Consumerism in Art, Art in Consumerism: A Review of the Film "Confessions of a Shopaholic"

The topic of consumerism in art is ironic. This is due to the fact that art (works) nowadays has increasingly become burdened with commodity value and monetary exchange. The aesthetic quality intrinsic in art has come face to face with the (ir)rational need of humanity to convince himeself that objects' values need to be measured and understood. I know I don't make sense, at least now. Let me explain.

This problem in art has come full circle with a recent film that took audiences to, in a sense, catharsis. It is always interesting to see people respond to art especially to a visual medium like film. There are emotions triggered, worlds explored, fantasies abused. And when I recently saw director PJ Hogan's movie adaptation of the Sophie Kinsella hit book Confessions of a Shopaholic, the two distict worlds of the real and the fantasy have almost dangerously overlapped, though in the most obscure fashion. The film takes consumerism head-on, elaborately synchronizing criticism and perpetuation of the money-need-want-credit-debt-beauty-fashion ensemble.

Isla Fisher hilariously plays Rebecca Bloomwood, a career girl with an addiction to shop. This addiction led her character to an enormous amount of debt which she later resolves after she comes face-to-face with it while guesting on a national television show, ironically, for her expertise in giving financial advise. The resolution also involves a love interest (Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandon) which pushes her further to facing the conflict.

The plot discourages debt and overspending. The film is an elaborate exposition of events that occur as one loses financial control in effect demonizing the very core of US (and in many ways the world) capitalist sytem--credit. In the final analysis, the critique of consumerism by the film provides for the integration of the audience within the aesthetic experience since the issue is central to their understanding of reality.

The film handles the issue of popular style through visual imagery and social function. The focus on brands highlights the importance of value and social status as the character effortlessly parades before the viewer's eyes a variety of high-end clothes, exclusive shoes and the like. The composition of these elements in the film induces, if not reinforces, the positive attitude of the audience to consumerism and that direct link between high fashion and high society.

While the film explores the evil of oversspending and loss of financial control, the critical interest of watching the film lies within the very sense that it perpetuates the very issue that it criticizes. It is also imperative that the conflict be resolve for the perpetuation be successful.

That is the very reason that my feet would like to run to the nearest fashion boutique and purchase something(anything) immediately after seeing a film about a girl who fell into shitloads of debt.

National artist BenCab to open dream museum Feb. 27

Repost from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/149713/National-Artist-BenCab-to-open-dream-museum-Feb-27



Tuba, Benguet – Benedicto "BenCab" Cabrera, national artist for visual arts, will finally open his four-story dream museum on Feb. 27 – some eight years after buying the property with money he saved from sales of his paintings.Construction of the building itself started in 2006, with architect Raymond Gutierrez helping the artist in the design."The concept I did myself," Cabrera said. "Kada pinta ko, benta - slowly getting more and more space here," he says.The completed BenCab Museum occupies 1,000 square meters that would take over an hour to tour.The building houses galleries showcasing works of different genres that represent BenCab's output through decades.The BenCab Room houses Cabrera’s selected work, with a separate Erotica Gallery that houses Bencab's 1970’s work "13 Positions," along with sculptures and carvings. The Masters Room features BenCab's personal collection of pieces by other renowned artists.The Cordillera Room displays a massive collection of the regions wood carvings, basketry, earthen jars, and furniture.At the ground floor is the Café Sabel, which offers visitors a view of a farm that includes an aviary, a pond, and coffee and strawberry plantations."This museum will be a center for activity," BenCab said. "I hope this will set the standards somehow."Among the activities he expects are art seminars and exhibits for young artists, as the museum also houses the BenCab Art Foundation aimed at helping young deserving artists.BenCab, born in Malabon in 1942, studied at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. In the late '60s and early '70, he lived in London with his wife, British writer Caroline Kennedy (from which he has been divorced), and their three children.After a successful career in Europe, he returned to the Philippines in time for the EDSA People Power Revolution. He has since resettled in Baguio City. - Maria Elena Catajan, GMANews.TV

On Parts Bagani

Parts Bagani’s collection exhibited on Gallery 2 of the Faculty Center was a discourse on the distinct style and playful form that the artist skillfully mastered and delivered to the audience in the most detailed yet sensitive fashion.

The compositions of most of the paintings establish the dimensions of the depth of the visual space that challenge the gaze of the viewer. The works Bukang Liwayway, Sanctuary 3, and Sanctuary 4, for example, give delight to the eye in performing a difficult task―recreating in an unrealistic manner the natural sublimity of the mountain range without mocking the integrity of the represented. If anything, it adds another layer of aesthetic illusion and value to this element by using different hues and interesting lines to translate the silhouette of the mountain range into the aesthetic. The works Haring Ibon and Red Bagani both show clarity in composition as the artist unsubtly display main icons in the foreground establishing dimensions as well as a focal point of the works. 

Carefully using line to create perceived texture in the artwork, the artist successfully invites the viewer to explore the visual space. In Guerilla Camp, vertical lines create an illusion of height and this dominance gives the composition unity by providing a general feel to the work by integrating different elements in the picture. In other works, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines are used in a unified manner creating interest in the visual space.

The artist also utilized motif creating more visual interest. Concentric concave geometric figures make up the pattern used mainly by the artist to visualize the natural elements such as clouds and leaves. This technique is reminiscent of the one used by the artist Hokusai in the Japanese Ukiyo-e (Edo) period in depicting natural elements. These patterns as used by Parts Bagani provide the playful character of the collection.

Upfront, one would be captured by the strong colors chosen by the artist. The intense value of the colors, unsparingly used by the artist, indulges the senses and pops out of the canvass as if pulling the eye of the viewer closer to the work. The use of analogous colors in blending is apparent and is effectively utilized to establish the levels in the elements. Gradation in the works Bukang Liwayway, Sanctuary 3, and Sanctuary 4 shows this. The palette preferred by the artist is dominantly in the warm tones such as hues of red, yellow, and orange. Hues of blue are used although the artist tends to favor more of the darker hues of this color over lighter. This critical choice of colors and hues give the collection the common experience of intensity and warmth.

Chiaroscuro is another technique pleasantly perceptible in the work Guerilla Camp. The use of light in a two-dimensional work to create the illusion of three-dimensionality in the painting grant the work life and realism that, again, elevates the relationship of the painting to its audience from a mere artwork-viewer type to an event-participant level which in turn converts the aesthetic experience of the viewer-participant to a pleasant one. Some works in the collection like Sanctuary 3, and Sanctuary 4 use this technique with less contrast yet generating the same effect.

Untitled-1 uses a one-point perspective as a foreshadowing of a major element in the painting. The work pulls the eye of the viewer initially to the vanishing point secondarily giving attention to a form embraced by the pattern at the foreground of the artwork. This strolling interaction of the viewer with the painting instigate significant premium to the form which originally is secondary to the gaze of the viewer. This shows how knowledgeable the artist is in playing with visual irony and the techniques in manipulating the gaze of the viewer.

Depth is handled by the artist in the most detailed fashion. The works in this collection capitalize on details to represent reality and provide for a rational basis of aesthetic experience. However, the works also assume an unreal representation of the world and themes through the use of patterns and motifs employed in different levels to explore visual creativity and imagination in the part of the viewer. The artist, therefore, using a style of his own tries to portray an image of reality as seen through his eyes and consequently through the eyes of the viewer practicing the aesthetic. The observer is aware that the world created in the perceived space is unreal yet the artist teases the mind of the spectator by providing ultra-detailed, realistic elements such as in Red Bagani questioning the pre-conceived.

This talent by the artist to meld the real and the illusion in one two-dimensional space is remarkable in more ways than one. As entertainingly vivid as the world created by the artist is the imagination of the viewer experiencing the artwork. One cannot escape the dialogue that the artwork initiates and one would be encouraged to respond to it, opening a pandora’s box of conversation with each and every piece in the collection. Each piece is an invitation to converse. The techniques the artist used provide the topic of the conversation between the artwork and the viewer while the artwork themselves serve as the paper on which the viewer writes his/her notes on. The dialogue,then, is infinite and the artwork even more satisfying.