Juan Alcazaren’s new set of drawings is still the focal point of Avoiding Behaviour, his latest one-man show at the West Gallery in Glorietta 4. Ongoing from July 22 to August 3, Avoiding Behaviour is much as an exercise in art making, as it is a decision to do nothing else.
Alcazaren uses colored pencils, ball pens, and correction fluid as opposed to conventional painting materials to fill up the entire space of the paper. He points out that there is no conscious attempt to create a familiar image, and even avoids creating one, discarding a few ideas that led to a discernable form. Nor is he going for minimalism.
For Alcazaren, art making itself is not “normal” behavior, with normal meaning that each step of the process is deliberate or measured. Alcazaren locks himself up in a room while doing these drawings, avoiding distractions that will likely divert the attention of most people. He can be working in his studio, or even during a vacation; the important element is that he is set on what he is doing, without thinking too much about what is going to happen next. The invitation for the show is a scene from Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, depicting an otherwise mindless activity. Alcazaren probably picked this scene because it is similar to what he is creating, exploring different colors and patterns by using ordinary, easily found “art” materials with little care about the outside world.
While there is no quest to find a definite form, Alcazaren still compares the process to working on a jigsaw puzzle. It is a direct yet relaxing process. He does not even notice how much time passes while he is working. He finds rhythm in the repetitive action and the randomness of filling up every grid, with the finished works resembling monochrome computer-generated pixels. One work led to another. The visual effect is but incidental. Alcazaren likes to concentrate more on how he got there than how it looks like in the end. He believes that this set of drawings is still part of his whole art making process, and that it may give him ideas to launch in future projects, whether they are two-dimensional or three-dimensional works.
Alcazaren, a CCP Thirteen Artists Award recipient in 2000, took up landscape architecture at the UP College of Architecture and some foundation courses in sculpture. He first started as an animator before venturing out into the visual arts.
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