The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

47 ARTISTS Waves (installation views) 1975 Plywood and synthetic polymer paint / 21 hanging panels: 35 x 122cm (each, approx.) / 12 floor panels: 120 x 240 x 2cm (each) / Overall installed dimensions variable / Courtesy: MO_Space, the Philippines (top) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Library & Archives (below) / © King Kong Art Projects Unlimited/Estate of Roberto Chabet Born 1937, Manila, the Philippines; died 2013, Manila Lived and worked in Manila Roberto Chabet is often referred to as the founder of conceptual art in the Philippines. He used ephemeral materials, such as plywood, in his works; consequently, few of his early installations survive. Waves 1975 was assumed lost for nearly four decades, before it was rediscovered in the attic of his sister’s house, following the artist’s death in 2013. It is the only original installation by Chabet from the 1970s still in existence, and its exhibition in APT9 marks the first time the work has been exhibited in full, since it was shown in Manila in 1975. 1 Constructed from 21 plywood panels in a single shade of blue, Chabet’s Waves mimics the gentle undulation of the ocean. Suspended from ceiling pivots, each semi-modular panel sways perceptibly, the motion casting graceful shadows. References to the sea recur in Chabet’s work; yet in many parts of Manila the sea is hidden from view, bounded by fortress walls and decaying canals. The built environment was more significant to a young Chabet; the city was heavily bombed during World War Two, resulting in crumbling and damaged buildings, as well as makeshift plywood shelters. 2 In Waves , these two preoccupations — the ocean and the built environment — came together. Initially trained as an architect, Chabet was known for his experimental paintings and drawings throughout the 1960s; then in the 1970s, he began creating large-scale installations occupying whole rooms. Waves creates a unique space for the viewer; hovering between architecture and sculpture, it focuses attention on the basic, yet essential, principles of space, light, perspective and movement. Charismatic and passionate, Chabet was enormously influential over many decades and a mentor to numerous artists, yet he was uninterested in establishing an international reputation. 3 His work has been seen in opposition to the social realist painting of the late 1970s that responded to the dictatorial regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, but Chabet did not simply follow or imitate international art movements. 4 Conceptual art that developed outside Western centres is a field still requiring research, and in the Philippines, this research is complicated by the fact that conceptual practices were regarded by the President and Mrs Marcos as a means of accessing global culture, at the same time as remaining close to indigenous, non-colonial practices and asserting Filipino modernity. Roberto Chabet’s distinct visual language saw him apply the principles of conceptual art to develop a unique and specifically local practice. The collision of abstraction and the everyday in his practice — evident in Waves — allowed him to continually scrutinise and question accepted meaning, while his ongoing references to the built environment and the ocean allowed him to respond to specific histories, both local and international. Abigail Bernal Endnotes 1 Waves was shown with 15 of the 21 panels at MO_Space, in Manila, in 2017. 2 In his early paintings, he depicted the shanties of Manila, as well as windows and doors as reduced abstract forms. In 1986, he returned to this subject with his wall-based ‘Houses’ series in plywood. 3 This was despite invitations to participate in ‘At Home and Abroad’ at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1998, and in the Gwangju Biennale in 2008 by curator Patrick D Flores. Chabet did not have a solo exhibition outside the Philippines until 2011, two years before his death. 4 See Isabel Ching, ‘Tracing (un)certain legacies: Conceptualism in Singapore and the Philippines’, Asia Art Archive , 1 July 2011, <https:// aaa.org.hk/en/ideas/ideas/tracing-uncertain-legacies-conceptualism- in-singapore-and-the-philippines>, viewed May 2018; Ahmad Mashadi, ‘Framing the 1970s’, Third Text , vol.25, no.4, July 2011, pp.409–17; and Patrick D Flores, ‘Missing link, burned bridges: The art of the 70s’, in Pananaw 2: Philippine Journal of Visual Arts , National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Manila, 1998, p.53. ROBERTO CHABET