Gore Bore and the Gestapo Effect
ARGIE BANDOY / VICTOR BALANON
August 22 (Saturday) opening 6PM (Exhibition runs until September 19, 2009)
Gallery Hours: 2-6PM Wednesday to Friday, Saturday by appointment only
The easiest would have been to blame it on the same old adage, self-expression reckless behavior associated with their 'types.' Them who at once betray an intimidated bystander's first impression list by the sheer cruelty of their looks. Along with the company they keep. Who knows what other garish details do they keep hidden under the bathroom sink? An old military jacket perhaps? Inherited from distant grandfather, who turns out, is the long lost bastard son of an abusive priest somehow related to the famous WWII bandits who plundered the luxurious apartments of the Gestapo. The premise that things are out there because something terribly wrong holds true in this case. And this is why perhaps irreverent emotional detachment could only be the fitting solution to reverse the destructive effects of historical guilt and collective amnesia.
In Gore Bore and the Gestapo Effect, Victor Balanon and Argie Bandoy retrieve images from WWII to propose an irreverent historical dystopia "without any regard to any consideration." Not to be confused as knee-jerk reactionary rejoinder to the stale activism plaguing contemporary political history. But a sincere attempt at the best worst show of 2009 by way of a digressive commentary on an inaccessible fascist past. This admission to blunt incorrectness follows as they strip historical images, logos, words, and symbols of their evil past. And instead, cloak them with an obverse divinity ordinarily divested on national war heroes. Accompanied by rhythmic play of loaded words devoid of nothing else but their meaning–visual signatures that pertain to everything else but its essence.
Firing historical what ifs as though challenging the current disposition to political decorum. Take for instance the inferential triumph of the Axis powers over the Allied Forces, would it have been a world minus 9/11, US surplus goods, Iraq and Afghanistan war? Or the impending aspiration for a fascist regime to topple the spiritual fatalism of Philippine democracy. Propositions skewed and valid at the same time.While it is possible to comfortably dismiss such silly transgressions of historical reference, we cannot ignore the deliberate proposal to pit two moral differences against each other. In an almost fascist scheme. After all, "the difference between appearance and essence is internal to appearance, not essence."
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