Through lifelike sculptures and familiar Filipino settings, the artist challenges audiences to look beyond shapes and colors and confront the reality of power structures, inequalities, corruption, greed, poverty, unfairness, contradictions that shape everyday lives of Filipinos in different walks of life.
Sometimes, the most unsettling mirrors of society are the ones that literally look normal or familiar; the ones that literally look obvious. If you look closely at the artworks inside the exhibit, you would notice a man, who happened to be a politician, sitting on top of a piled sack of rice. At first glance, you may notice that it is seemingly looking at you whenever you go across the whole room—which can be seen as something that is an incredibly peak form of artistry. But beyond the details, it reveals something uncomfortable: the harsh reality of Filipino people.
This set of art pieces are at the heart of “The Grand Scheme of Things,” an exhibition by renowned Filipino artist Lindsey James Lee, also known as “Lindslee,” that can be viewed at the Tall Gallery until October 31. The exhibition demonstrates the roles, positions, beliefs, desires, and underlying factors that shape everyday life. Through humor, irony, and noticeable local imagery, Lindslee found power in her craft in transforming ambition, duty, faith, trust, and recognition, enchanting viewers to challenge the system they are currently walking on and the values they uphold.
When Art Imitates Life
Photo from Final Art File
The sculpture captures attention through its extraordinary realism. The meticulous details of sweat, pores, body folds, painted tattoos, and the glimmering effect of the eyes represent a vast appearance almost indistinguishable from the living.
This instance exerts the effectiveness of trompe-l’œil, an artistic technique that is designed to fool the human eye. Yet the significance of Lindslee’s work extends beyond the spectacle of illusion. Realism serves as a threshold to a deeper demonstration of Filipino realities, where familiar faces and situations can reveal long-recurring truths about Philippine society.
At the end of the day, the most crucial part of these forms is not simply how it appears to be realistic, but the message it wants to convey. Seeing through the lens of art, this exhibit unravels the encouragement to its audiences to be more deep in terms of discernment, particularly politically inclined representations.
The Weight of Power and Inequality
Photo from Final Art File
One particularly striking imagery is that of a politician seated atop sacks of rice. The piece’s synthetic eyes catch a light, producing a gaze that feels uneasy in spite of it being an artificial construction. Its representation and thought-provoking image questions political power, material wealth, and the responsibilities that a public service position carries.
In essence, rice is a staple of Filipino households, embodies a vast significance more than its role in the dining table. This representation concludes an ironic part: while families are having hard time trying to make a living in order to survive day to day necessities, the politician elevated on top seemingly presents inequality and unjust treatment.
The sculpture also raises a distinct question about personal ambition over accountability. In a sense, when a politician is situated with personal gain rather than public service, trust becomes undeniably crooked and fragile. The figure’s lifelike gaze intensifies this uncomfortable tension. The power of art to immerse its audience in making them question those who are in a circle of influence, particularly those who are in public service.
This piece of art alone constitutes a vital political question: to whom did they take an oath, the masses or themselves?
The Contradictions We Live In
Photo from Final Art File
Outside the sphere of politics and economics, “The Grand Scheme of Things” considers the beliefs and social expectations that merely influence how people understand their place in the society. Values, trust, support, duty, and faith can really connect the society in creating a strong bond. But it can also be the arc of complexities when dealt with personal desires that goes against collective principles.
Understanding these concepts are important, especially in these times where people must uphold the standards of their family, institutions, and even the community they belong to rather than what they want to personally follow. However, the generation of today may place their values in established systems while still questioning whether these systems really are for them.
Through the use of humor and irony, Lindslee makes these contradictions a little comprehensive in a way that it still resonates within the audience’s sphere of seriousness. It was made clearly to make people recognize that societal issues can be in the form of realism and not always abstract.
Underneath the Facade
Photo from Final Art File
Essentially, “The Grand Scheme of Things” is not made to give answers directly to its audiences. Instead, it asks viewers to view social structures, political discourse, economic state, and religious beliefs through the lens of realism.
At the Tall Gallery, Lindslee transforms representational art into an opportunity to dissect and reflect through various social roots. The sculptures may play dead, but the realities they evoke remain very much alive. And perhaps, that is the grandest form of scheme worth examining in order to scrutinize the system and conceal contradictions.
At the end of the day, these artforms are made to instill something very important to us: what are we choosing to believe, and what are we willing to see?
Catch the “The Grand Scheme of Things” until October 31 at the Tall Gallery, La Fuerza Plaza in Makati City