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From: Maria Zaldarriaga Category: Art Date: 18 April 2008 Time: 08:04 PM Review: It has been the time of year when graduating students of the UP Fine Arts Program in Cebu City, Philippines, put up solo exhibits for their undergraduate theses. Before I continue, I would like to tell you one of the most interesting criteria in evaluating these students. They are expected to develop an innovative artistic style and present it to Cebu’s art buffs, or the whole world for that matter. This is not an easy task. In these days of art movement and post modernism, to be artistically original is a daunting assignment. The atmosphere of the gallery was eclectic, like the way the models pranced in Japanese inspired clothes, unusual headdresses and wooden clogs. Models, you ask? The audience was first treated to a mini fashion show of models garbed in paint canvasses that the artist designed himself. These outfits were primed and textured with calcimine and talcum powder, hand-painted then sealed with enamel paint. I should say it was an excellent performance. After feasting on the beautifully made up and interestingly dressed models, the curtains were opened and the lights turned on. The attires matched the dozen or so 4 feet by 8 feet works of art, hanging on the walls of CAP Art Gallery. As the models posed beside their respective paintings, the audience followed eagerly, as if to devour the art works, painted in a process similar to the dresses except for the primed plywood that was used instead of canvas. As one can talk to the models, the exhibit became interactive. Their relatively short stature did not take the attention away from the huge art works but instead complemented them. The one entitled” Fuschia Catastrophe” doesn’t crack open its medium the way Gustave Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer” does, but it effectively juggles naturalism, high artifice and abstraction. The pale skin, limpid eyes and long delicately clasped, manicured hands are isolated by the blazing patterns that define the subject’s gown. The painting is dotted with gold flakes, punctuated by a few squares of fuschia patterns. The “Silver Love and the Azure”, like the rest of the paintings are purely aesthetic and are centered on the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone. This is pleasing if one can separate the aesthetic standards from morality, utility or pleasure. Perhaps in reaction to the political awareness and social sensibility that is expected of a student of the University of the Philippines, Jenno stressed his art’s subjective, symbolic and decorative functions. He even turned to the mystical in an attempt to evoke personal states of mind by visual means, hence the title: Clairvoyance. Here, the exhibit succeeded in being original. Jenno Gacasan is an innovative visual artist, make-up artist, fashion designer and choreographer rolled into one. Instead of the usual student exhibit characterized by an opening prayer, speeches, an honored guest/ribbon cutter, trailed by everyone going around looking at the art works followed by cocktails, he staged something completely different. He was able to tickle the viewer’s artistic juices by providing a glimpse of what is to come. I came out of the exhibit feeling stunned. His is an exciting innovation and surely a promising one.