Roberto Chabet at Mo_Space
MANILA, Philippines - Pioneering Filipino conceptual artist Roberto Chabet mounts “Cargo and Decoy,” which opens on March 13, 6 p.m. at Mo_ Space, third floor, MOs Design Bldg., Bonifacio High Street, Global City Taguig.
“Cargo and Decoy” is the last of a trilogy of works, which began with “Russian Paintings” in 1984 and “House Painting” in 1986. In these exhibitions, Chabet utilizes his signature material — store-bought plywood boards. It is a material, which has become not only the surface and support of his paintings, but to a large extent its subject matter and content.
“Cargo and Decoy” derives its title from the South Pacific cargo cult in which stick and stone decoys of the white man’s aircrafts are made to attract the white man’s cargo of material goods. Chabet explained that all art-making shares this illusory aspect of the cargo cult. The work has to do with the recognition that the art object, which is often taken as a decoy for reality, is reality itself. He added however “meaning in art tends to shift unpredictably. In the wink of an eye, the real may revert back to being a decoy.”
More than 20 years later, Chabet’s “Cargo and Decoy” remains to remind us that “the art object as decoy — as illusion — is often more interesting.”
The exhibit will be on view until April 18. For information, call 856-2748 extension 2 or 3, SMS 0915-3240061, e-mail exhibitions@mo-space.net, or visit www.mo-space.net.
