Containment in open-air unlocks queries about the boundaries and expansion of being as uncertainty enfolds the environ. Visual artist Junyee teams with Cavite's Pitopito Artist Group to address the pandemic and so on through "Kwarantin." His installation is perched across the patio of the UP Vargas Museum — nonlinear bamboo columns arrayed in a scatter to emphasize sprawling skepticism at present. But "Kwarantin" invites seeing through the caverns of the poles' in-between to decipher an inner context.
Bamboo beds and bars are sculpted with black marks on the grassy soil, proposing restlessness whilst the attempt to contain worries and certainties. More than woods, the jagged columns are sinewy limbs of the gods, forming on the lawn. Junyee moves these pieces in a way that the bamboos become divine, a haven amid a worldwide spectre. Still, this container is hollow, the wilderness either inhaling us or we are breathing it. Thus, the exhibition questions the effectivity of isolation when nature is all over. In solitariness, the solace becomes religion, otherwise, the bamboos are a vessel of passivity.
Recently, Junyee has been bestowed upon the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining by the Cultural Center of the Philippines for his distinct outlook, which "Kwarantin" is a timely example of. The philosophical sculpture stretches its concept into varying translations as the surroundings ever commute. Its location is vital to obtaining the information it holds. On the museum's grassland, the bamboo poles are highlighted by crystalline overrays, making each wood release its auburn — the natural contrast. When outdoors, we activate our bare instincts to bear the looming unknown. Hence the unrest and the necessity of bamboo beds. Heightening the visualties of "Kwarantin" is the imminent acoustics orchestrated through the chosen place.
In the open, daft freely grazes the columns, formulating a rhapsody. Just accurately apart are each tall slender barks that the airy sound somewhat transfers an eerie chi, rightly so because the current happenings enable the breeziness of doubt. And despite being 'inside' "Kwarantin," the un-closed crevices let musings disrupt dissonance: pretexts are challenged to either adapt or mutate then create newer vistas as broad as the in-betweens of every bamboo permit. "Kwarantin" is immersive enough to suggest that sanity is immunity. Always, the firmament lurks above, therefore the vividness of hope is lent to furnish lightness on Junyee's impressive management of eco spectrum.
"Kwarantin" contains much more than it lets perceived. To pry further the already open but a peephole-esque concept, pre-installed cognitions must be abandoned. The outdoor setting directs us to pick up greener habits, which can be shields from the uncertainties (mayhem!) engulfing modern Earth. Since bamboos are flexible and relatively less costly, it is Junyee's resource of choice to illustrate the possible excesses of the powers that be in handling the pandemic. The poles are also mediums for fathomless prospects. Such can be realized if we can discern the reason of the aslant orchestration of the columns: they can be remodeled for a more practical conformation.
Junyee's installation is ultimately a study of the environ's influence on psycho-culture. Being contained for a significant period recalibrates the behavior, yet exposure to open-air makes possible the tailoring of outlook; nature sculpting the way of living inasmuch as "Kwarantin" shapes our visualty on art, the republic, and the global landscape.
Images
“Kwarantin”
Junyee, 2020, bamboo, installation
C/O UP Vargas Museum
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