#panig

Philippine High School for the Arts PANIG: Sensing the Sides of Visual Arts Practice

10 June-9 July 2017 Bulwagang Carlos V. Francisco (CCP Little Theater Lobby)

Opening reception: 10 June, Saturday; 5pm

In celebration the 40th Anniversary of the Philippine High School for the Arts this 2017, art education is highlighted as the school’s flagship contribution to Philippine culture and to the world at large. PHSA art scholars are called Ibarang, and it is through their accomplishments that the cultural returns of the public support for the education of artists is laid to view.

Arts education is formation through structured and standards-based methods; it is a collective of systems that the student subscribes to and aspires to innovate on in artistic practice. Visual arts education at the PHSA is a synthesis of traditional and contemporary directions that prepares students for independent art production.

Panig is a suite of selected projects from the Grade 10 Visual Arts class of the Joya-Montano Batch.  It seeks to portray ‘sides’ or perspectives of existence through space and time. These are the viewpoints of young minds constructing their ideas about space, dreams, memories, houses and bodies. The exhibited works are also meant to provoke questions and exchange ideas about very human concerns, addressing isolation and connectedness; the formation of self, family and society; the flux of identity between current realities and indigenous values; and the significance of being able to look back at the past while moving forward to new aspirations.

The thesis project is an individualized production, but its journey and destination is communal. These are works culled from the building of skills together in class. Technical skills are honed through drawing, painting and sculpture by addressing visual problems. Knowing about the manipulation of materials and mediums expand the understanding of form. Conceptual abilities are exercised through theory and practice towards the development of content. These are processes that are combined with community outreach and interactions, and eventually prepare students for research-based studio production. The thesis outcome is stated as exhibited artwork that invites to be experienced and discussed by audiences.

The visual arts program of the PHSA thus demonstrates that art education is cyclical and symbiotic. The current K-12 system pose vital changes to the curriculum that would be reviewed through next year’s expositions.  Nonetheless, the points to be pinned by PHSA’s art educators through their learners are the same: to give back and map future locations in the global art terrain.

- Karen Ocampo Flores