Equilibrium

Modeka Art presents Equilibrium, an exhibition featuring Alfonso Recto, Ian Inoy, Jun-Jun Sta. Ana, Fitz Herrera, and Sam Penaso reckoning with the titular phenomenon through different mediums.

Through abstraction, the works slice through the representational to extract the liminialities between diametrical positions of being. A state of stasis is not necessarily a state of stillness. Balance manifests itself in a multitude of manners: in homeostasis, in a center of gravity, or in entropy. A negotiation between two parties can end in a stalemate or in an agreement. The flap of a butterfly wing can initiate a hurricane that unravels as quickly as it appears. Silence can be deafening. And these contrasting paradigms can coexist.

Alfonso Recto’s canvases feature bold, frenetic strokes in drastically contrasting hues that dance across the canvas. The assured repetition of certain lines are rhythmical, hinting at gestures musical in nature. Jun-Jun Sta. Ana’s work, on the other hand, is spacious and chamber-like in timbre, like a sentinel over a silent sea. The plane of found objects, delicately positioned, coalesce in sight.

The grids and fragmented patterns in Sam Penaso’s works are imbued with the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan, evoking the industrial as a site of activity where life thrive. Life persists too in Ian Inoy’s whimsical terrariums. The artist’s upcycled materials are revived from being flotsam and jetsam and imbued once more with vigor, floating in mid-air. Life is also evident in Fitz Herrera’s bold swathes of color with textures on which light and shadow waltz.

Equilibrium itself does not exist in a static instance; it’s a moment amidst chaos, when a certain order emerges. What it is, is defined in relation to the forces that enable it to be. These dynamics may not always be visible, but visual abstraction can depict them in manners perceptive and allegorical. We are reminded that though forces can upset entire systems, every object still comes to rest.

— DCB

EQUILIBRIUM is on view from March 26, 2021 – April 24, 2021.