The concept of what makes art is different and unique for every individual, and more often than not, personal preferences, perceptions and experiences may color one’s appreciation for a particular piece of work. There are those that evoke light feelings, while there are those that challenge one’s cerebral prowess – and certainly, the work of Maria Taniguchi fall under the latter. No wonder then, that this young, talented Filipino artist has earned for her a spot in the prestigious Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2015 as one of the seven finalists.
Hugo Boss Asia Art is a biannual award conceived and curated by the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China in collaboration with the fashion brand, aimed at promoting young emerging contemporary artists in Asia who are in the early stages of their artistic creation and exhibition practices. For 2015, the award extends its focus from greater China to Southeast Asia, where seven artists have been selected as the finalists, namely Yang Xinguang and Guan Xiao from China, Vandy Rattana of Cambodia, Moe Satt of Myanmar, Huang Po-Chih from Taiwan and of course, Maria Taniguchi of the Philippines.
As one of the finalists, Maria Taniguchi has been at the forefront of contemporary art exploration both locally and internationally. At a recent event dubbed “Maria Taniguchi: A New Framework” held at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Malate, the viewing public had an opportunity to see and appreciate some of the pieces of the artist, who also spoke about her work.
Among those on exhibit is Untitled (ram dram sram), a pile of posters with holes of various shapes and sizes that have been engraved by lasers. It presents a “mechanical composition” in relation to the memory: the viewers pass through one poster after the other, undergoing this “reading” while the sculpture itself also gradually disappears with the action of “reading.”
The Dumaguete-born artist, who comes from a family of sculptors, received an MFA in Art Practice at Goldsmiths in London in 2009 and a BFA in Sculpture at the University of the Philippines. According to her official profile, Maria Taniguchi concerns herself with art as the materiality itself. Through this she has explored, almost unrestrictedly, various materials and objects through forms as diverse as pottery and video. When it comes to the traditional mediums such as painting on canvas, her continued exploration of the materiality of the subject – its place in time, in history, in our visual compendium – does not cease and often results in massive pieces of entity without a traceable subject matters and is instead embedded with a kind of distributed process which makes it hard to distinguish between painted images or constructed objects.
The event, which was co-organized by Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, also had RAM deputy director Liu Yingjiu and MCAD curator and director Joselina Cruz as speakers. The event served as an introduction of the Award as well as an exhibition of Taniguchi’s work. An open discussion on the common and different challenges of contemporary art as well as their response was also conducted.
