Relative Realities

Artists, art patrons and tech enthusiasts recently converged when Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp. (SEPCO) partnered with the Yuchengco Museum to present Relative Realities: Creating New Dimensions of Art through Technology, a digital art exhibit featuring the works of six contemporary Filipino artists.

As part of Samsung Supports the Arts initiative, Relative Realities showcased unique artworks by printmaker Ambie Abaño, painters Ernest Concepcion and Jason Montinola, sculptor Leeroy New, visual artist Arturo Sanchez Jr. and multimedia and performance artist Josephine Turalba.

Supplemented by a mobile application called Facets (short for Futuristic Art Creations Enabled by TVs and Smart devices), the exhibit delivered rich and immersive experiences to museumgoers through augmented reality technology and Samsung’s Ultra High Definition Smart TVs and tablets.

The Philippine STAR’s Allure columnist and Yuchengco Museum curator Jeannie Javelosa said, “We want to break the practice where the museum’s curatorial direction of an exhibition collection sets the pace for the appreciation and understanding of art. Would not art be best understood in the pureness of subjectivity — where the artist presents and the viewers formulate their own understanding and experience of the artwork?”

SEPCO developed the Facets app in collaboration with technology partner Digify Inc. The app runs on Android devices and can be downloaded through Google Play Store.

Apart from featuring contemporary digital artworks from the Relative Realities exhibit, Facets includes the Yuchengco Museum’s collection of digitized Filipino masters like Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo and Carlos “Botong” Francisco. Through the app, visitors can learn more about the classic Filipino artists’ works, styles and place in the development of Philippine art.

The month-long exhibit culminated with the opening of a permanent Samsung Digital Gallery at the Yuchengco museum.  The Samsung Digital Gallery will include artworks from the Relative Realities exhibit, select pieces from the Yuchengco Museum Masters collection and other digital artworks from earlier Samsung Supports the Art initiative. 

The digital gallery, located at the third floor of the museum, is open to the public.