Unknown to many, Errol Marabiles, who is simply known as Budoy is a visual artist specializing in Installation Art. He has always been an active participant in the series of exhibits and artist talk seminars that is characteristic of a Visayan Island Visual Artists Excon ( VIVA Excon).
Viva Excon is an art festival participated by more than 150 visual artists from all major islands in the Visayas. It is celebrated once every two years. There will be an opening exhibit, USWAG LAMBIGIT, on Nov. 27 at SM Trade Center, Installation Art exhibit, SUGBU KINI, on November 28 and culminating exhibit , GARBO SA BISAYA on Nov. 29 at Maribago Bluewater Gallery.
The lead vocalist of the popular Cebu Reggae band, Junior Kilat, started his career as a promising visual artist. Budoy, who hails from Laoang, Northern Samar, studied Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Visayas College- Cebu. Since then, he has represented the Cebuano artists in the field of Conceptual Art in the VIVA festivals in Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu and Tacloban Cities in the past eight years.
Budoy won the Joya Award and the PLDT Directory Cover Design in the early 1990’s. In 1992, he shifted his creative energy in the field of Installation Art. In the VIVA Excon held in Iloilo City of the same year, he created a “payaw” or a fish pen in the middle of the city. Using strips of bamboo, nylons and fishing nets, he produced an assemblage that explored the notion that space and time are, in and of themselves, food for artistic consumption.
The Cebuano artist took over the space like a squatter whose clutter of possessions challenged the boundaries and sparked a dialogue between the space itself and its contents. Installation Art resists definition, this is because of the impermanence of this art with influences picked up everywhere; be it Dadaism, Futurism, Assemblage or Minimalism. Budoy’s installation evoked the feeling of an underwater garden or some other dreamlike fantasy world. The day before the opening, heavy rains pounded Iloilo City and lo and behold! The installation art of the Cebuano contingent became a real “payaw”
In 1995, in an exhibit at SM Art Center, Budoy came up with a local roost for a chicken. He faithfully copied it from a neighbor’s; using buri, sawali, bamboo and a live chicken to boot. Not everyone appreciates installation art. The trouble with aesthetics is that tastes and standards vary so much. Is art about realistic imitation, effective communication, entertaining expression, or a simple visual appeal?
To analyze with a formalist attitude, we exclude social forces, content, even subject matter, yet the same work may be examined with the Freudian dreaminess of Surrealism. Some art is meant to represent clean functionalism, with its elegance residing on how it fits its purpose, embracing technology and industry. Or, it can be the antithesis of reason, claiming to be more real than reality itself. Art theories, by fleshing out images with thoughts, emotions, and contexts, provide the tools with which to critique, and it brings richness to the very experience of looking.
Budoy’s chicken roost installation art received mixed reviews in 1995. True to from, the rooster and Budoy created havoc in SM Art Trade Center that he had to bring it home on the second day of the exhibit. The installation art of VIVA Excon 2008, with Cebu City as host will be done on November 28 in Fuente Osmena Circle and as is the custom, Budoy will participate in the Installation Art Category. I can not help but wonder where he will bring us this time.
MARIA VICTORIA BELTRAN
(For more information about the VIVA EXCON, email bambibeltran@gmail.com)
Published in Gold Star Daily, September 22, 2008, page 13
