The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

THE PHILIPPINES LAZARO SORIANO Jak En Poy (Local child's play: Sticks and stones) 1987 Oil on canvas 150x150cm Collection: Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila Lazaro Soriano, usually known as Aro Soriano, was born in 1943 in Manila, the Philippines. His first exposure to the arts was as a child actor. In the1960she discovered his talent in the visual arts and developed abstract and conceptual styles influenced by the avant-gardist David Cortez Medalla. Always self-supporting, he took a series of odd jobs as set designer, sign painter and art tutor. He became set designer for Dance Theater Philippines andwas caught up in the magic of the dance and viewed dancers as moving sculptures. Evenmore, he discovered a correspondence between dance rhythms and painting rhythms. He became more keenly sensitive to the element of lighting and developed a sense of theatre and of the play 38 of illusionand reality. After a two-person show with T iny Nuyda, he was able to accumulate enough paintings to mount a solo show. During this time, he did erotic paintings, prints, conceptual and constructivist art. In 1969 Aro Soriano left for Paris and in 1979 was connected with the lnstitato de Cultural Hispanica in Madrid. He had a solo exhibition at the Gallerie Tassili in Oviedo, Spain. On his return to the Philippines in the late 1970s he reintroduced himself into the art scene while teaching art at the Philippine Women's University with fellow artists Virgilio Aviado and Boy (Manuel) Rodriguez, Jr. Finally getting his bearings, he started to paint in earnest, holding a series of solo exhibitions at Gallery Genesis. He redis­ covered folk art and did a series of paintings on folk songs, followed by ones on riddles and sayings. In oil or watercolour these paintings are characterised by a rich and complex imagery, full of visual puns and comic or witty elements, in the vivid colours of folk art. Aro Soriano has also been involved invarious art projects for community development. He has worked with a potters' community in Bulacan to produce works in painted terracotta. 'Correct the wrong rather than laughing at it' is a folk saying. Aro Soriano's painting of the same title satirically alludes to tourism and export labour. On display on a table in a Philippine pavilion are a number of dolls made in the Philippines around which a group of foreigners are leering and laughing. Among the dolls are domestic helpers, mail­ order brides, beauty queens, folkloric and go-go dancers; the brochure cover and the soldier refer to violence from coups and human rights abuse. Alice Guillermo