Philippines' Aguinaldo named best emerging ASEAN artist
Philippines' Aguinaldo named best emerging ASEAN artist
Emmy Fitri, Bangkok
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Art Awards
ended on Wednesday in Bangkok with Filipino artist Leonard L.
Aguinaldo being named Best Emerging ASEAN Artist 2004.
Aguinaldo won the US$15,000 grand prize for his carved rubber
work God is on our Side. Five other artists received Juror's
Choice Awards, which also came with $5,000 prizes. The five were
Indonesian Feri Eka Chandra (Mindscape), Singaporean Lin Qing
Jiang Terence (Facade of Everyday), Thai Kaewvisit Songwoot
(Inspirational Belief), Vietnamese Do Anh Tuan (The Invasion of
the Death) and Filipino Kawayan Thor de Guia (Mystique of the
Urban Mistake).
"I am very happy about this, but it is also a start of
hard work and bigger challenges ahead," said Aguinaldo, a
graduate of the Baguio College Foundation, where he majored in
architectural drafting.
His work, a meticulous repetitive pattern carved in rubber and
colored with pastel oil paints, was the result of a two-year
experiment with rubber as an art medium.
Pat Hoffie, who presided over the panel of judges, said the
strength of Aguinaldo's work was not only its theme of addressing
current global conflicts, but also how it was able to draw people
in to look closer at the icons, images and references in daily
media coverage.
"This work goes beyond taking sides; rather it asks a
question that each of us must answer personally," Hoffie said.
Sponsored by the world's largest tobacco company, Philip
Morris, the regional art event began earlier in the year at the
national level of the 10 ASEAN member countries. A total of 3,000
artists participated at the national level, with the finalists
going on to compete in Bangkok.
The Indonesian winner, Feri of Batusangkar, West Sumatra, who
is a student at the Indonesian Institute of Fine Arts in
Yogyakarta, said the awards had been an eye-opener for him.
"It has also challenged me to keep improving my work," the 26-
year-old said.
Commenting on the results of the awards, artist and critic
Maman Nurjaman of Indonesia said, "They (the winners) deserve the
prizes. They showed originality and new concepts in approaching
common issues. But the judges also had to consider the use of
medium in the works, and that is why Aguinaldo won," he said.
First held in Singapore in 1994, the ASEAN Art Awards
were initially held annually, but became a biannual event
starting in 2000.
Indonesia hosted the last event in Bali, where none of the
host artists received a prize.