A series of new paintings by Filipino artist Rodel Tapaya is on display at London’s Jack Bell Gallery until June 16.
It is his first solo show with the gallery, and the new series of works embody nature as the inspirational life-force of folklore and mysticism that fuels his intellectual approach to portraiture.
Filled with flora and fauna, these portraits pay homage to a Southeast Asian artifact: Wat Mahathat’s Buddha head that emerges from tree roots in Ayutthaya. Art historian Gregory Levine provocatively explores the significance of this Buddha head by calling on us to reconsider our perception of art in the context of the Anthropocene.
DECIPHERING THE SHADOW, 2023
The Anthropocene marks a pivotal moment in Earth’s history, where human actions began to profoundly influence the climate and ecosystems. It has since compelled us to reflect on the consequences of our actions, prompting a shift in carefully considering the purpose of art as more than purely aesthetic contemplation, and instead their ability to serve as powerful tools to critique the immense devastation of our biosphere and the unequal suffering endured by both humans and other species.
Through this lens, Tapaya approaches neoliberal speciesism, biospheric collapse and human extinction with inquiries into myth and folklore.
By calling the exhibition Can’t See the Forest for the Trees, Tapaya highlights the importance of seeing the bigger picture. In the case of his new works, the forest has its own agency, potency, value; nature is not just ornament or source material but its own maker in an ecological collective such as the forest. Trees are divinely and ritually animate, even sentient. Their presence provides a counterpoint to symbols, selves, and worlds, granting them both livability and grievability.
EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS, 2023
Jack Bell Gallery is located at 13 Mason’s Yard, St James’s, SW1Y 6BU
