작품 상세

Zean Cabangis (b. 1985) Untitled signed 2016 fiber glass reinforced resin, mixed media 18" x 28 1/2" x 19" (46 cm x 72 cm x 48 cm)   P 80,000   In his early works, Zean Cabangis used to portray subjects who have a close connection to him, such as his grandmother and uncle, whose life stories impacted his young imagination. The recent works of Cabangis have transcended beyond this practice. He has shifted towards exploring for “open spaces that bear the capacity to generate awe.” He places a striking geometric form marked by an array of vivid colors that fill the “open space.” This serves as interference that entirely revamps the topography of the world he attempts to recreate. The “open spaces” that Cabangis employs in his works represent places that have been slowly disintegrating within the congested urban spaces of Manila. As an artist who grew up in the city, Cabangis saw its rapid urbanization led by deluded and greedy capitalists. Their thirst for capital and their misguided vision of progress have transformed the city’s spaces into “dense concrete jungles” – a prison-like bastion of edifices that serves no real purpose to the ordinary people, especially the urban poor. In Wasak! Filipino Art Today, Cabangis’ works are described as follows: “His foreboding works serve as a kind of antidote to an ailment: the lack of center, the abolition of color, and the abandonment of one’s imagination. His pieces, daunting as they may appear, are in fact, allegories for a quest, much as he himself has searched during his wanderings for the perfect view. The search for an apparition; the search for intervention; and, ultimately, the search for the perfect anomaly that one hopes will change the monotonous strain of existence.”