06 . 30 - 07 . 23 . 20
KAFKA TWIST
Daniel Aligaen, Bjorn Calleja, Doktor Karayom, Arvin NoguerasKafka Twist presents a diverse narrative of the body transformed in psychological space. Featuring works that push the boundaries of line into dissonant imagery, possessed with a movement matching a peculiar rhythm asymmetric to passive consensus, twisting the ordinary into tales mixed with humor and horror, a satirical picture of our contemporary psyche.
The exhibit explores the refashioning of the self that are guided by internal echoes of estrangement and dissent surging under the beat of banality on top of multiple tracks of rote. We see marks move about various chambers and fold, mapping extremities that compose impressions of animated absurdity into monsters of creation.
Ordinary settings turn odd with the invasion of diminutive radicals bringing a hilarious shock to the acceptable, while the event is presided over by such an indifferent and grotesque metamorphosis. Gestures of nigh incomprehensibility are made within the enclosures of a disorienting landscape, this labyrinth of exquisite illusion brings out the panic within, an anxiety of an endless unrealizable horizon which is the loss of human perspective within the social.
WORKS
Bjorn Calleja, Le verre de porto (A Dinner Table at Night, after John Singer Sargent) Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in., 2020
“I remember quoting an excerpt from Sagan's Pale Blue Dot from an exhibition I did with you guys (at Artery Art Space) a few years back, that was my realization of the space we people take up and the grand scale of the universe. My paintings may still look the same, but I think I'm starting to understand more about where it's coming or what they are really trying to say. I look at my paintings today as images that share an idea about macrocosm and microcosm, about man reflecting the entirety of the universe and vice versa.”
“I'm mostly interested in history, film and music. I'm inspired by hybrids, and the transformative implications that experimentation bring about in the creative process.”
"Halos lahat po ng nangyayari sa akin sa araw araw dun ako kumukuha ng inspirasyon para sa mga ginagawa at gagawin ko, mula sa mga nakikita ko, naririnig, naramdaman, nahawakan, nalasahan, naamoy, lahat.., pinakikiramdaman ko po mula sa normal na perspektibo ay tumitingin ako sa ibang anggulo, mula sa pangkaraniwang salita, gumagawa ako ng panibagong katha, ako’y isang pilosopong bata na karamihan ng mga bagay ay pinagkakatuwaan, laging may imaginary friends sa paligid mula sa malikot na imahinasyon, gumagawa ng sariling mundo, ako ay kaluluwang gala..., tagos sa kahit na anong bagay sa harap ko..tulad ng hindi ko paglimita sa mga bagay na kaya ko pang gawin at magawa..,pero may katawang tao na pangkaraniwan lang tingnan pag makakasalubong mo.."
Daniel Aligaen, Territorial Shitting, acrylic, ink and collage on shaped canvas, 36 x 48 in., 2020
Daniel Aligaen, 2020, acrylic, ink and collage on shaped canvas 18 x 45 in., 2020
“The subjects and themes of my paintings are also based on the things and people I observe around me. I take a slice of events happening and even magnify the little things and habits people do. I also enjoy playing with the aesthetics of geometric patterns and integrating them into my work.”