Curatorial Statement
"there is no sound artis, just sound art" is an output of my UP PhD Incentive Award in 2022 from the UPD OVCRD.
It is an exhibit of installative sound works. It attempts to bring to fore materials to examine how the contemporary art scene in Manila caters to sound as art medium. The title is an alteration of Gombrich's claim: "There is no art, only artists". This art historian proposes that what we call art or the artness of art is bestowed by the object's or idea's association to the maker.
This present exhibit proposed however that in the case of sound art, that sound art or sound artness does not necessarily only come from sound artists. The producer may or may not be sound artists. This claim is not a paradox but an illustration of the Manila art scene particularly pertaining to its participation in the discourse of sound art. Where does the sound artness of sound art in Manila come from then? In Manila, sound art has been used in a generic sense-- it covers anyone from experimental musicians, electronic musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, media artists, performance artists who work with sound as art medium.
I find the phrase "sound as art medium" as an appropriate summative description of the usage of the label "sound art". This phrase aided in sorting out when the artists are doing sound art, and when they are not. Thus, it implies that the medium of the work has to be sound (or about sound -- making, listening, altering) and that it has to be intentionally made as art. Films with sound are not sound art except if the film is about "the" or "a: sound (sensorial not narrative). Performance that is sounding or musicking or with sound or music is not necessarily sound art. But a performer exploring the soundness of sound may be considered as sound art. A painting displayed with sound is not sound art, except when the sound becomes as integral as the paints as far as the paintingness of the painting is concerned.
This exhibit is then an illustrative claim of the curator's findings in trying to understand what sound art is/ may be in Manila, through Sonic Manila Research.
As this exhibit only features installative works, a series may be expected to feature works of other typology, such as compositive, performative and/or combination.
Dayang Yraola, 2023
Organized by PAROLA UP Fine Arts Gallery
Supported by University of the Philippines Diliman Office of the Chancellor, UP PhD Incentive Award, UPD OICA, UPD College of Fine Arts, Japan Foundation Manila, Drawing Room
