Kakistocracy: Lirio Salvador + England Hidalgo

Kakistocracy: Lirio Salvador + England Hidalgo

January 21 – 28, 2011

January 28, 2011, Friday 6:00 pm

Reception and performances featuring ELEMENTO and THE WUDS

Green Papaya Art Projects

41b T. Gener st. (corner Kamuning)

Kakistocracy is literally defined as a society ruled by the worst form of citizens. The works of Lirio Salvador and England Hidalgo both cover a punk spectrum involved in a recognition towards the state of society as well as declaration which can either create apathy or provoke underground sensibilities. The combination of both artists will be received by a closing reception with performances by Elemento and old school 80’s punk band, The Wuds.

Lirio Salvador creates an assemblage of sculpture, sound and performance work in his practice. He creates instruments and arrangements by collecting discarded or recycled materials from his surrounding environment, such as bicycle parts, drain cleaning springs, exhaust pipes and stainless steel tubes. His works are drawn from the vernacular and molded into the form of modern industrial developments. Elements of his work reflect the contamination of genres and materials, his endemic culture, corruption/inspiration. He is a Fine Arts graduate in the Technological University of the Philippines. Salvador founded “Elemento”, a multi-dimensional group which specializes in sound art.

England Hidalgo uses materials such as a dry ballpoint pen, car keys, his fingers or any pointed tool to generate enough heat from the friction to produce marks, scribbles and images on thermal paper for his recent work. Fueled by old horror films, zombies, and gore, Hidalgo creates putrid images depicting his own critical view of social institutions using scrolls of thermal paper as representation of cause and effect in a social realm. Hidalgo studied a few semesters in Painting at the College of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, then moved to California in 1997. He got involved in the SF Bay Area Punk scene creating posters, flyers and album covers for underground record labels and played in San Francisco Punk bands Delubyo and Eskapo. He has currently returned to Manila to continue his studies in Painting at the University of the Philippines.

Kakistocracy is the fifth installment of The Ephemera of Disposable Goods, a program of Green Papaya Art Projects which aims to present a series of collaborations between two artists of similar or dissimilar genres investigating social sculptural projects based on context of time/place, relational works and encounters. Green Papaya’s space will become an open studio facility where artists and public can engage in discussions and debates as the artists go through their process of constructions and deconstructions every session.