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Survivor, P.I
2005
180 x 180 cm
Oil on canvas
Alfredo D Esquillo, Jr.
Alfredo D Esquillo, Jr. (born 1972 in the Philippines) received his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts (painting) from the University of Santo Tomas in 1993. He has held a number of solo exhibitions, such as: “Third World” at the Nineveh Art Space, Sta. Cruz, Laguna (2004); “Tragikomedy” at the West Gallery, Metro Manila (2003); “Banig Icons,” also at the West Gallery (2001); “Recent Works” at the Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, USA (1999); and “Masa Kultura” at the Hiraya Gallery, U.N. Avenue, Ermita, Manila (1997).
Presented here is a series of three paintings that would stand for the three types of space existing in metropolitan areas.
Outnumbered tackles the living space. This reacts to the rampant conversion of agricultural lands in the interest of urbanization and techno-industrialization.
This was conceived back in 2004 while having residence in an agricultural province south of Manila. It was very obvious then how agricultural lands have been diminishing in number and size over the past years. In the name of progress, these lands are being converted into private estate projects, town houses, golf courses, or shopping malls.
Survivor, P.I is about the cultural space resulting from the present modern existence in cities. The study depicts five adult persons riding their dysfunctional vehicles, circling around in an endless play of derision, reserved greed and hatred for each other. The imagery and the title here allude to the popular TV reality show, Survivor, where scheming and trickery characterize the game of survival. While the modern urban systems we create perpetuate this culture of survival and more individuals involve themselves in the interest of profit, the essential things suffer.
Scaffolding City tackles physical space reflected by the current project of globalization and modernization. The piece imagines a labyrinthine structure made of scaffoldings extending horizontally and vertically, occupying whatever space it encounters. The imagery may seem like a very ambitious project at first glance but, at closer inspection, proves to be a very unsound structure... ready to collapse anytime. The man at the center, with his paper crown and colorful balloons, gazes back at the audience, questioning his existence within the structure that both expands and contracts at the same time. (Artist's Statement)
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