Alexander de Moscoso

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Art is my platform for personal and social discourse. It is the product of my struggle and discipline in pursuit of transforming thought and energy into material form.

At present, my main focus of artistic exploration is the mapping of contemporary phenomena. My artworks are personal maps which serve as visual representations of a particular area or subject. The works represent any form of space, both real and imagined, and whose purpose is to provide an understanding of any activity arising from that space. As an artist navigating and charting personal and social space, cartography serves as an integral element in my paintings, sculptures, and installations.

The daily practice of creating art is my attempt to make sense and non-sense of myself in relation to the world and vice-versa. Through paintings, sculpture and installation, I create experiential representations of real and imagined reality. In this regard, the drive to create is based on my commitment to materialize thoughts and the transference of energy in this lifetime.

Alexander de Moscoso,
10 April 2010, Manila

Prolegomenon To Future CartoGraphics

As I write this introduction to Cartographic Skits, two other windows on my laptop screen are open while seven more on my taskbar idle, yet ready to be opened when needed. Such is the characteristic of our period, this autopoeitic system called the Internet, where in a matter of seconds, raw and processed information are produced, exchanged, and consumed, without regard to physical territories.

Existing in a period where information is consumed at an extremely fast rate, this condition necessitates a production level that will not only match the demand but exceed it. To provide an example, try opening a webpage and one can see not less than ten hyperlinks that will lead to other websites containing processed information. In this regard, the accelerated influx of information does not guarantee the quality, substance or specific use value of processed information, and most of which contribute to information noise in cyberspace that needs to be filtered in relation to specific needs of the user/consumer.

It is therefore posited that my art is both raw and processed information. As a product of historical research, experiential synthesis, and specific material conditions, any physical or concrete artwork for that matter is further processed via digitization to gain access into the Internet and goes through the whole post-post production processes, distribution, consumption, and whose life  online depends on how it is supported and regenerated.

In sum, with the advent of the Internet, the physical presence of an artwork produced i.e. painting, not only becomes processed information, but likewise has the potential as digitized raw information for further processing online. To push it further, art can even transcend the realm of the physical, i.e. any compilation or collage of digital files, whose life is created purely in virtual space. Such is the vast realm of possibilities made possible in this day and age.

The rapid introduction and actual use of technological advancements have led to the possibilities of operating or communicating via multiple venues or space simultaneously. If before, an artist is confined to exhibiting his or her artwork in the white cube of art galleries, museums, and other physical space, the artist of the 21st century can operate, produce, distribute, consume, and reproduce physical and virtual works on real-time and whose presence is autonomous of physical limitations or boundaries.

In this regard, my current explorations and future works---the CartoGraphics of personal and social space and phenomena, will revolve around the physical and virtual terrain of art and the dynamics on how art can be communicated according to specific demands, situation, and target audience. Here, I imagine the role of available technology, specifically digital formats and processes bridging the analog. Furthermore, one can anticipate a constant and dynamic movement of the artist, autonomous in almost all of the production-distribution-consumption processes, as well as the need for the independent artist to be a part of and collaborate within networks, and who can operate in the mainstreams as well as peripheries of the real and virtual infrastructure of art.

In conclusion, this introduction is a response, or rather, a meeting point to a suggestion to provide the audience notes for each work, however, I believe that to do so will compromise the integrity of the pieces as well as the overall experience of the audience. In this regard, in the spirit of autonomous processes made possible by real-time access to information, coupled with the will to pursue the path of knowledge and praxis, I hope that this introduction can serve as phenomenological anchors for this exhibit.

Alexander de Moscoso,

“MY CORE PRINCIPLE IN CREATING ART IS TO CATAPULT THE MESSAGE, TO LIBERATE THE MEDIUM, AND TO TRANSCEND THE SELF.”  

Kulay-Diwa  is a venue for Philippines and Southeast Asian Contemporary Art. Inaugurated on February 7, 1987, Kulay-Diwa, is strategically located within a cluster of communities South of Manila.  It has five independent exhibition areas able to accommodate large-scale works and a garden ideal for programs, performances and sculpture installations.  The goal of the gallery is to discover and promote the works of young, talented but deserving Filipino Artists and to foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions and other countries.

Kulay (Colour)

Diwa  (Spirit, Thought)

Available works:

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