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.