Minimum Yields Maximum

February 20 - March 20, 2010       Opening Reception February 20, 7-10 pm

Minimum Yields Maximum curated by Gina Osterloh MM Yu, Roya Falahi, Yason Banal, Ringo Bunoan, Joshua Callaghan, Kent Familton, Louie Cordero, Hong-An Truong, Reanne Estrada, Poklong Anading, Lena Cobangbang, Gary-Ross Pastrana

Monte Vista is pleased to announce Minimum Yields Maximum, a group exhibition curated by LA-based artist Gina Osterloh, featuring work by artists from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Los Angeles. Along with the exhibition, Monte Vista will host a book release event for Sarita See’s (Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies, University of Michigan) new book The Decolonized Eye: Filipino American Art and Performance. All of the author proceeds will go to the environmental justice organization FACES (Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity).

The artists in Minimum Yields Maximum work through a conceptual lens that considers everyday materials, and often engages greater social inquiries—a type of art practice that is both wide-ranging and inclusive. Many of the artists from the Philippines have studied and/or collaborated with artist and teacher Roberto Chabet. Perhaps this exhibition is a reminder that the Philippines has never hailed a singular geographical identity. It is also an appeal to shift art history, to consider a conceptual and political art model that includes the Pacific Rim. Most importantly, as an artist I have felt a strong resonance between the selected works from Manila and those from the United States. The works in this exhibition refuse to be easily identified or placed geographically. Instead, they build upon structures of loss, humor, rupture, trauma, and obliteration.

In the 1970’s, during the Marcos Regime in the Philippines, a strong conceptual art movement began in Manila. Led almost singlehandedly by Roberto Chabet, this movement took a strong stand against representational landscape painting, Social Realist murals adhering to strict aesthetics, and Modernist soft-brushstroke paintings popular in post-WWII Philippines—in short, a move to reject an essentialist identity and a simplistic art historical model of Philippine art. From the 1970’s to the present, artists scattered throughout the world have become actively involved in a dialogue with Chabet through travel, arts grants to Manila, and especially through the artist community that he has mentored.

In the beginning, Chabet’s work was affiliated with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (the CCP) as founding museum director of the CCP. A large Modernist building created by Imelda Marcos, the CCP stands out as a formidable floating cube looming over Roxas Boulevard along Manila Bay. After his departure from the CCP in 1971 due to internal politics, he began teaching at the University of the Philippines, and in 1974 founded a conceptual art group called Shop 6—the first alternative artist-run space in Manila. Subsequent alternative venues such as Agnes Arellano’s Pinaglaban Gallery in the 80’s, and Big Sky Mind and Surrounded by Water in the 90’s and today, all credit Chabet as their inspiration. As an artist himself and mentor to artists since the 70’s, Roberto Chabet has defiantly pushed forward a type of “inclusive conceptualism”1—which has influenced hundreds of art students at the University of the Philippines where he taught until recently, as well as other artists who have met Chabet and experienced his generosity in person.

In the Philippines in particular and Asia as a whole, artists from Manila are well known through their participation in biennials throughout Asia, recognition awarded through the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Ateneo University, the surge of commercial galleries representing their works throughout Asia, and the insistence of independent art spaces such as Green Papaya Art Projects in promoting an international dialogue supported by institutions such as the Asia-Europe Foundation and Arts Network Asia. Other cross-national arts ties in the Philippines include the French Embassy, Alliance Française, and the Goethe-Institut.

Due to the lack of consistent institutional support for the arts between the Philippines and the United States—especially when viewed in comparison to relations between France, Australia, or Germany and the Philippines—independent, artist-run spaces such as Monte Vista are of the utmost importance and urgency to make exhibitions such as Minimum Yields Maximum a possibility.

—Gina Osterloh, February 2010

1Ringo Bunoan, text. Ringo Bunoan has been a constant wealth of historical background for conceptual art practices in Manila. As with many of the artists in this exhibition, we shared many late night conversations during my Fulbright

grant in Manila 2007-2008. She recently exhibited here in Los Angeles at REDCAT for the exhibition Everyday Miracles

(Extended).

Mirjam Dröge Artist Talk

January 31, 2010, 6pm

Mirjam Dröge Artist Talk In conjunction with The Need to Hold Still at UC Riverside/California Museum of Photography

MIRJAM DRÖGE

Ah-round

January 9—February 6, 2010

Opening January 9, 2010, 7—10 pm

Rebecca Ann Hobbs

Monte Vista is pleased to announce our first exhibition of 2010, featuring Ah-round, a single channel video by Australian artist Rebecca Ann Hobbs. About the work, Hobbs says:

Ah-round was made in the summer of 2008, during which time I was involved in a romantic relationship with Madou, the man in the video. Madou and I endeavored to make a work together that celebrated our shared experiences in spite of our apparent differences. He is from Mali and has been living in New Zealand for almost fifteen years now. I, the woman behind the camera, am from subtropical rural Australia and have been in New Zealand for about four years. Mali is a land-locked West African country, whereas New Zealand is an island in the South Pacific. Madou, confident in front of the lens, and I, preoccupied with the lens-based medium of video, realized that it was only natural for us to make a moving image piece together, yet we were also acutely aware of all that we represented as people and how that would affect the reading of the work. We decided that it would be best to confront our concerns candidly, whilst trying not to be too inhibited by the histories that separate us. 

The images in Ah-round are quite literal. They intentionally appropriate iconography found in Romantic representations of the “Other.” These images support an Imperial power structure by incorporating motifs that reinforce existing stereotypes. In this instance, the “Noble Savage” is located in the exotic and faraway Pacific jungle. However, this particular “jungle” is made up of potted plants and exists in an overtly constructed space, a greenhouse. There are also satellite dishes, urban brick houses, a polo shirt, and a manmade ceiling—elements that intrude upon our idea of an untouched wilderness. Ah-round is intended as a parody; Romantic conventions are lampooned in order to make them seem ridiculous. 

This work is founded on my research into Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism. Of particular interest to me is the idea of the active subject. It was important that Madou was actively negotiating the situation, an independent being, in charge of his circumstances. I have also been researching Marcus Garvey’s work and his supporting ideologies. Garveywas an advocate of Pan-Africanism and he established a shipping company called the Black Star Line. The BSL functioned as a business, as Garvey believed that empowerment could be achieved via financial security, but it was also a logistical strategy to move black people who were victims of the diaspora back to Africa, the Motherland. Financially, the BSL failed in the end, but the power of Garvey’s ideas have remained. The 360-degree camera movement of Ah-round represents the idea of moving full circle and pays tribute to Garvey’s BSL ambitions. The song that Madou is listening to is “Traveling,” by Burning Spear, from the album “Spear Burning.” Burning Spear, also known as Winston Rodney,cites Garvey’s philosophy as a major influence in his life.

Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage, 1994. Grant, Colin. Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey. Oxford University Press, 2008. Nelson, Stanley. Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind. 2001.