The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

A figurative painter largely known for his melancholic works on wood and canvas, Justiniani was born in Bacolod City in 1966. In 1982 he moved from the sleepy provincial town to study painting at the University of The Philippines in Manila. Without waiting to finish his degree, Justiniani joined artist coalitions who worked on group murals. In 1989 he joined ABAY (Artista ng Bayan) and then Grupong Salingpusa in 1991. The experience he had with these groups aligned his thinking towards art collaborations and socially relevant subjects. Already highly politicised and idealistic about the role of art and the artist in society, Justiniani injected political underpinnings into most of his art and art-related activities. During his stay at the university and after his break from academic life, he joined art contests and won several awards. Mark Justiniani is prolific (in a group sense) and highly visible as an art collaborator. He went solo and launched his reputation as an individual artist in 1993. His first solo shows (both held at Hiraya Gallery) concentrated on small works that showed vignettes of Filipino life with shrewd but subtle social commentary, his palette moving from solid primary colours to ashen greys, from hues of dark green to brown. Based on these paintings and past mural works, Mark Justiniani was named one of the Cultural Centre of The Philippines Thirteen Artists in 1994. In the same year he also began a new art group, Sanggawa, with other visual artists. In many of Justiniani's works, sociopolitical diatribes are disguised under romantic and nostalgic figurations-a longing look at his past and himself and at the same time a jarring barb at society. Even with his recent foray into new materials, the artist continues to hold a critical attitude towards society, politics and history in general. By choosing an easily identifiable fixture in local culture, Justiniani has been working on the reappropriation of a pop cultural icon-the Jeepney-into the sacred ground of art. Other Filipino artists have also used the Jeepney as subject and theme. Justiniani brings Jeepney materials literally into the gallery.The stainless steel casing of the vehicle is used as the canvas. The Jeepney's decorative accoutrements– luminous stickers, decals and shaped plastics– are also used. The artist also uses pop images to communicate social commentary. In his self-portrait Silip-butas (Peephole) 1995 the artist conveys a conjurer's trick and a childhood fascination for magicians.The three-panel work on stainless steel is also an autobiography of sorts. In the middle panel are local images drawn from popular culture: a porn scene from a local comic book; advertising cutouts of Hulk Hogan and Magyabiyak (The other half) 1994 Mixed media 61 x122cm Collection: Didi Dee,Manila Superman; a colour advertisement for a San Miguel beer bottle; play paper money; a picture of his partner Karen Flores; the tagline for an aspirin commercial. Justiniani does not 'just' quote from commercial culture, he incorporates it directly into his art. There is then no mystery, but an easy access to images. His other works are sociohistorical satires, held together by the Jeepney's continuing narrative. Filipino maxims and aphorisms are central to his work, woven as they are into each of the works. Justiniani layers material with meaning. In Tuloy po kayo (Welcome) 1994, stickers are perfectly formed into a Spanish galleon with friars and soldiers (a kind of navis stultuorum or ship of fools), juxtaposed with the words Amen (so be it), maupo po kayo (have a seat, please) and ang masunuring bata ay ipinagpapapala (an obedient child is rewarded handsomely). These phrases (text), fashioned with painstaking care, have themselves become images. For the contemporary viewer there is no need to fathom a deeper meaning (most GenX-ers are beyond deconstruction, we already live in a deconstructed society). Mark JISTIIIAII Lives and works in Manila, The Philippines ... By using fabricated material, materials of our time, the artist applies the techniques that this generation demands-recognisable and identifiable visual stimuli. Even in the triptych Okupado, Edukado, Kristiano (Occupied, educated, Christian), text becomes a motif and Justiniani uses precisely these aphorisms as a tool for the rearticulation of past historical wounds. Magyabiyak (The other half) 1994 forces the viewer to see a 'contrived' palindrome (Lakas Marcos Sakal Ramos) and this is Justiniani's politically relevant work, a reminder of the past regime and a future possibility. Despite his use of contemporary materials and facile pop images, the artist continues with his sociohistorical commentary. Mark Justiniani does not want his viewers to see objects, events and possibilities with fresh eyes. He shows us what we already know, but this time tinged and reverberating with historical criticism. His works are an unmitigated rearticulation of historical and cultural text and ideas to a generation that has seen several episodes of history repeat itself. Yeyey G. Cruz,Associate Editor, MEGA Magazine, Manila, The Philippines ARTISTS SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA I 87