelter. The boxes or ganta, a unit measure of rice, contain images of the bamboo-and-nipa shacks which the Palawenos transformed into artistic homes with lush floral or fruit gardens, proudly expressing the individual owners’ personality and identity.
“Diokno developed this concept further by creating another installation entitled “Enter Net” for the Sungdu-an National traveling exhibit recently held at the Kamarikutan Gallery in Puerto Princesa. He installed the familiar cotton mosquito net as a temporary shelter at the gallery grounds where the village people, the barangay leader, the herbal healer, the priest, the teachers, could meet eat, socialize and rest from their four-hour drive to the city to attend the exhibition opening. A transparent image of the best- winning bahay kubo was projected outside the kulambo for gallery viewers to admire. "
Imelda Cajipe-Endaya (Dec. 2004), Business Day, Philippines, page 30-31
“… Diokno Pasilan's panel of wooden framed metal plates bitten and splattered with elegant brown faces cancelled by black crosses epitomises the relationship between humble materials and sophisticated imagery that runs throughout the group.
Pasilan is an artist from Negros in the Philippines. His work embodies both the recent radical history of the Philippines and the inescapable imagery of its Christian legacy. On each side of the central panel single lines of small bitten deeply panels spread out like wings bearing complex alchemical landscapes of black pitch, silver and gold.
This is in itself a religious framework an accessible invitation to ritual way of looking. Pasilan is also a musician. He works with everyone who wants to play, invoking community through daily action. On opening day music will bind the artists and their audience together in full expression of their community.”
Bromfield, D. (2000), The Robertson Park Group Exhibition, Robertson Park Artists Studio Catalogue essay, 18-14
“Etchings by Pasilian also provoke questions, about colonialism and its effects. His works display a plethora of symbols, from serpents to basketball courts, sharing the surface with a disembodied friar's robe. The prints play with shapes, lines and values to offer an interesting field for the play of ideas.”
McGrath, J. (1998), Review: Wellman Street at ArtsHouse, at website: http://www.artseen.vbw.com.au/wellmanst.html
“Pasitan's more conventional etchings recall a well-known legend of the priest's cassock which took on a life of its own.”
Bromfield, D (1998) Young Idealists show their wares, The West Australian / Big Weekend, Dec 12, 7
“DIOKNO Pasilan's performance symbolising the ritual of life and death has been a talking point around Northbridge. Dressed in black cloth, the Wellman Street Studio artist walked along James Street to Artshouse on December 11 where he used needles and condoms to create a form on the pavement. Bells and chimes accompanied Diokno's 20-minute performance. Diokno's statement was an introduction to the Wellman Street Exhibition - a collection of works by four artists from the Wellman Street studio, Mt Lawley.”
Four show their art, Guardian Express, Dec 15-21 1998, 14.
To me, Pasilan's etchings are less obviously political and more romantically and mysteriously allegorical, as we find coats without bodies flying through parks and other, stranger, landscapes.
Cook, R. (1998) Reviews: Hit and miss Boyd show, The West Australian Arts Today, Dec 23, 6
Links for more information
http://www.gracenono.com/taomusic/tao_metronomad.html
