Bare Necessities

Santiago Bose
Curated By Patrick D. Flores
Silverlens, Manila

Installation Views

About

    The exhibition series Santiago Bose: Painter, Magician revisits the art of Santiago Bose through selected pieces from his extensive practice, marking turns in expression and the social contexts shaping it. The first phase is Bare Necessities. It focuses on the impulses of his artistic language and how these are harnessed to produce distinct form, critical discourse, and urgent impulse. The political work of art begins with the gesture of transforming the material of the world.

    Sections:

    I: Abstraction: hard-edge, presence of grid, emergence of contingent form within geometric frame

    II. Time/Ground: found and re-mediated object exposed to the elements like the sun, the machine such as the photocopier, and artistic intervention via collage

    III. Archive: sources of critique, re-invention, disfiguration, re-situation

    IV. Tricky Object: mutating, itinerant form testifying to culture, commodity, heritage, counter-memory V. Potent Ornament: reference to craft, landscape, design of local lore and artifice

    VI. Everyday Life of Artist: pages of thoughts, drawings, plans, speculations, dreamwork

    VII. Acting Out: presence of body in space, action in public

     

    Words by Patrick D. Flores

    Santiago Bose (July 25, 1949 – December 3, 2002, Baguio City, Philippines) was a mixed-media artist from the Philippines. Bose co-founded the Baguio Arts Guild, and was also an educator, community organizer and art theorist.

    Bose often used indigenous media in his work, ranging from bamboo and volcanic ash, to the cast-offs and debris (found objects, bottles, “trash”). His assemblages communicated a strong sense of folk consciousness and religiosity, and the strength of traditional cultures in a culture inundated with foreign cultural influences.

    Bose worked toward raising an awareness of cultural concerns in the Philippines. After studying at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines between 1967 and 1972, Bose continued his studies in the United States, at the West 17th Print Workshop in New York.

    He returned to Baguio in 1986 and began his explorations into the effects of colonialism on the Philippine national identity. In particular, Bose focused on the resilience of indigenous cultures, like that of his home region of the Cordilleras.

    Bose was the founding president of the Baguio Arts Guild in 1987. He became president again in 1992. The Guild is an active cultural association in the northern Cordillera region, emphasizing regional tribal traditions and the importance of using indigenous materials. Bose played a formative role in establishing the Baguio International Arts Festival.

    Through his work, Bose addressed difficult social and political concerns in the Philippines. His subject(s) were approached with deep criticality and gravity, although never without a sense of humor and wit, however irreverent.

    Bose said, “...The artist cannot but be affected by his society. It is hard to ignore the pressing needs of the nation while making art that serves the nation’s elite... We struggled to change society, which is difficult and dangerous, and we also sought to preserve communal aspects of life. I too am haunted by visions of hardship, poverty, disenfranchisement of the ‘primitive’ tribes, but between outbursts of violence and exploitation are also tenderness, selflessness and a sense of community. These will always remain unspoken and unrecognized unless we make art or music that will help to transform society. The artist takes a stand through the practice of creating art. The artist articulates the Filipino subconscious so that we may be able to show a true picture of ourselves and our world.”

    Bose was granted the Thirteen Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1976. He has exhibited in major international events such as the Third Asian Art Show in Fukuoka, Japan and the Havana Biennial held in Cuba, both in 1989. In 1993, he was invited to the First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art held at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. In 2000 Bose’s work was included in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s exhibition At Home & Abroad, 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists. In June 2002, he was presented the Gawad ng Maynila: Patnubay ng Sining at Makabagong Pamamaraan (Cultural Award for New Media presented to outstanding Filipino Artist) by the City of Manila. In 2006, he was posthumously shortlisted for the National Artist award.

    As a widely sought after artist for public commissions and artist residencies, Bose’s practice included extensive international travel and included several prominent grants and fellowships.

    Bose’s work was marked by a conscious avoidance of a single recognizable style, by varied foreign and local influences, and by an experimental bent.

    Patrick D. Flores is a Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines, which he chaired from 1997 to 2003, and Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila. He was one of the curators of Under Construction: New Dimensions in Asian Art in 2000 and the Gwangju Biennale (Position Papers) in 2008. He was a Visiting Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1999 and an Asian Public Intellectuals Fellow in 2004. Among his publications are Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art (1999); Remarkable Collection: Art, History, and the National Museum (2006); and Past Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (2008). He was a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council (2010) and a member of the Advisory Board of the exhibition The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989 (2011) organized by the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and member of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council (2011 and 2014). He co- edited the Southeast Asian issue with Joan Kee for Third Text (2011). He convened in 2013 on behalf of the Clark Institute and the Department of Art Studies of the University of the Philippines the conference “Histories of Art History in Southeast Asia” in Manila. He was a Guest Scholar of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2014. He curated an exhibition of contemporary art from Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe titled South by Southeast and the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015. He is the Artistic Director of Singapore Biennale 2019. 

The exhibition series Santiago Bose: Painter, Magician revisits the art of Santiago Bose through selected pieces from his extensive practice, marking turns in expression and the social contexts shaping it. The first phase is Bare Necessities. It focuses on the impulses of his artistic language and how these are harnessed to produce distinct form, critical discourse, and urgent impulse. The political work of art begins with the gesture of transforming the material of the world.

Sections:

I: Abstraction: hard-edge, presence of grid, emergence of contingent form within geometric frame

II. Time/Ground: found and re-mediated object exposed to the elements like the sun, the machine such as the photocopier, and artistic intervention via collage

III. Archive: sources of critique, re-invention, disfiguration, re-situation

IV. Tricky Object: mutating, itinerant form testifying to culture, commodity, heritage, counter-memory V. Potent Ornament: reference to craft, landscape, design of local lore and artifice

VI. Everyday Life of Artist: pages of thoughts, drawings, plans, speculations, dreamwork

VII. Acting Out: presence of body in space, action in public

 

Words by Patrick D. Flores

Santiago Bose (July 25, 1949 – December 3, 2002, Baguio City, Philippines) was a mixed-media artist from the Philippines. Bose co-founded the Baguio Arts Guild, and was also an educator, community organizer and art theorist.

Bose often used indigenous media in his work, ranging from bamboo and volcanic ash, to the cast-offs and debris (found objects, bottles, “trash”). His assemblages communicated a strong sense of folk consciousness and religiosity, and the strength of traditional cultures in a culture inundated with foreign cultural influences.

Bose worked toward raising an awareness of cultural concerns in the Philippines. After studying at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines between 1967 and 1972, Bose continued his studies in the United States, at the West 17th Print Workshop in New York.

He returned to Baguio in 1986 and began his explorations into the effects of colonialism on the Philippine national identity. In particular, Bose focused on the resilience of indigenous cultures, like that of his home region of the Cordilleras.

Bose was the founding president of the Baguio Arts Guild in 1987. He became president again in 1992. The Guild is an active cultural association in the northern Cordillera region, emphasizing regional tribal traditions and the importance of using indigenous materials. Bose played a formative role in establishing the Baguio International Arts Festival.

Through his work, Bose addressed difficult social and political concerns in the Philippines. His subject(s) were approached with deep criticality and gravity, although never without a sense of humor and wit, however irreverent.

Bose said, “...The artist cannot but be affected by his society. It is hard to ignore the pressing needs of the nation while making art that serves the nation’s elite... We struggled to change society, which is difficult and dangerous, and we also sought to preserve communal aspects of life. I too am haunted by visions of hardship, poverty, disenfranchisement of the ‘primitive’ tribes, but between outbursts of violence and exploitation are also tenderness, selflessness and a sense of community. These will always remain unspoken and unrecognized unless we make art or music that will help to transform society. The artist takes a stand through the practice of creating art. The artist articulates the Filipino subconscious so that we may be able to show a true picture of ourselves and our world.”

Bose was granted the Thirteen Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1976. He has exhibited in major international events such as the Third Asian Art Show in Fukuoka, Japan and the Havana Biennial held in Cuba, both in 1989. In 1993, he was invited to the First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art held at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. In 2000 Bose’s work was included in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s exhibition At Home & Abroad, 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists. In June 2002, he was presented the Gawad ng Maynila: Patnubay ng Sining at Makabagong Pamamaraan (Cultural Award for New Media presented to outstanding Filipino Artist) by the City of Manila. In 2006, he was posthumously shortlisted for the National Artist award.

As a widely sought after artist for public commissions and artist residencies, Bose’s practice included extensive international travel and included several prominent grants and fellowships.

Bose’s work was marked by a conscious avoidance of a single recognizable style, by varied foreign and local influences, and by an experimental bent.

Patrick D. Flores is a Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines, which he chaired from 1997 to 2003, and Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila. He was one of the curators of Under Construction: New Dimensions in Asian Art in 2000 and the Gwangju Biennale (Position Papers) in 2008. He was a Visiting Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 1999 and an Asian Public Intellectuals Fellow in 2004. Among his publications are Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art (1999); Remarkable Collection: Art, History, and the National Museum (2006); and Past Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (2008). He was a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council (2010) and a member of the Advisory Board of the exhibition The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989 (2011) organized by the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and member of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council (2011 and 2014). He co- edited the Southeast Asian issue with Joan Kee for Third Text (2011). He convened in 2013 on behalf of the Clark Institute and the Department of Art Studies of the University of the Philippines the conference “Histories of Art History in Southeast Asia” in Manila. He was a Guest Scholar of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2014. He curated an exhibition of contemporary art from Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe titled South by Southeast and the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015. He is the Artistic Director of Singapore Biennale 2019. 

I. Abstraction

Santiago Bose
Eyes of Gauze
1983
2388
2
mixed media
48.03h x 33.07w in • 122h x 84w cm
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Santiago Bose
Mabini Blues I
1976
2389
2
mixed media, acrylic on plywood
37.40h x 25.39w in • 95h x 64.50w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Marlboro Series
1971
2390
2
acrylic on board
48.03h x 23.82w in • 122h x 60.50w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Peggy's Cookbook
1976
2391
2
mixed media
47.64h x 47.64w in • 121h x 121w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Untitled
1970
2392
2
acrylic on plywood
24.06h x 47.24w in • 61.10h x 120w cm
0
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SPI_SB005
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II. Time/Ground

Santiago Bose
9-11 Return of the Comeback
2002
2393
2
mural
135h x 135w in • 342.90h x 342.90w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Can't Go Back Home Again
1998
2394
2
mixed media, mounted on plywood
34.45h x 48.03w in • 87.50h x 122w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Solar Art Series (Anyo ng Lupa)
2002
2395
2
mixed media
21.26h x 13.39w in • 54h x 34w cm
0
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0
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Santiago Bose
Solar Art Series (Go, Grow, Glow Foods)
2002
2396
2
mixed media
21.26h x 13.39w in • 54h x 34w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Solar Art Series (Sources of Water)
2002
2397
2
mixed media
21.26h x 13.39w in • 54h x 34w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Solar Art Series (Wonders of the World)
2002
2398
2
mixed media
21.26h x 13.39w in • 54h x 34w cm
0
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0
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Santiago Bose
Warning!
undated circa 1999
2399
2
mixed media mounted on wood
66.25h x 80.50w in • 168.28h x 204.47w cm
3
0.00
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0

From the collection of Paulino and Hetty Que
Details

III. Archive

Santiago Bose
Baguio Souvenirs
1976
2400
2
mixed media
27.17h x 51.18w in • 69h x 130w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
The Great Liberation (Artist Proof)
1986
2401
2
print
23.23h x 25.39w in • 59h x 64.50w cm
0
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0
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Santiago Bose
The Re-Education of Dangsalit 12/40
1979
2402
2
print
10h x 14.50w in • 25.40h x 36.83w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Untitled
undated
2403
2
mixed media
22.83h x 23.52w in • 58h x 59.75w cm
3
0.00
PHP
0
SPI_SB009
Details
Santiago Bose
Visayas Dream
1999
2404
2
intermedia on carpet
74h x 93w in • 187.96h x 236.22w cm
0
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0
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IV. Tricky Object

Santiago Bose
Cryptic Messages
1984
2405
2
burnt milk on handmade paper
16.34h x 11.61w in • 41.50h x 29.50w cm
0
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0
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Santiago Bose
Travelling Bones (Study) 14/15
1980
2406
2
pen and ink on paper
12.01h x 15.75w in • 30.50h x 40w cm
0
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0
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Santiago Bose
Travelling Bones by the Mountainside
2001
2407
2
scanned image on canvas, acrylic
22.44h x 33.86w in • 57h x 86w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Travelling Bones by the Waterfalls
2001
2408
2
mixed media/phototransfer (mounted on plywood)
34.88h x 34.88w in • 88.60h x 88.60w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Travelling Bones in Hanging Bridge
2000
2409
2
scanned image on canvas, acrylic
86h x 56.50w in • 218.44h x 143.51w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Untitled (unfinished)
2002
2410
2
printed canvas
33.86h x 23.03w in • 86h x 58.50w cm
3
0.00
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0
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V. Potent Ornament

Santiago Bose
Cat's Cradle
1987
2411
2
intermedia
22.64h x 19.49w in • 57.50h x 49.50w cm
0
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Santiago Bose
Herring Bone Weave
1987
2412
2
mixed media
19.49h x 20.47w in • 49.50h x 52w cm
0
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VI. Everyday Life of Artist

Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1960 – 1961 Drawing (Manila paper cover)
1960 – 1961
2414
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1970 My Hole Works Summer
1970
2415
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1971 A Self Portrait Santy Bose
1971
2416
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1971 Cardinell Drawing Paper
1971
2417
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1971 September Valiant 9x12
1971
2418
2
0
0.00
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0
Details
Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1978 Handmade
1978
2419
2
0
0.00
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0
Details
Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1978 – 1980 Cardinell Drawing Paper (brown, not in dropbox)
1978 - 1980
2420
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1980 or 1984 Strathmore
1980/1984
2421
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1992 August 7 In Transit Desepora
1992
2422
2
0
0.00
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0
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Santiago Bose
Scrapbook: 1996 November 4 Brisbane Deerfield sketch pad
1996
2423
2
0
0.00
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0
Details

VII. Acting Out

Santiago Bose
Excerpts of Videos and Performance Art
2019
2413
2
digital video, color, sound
09:56:00 loop
-1
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0
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Video

Artist Page

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