In Withdrawing Methods, artist Juan Alcazaren crosses over mediums as he breathes in new life into an assortment of discarded objects. Ongoing from May 23 to June 4, the show features the transformation of actual found objects into painted and animated images. It’s a transition that Alcazaren finds exciting.
For Alcazaren, no object would eventually be useless. That’s why he has already formed a habit of keeping what may be ordinarily regarded as discards, including old toys. It’s never too late to recycle them as art. For Withdrawing Methods, Alcazaren takes these found objects installation into a visual collage. He arranges them in a manner that they look like parts of a whole. The animated loop enhances the illusion of how each object finds its own space, no matter how fleeting.
Alcazaren notes how easy yet challenging it is for him now to work from three-dimensional to two-dimensional. When he started in animation, the process was in reverse. Using the real objects as basis has afforded him a little more leeway in translating their form into the canvas. As shown in the paintings, the objects now take on another character. They are simply not the distinct objects that they were before, but they become symbols representing an entirely different language. Using enamel on canvas, the brightness and glossiness of each image comes through. Yet enamel also gives the appearance of flatness, emphasizing its two-dimensionality against the more tangible qualities of the actual objects.
Putting them together wasn’t hard, as Alcazaren quickly found which objects fit like they were pieces of a puzzle. He chose them for their distinct colors, setting them against a black background. In painting, he is not actually going for an exact copy, but for the different meanings seen through a new perspective. There are recurring objects, shown in varied positions. They might as well show an illusion of motion, an idea that Alcazaren also picks up for his short video presentation, titled “Waiting Room.” He adds that it is only now that it feels right to meld these two approaches in one show. He never wanted to be pegged down to one medium. That’s why he never stopped in animation, a venture he started with his brothers. He went on and took the challenge of sculpture. In no time, he also got into drawing and painting. The desire to try on something new is still there. As the objects pass through one medium to another, so is Alcazaren applying different techniques and seeing where bursts of creativity will spring from next.
So he’s still collecting objects that he could use later on. He likes that he could swing from painting to sculpture at a given time. “I can think faster.”
Juan Alcazaren has won awards both in the fields of experimental filmmaking and the visual arts. He is one of the CCP Thirteen Artists award recipients in 2000.
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