A sequel to last year’s Road to Santiago, A Flash and a Clap features the latest collaboration of artists Jonathan Ching and Anna Varona. “I have always known Anna for her experimentation with materials,” says Ching. A Flash and a Clap is a play on lightning and thunder. “The idea came up when I called up Anna and asked her what she is currently up to. She said she has been making sculptural pieces of human heads. Then, I thought I wanted to try to paint sound, as it is ephemeral, until it looped over and over inside one’s head, hence, the idea for the two-person show.”

On the surface, the show will be somewhat similar to last year’s, as Varona focuses on sculptural pieces, while Ching sticks with painting. Adds Ching, “Aesthetically, for me, partnering with an artist who works in another medium lends for a more interesting show as my work is usually wall bound.” Varona, for her part, says she and Ching are on the same frequency, art-wise. She adds that Ching is very easy to work with, quiet, and grounded. “We work well together even better now. We’ve matured, and we see things differently as we mature.”

On the concept and the title of the show, Varona shares, “There are days when you have a realization of things that have always been in front of you but never saw. It startles you like a clap of thunder and hits you like lightning. The process sounds painful, but after that, there is clarity.”

Just as they did in their last show together, the “theme” is loose to allow them to maneuver and play with the concept and the material. Ching’s “Hope is the thing with feathers” is a painting of an abandoned concert hall in Detroit. “I love the architecture, then, like a collage, I placed a bird made of copper on it, changing the context of the image. Maybe I am playing on the fact that the wrecked piano produces no sound, but the bird might provide some music.” “Echoes” is a painting of stairs from his old apartment. Says Ching, “Although there is no one there, it evokes memories.”

Varona is now working more on the peripheral elements of a human being, drawing inspiration from life itself and God. As a woman’s advocate researching on abuse from men, she wonders “where it all stems from and how does one get closure.” “Profile of a Vow,” Varona describes, is a head split vertically into two. In between the space is a triangular piece in bronze. With the piece she asks, “When is a marriage sacred? Is it only through the Catholic Church? Does the civil wedding not count as a vow? Are vows done inside a religious institution only the ones considered sacred? Is it true that marriages showered by holy water the only ones going to receive ‘blessings’?” In “Gnarly Rhapsody,” the “common man” has a branch with a small piano jutting out of his ear and branch-like figures are growing out of the top of his head, as Varona queries, “Where does romance start? Does it start in your head or in your heart?”

The materials or medium are very important because they dictate how the show will be presented, adds Ching. Being familiar with each other’s works, it was easy to adjust the scale of their works to fit a smaller space. As for their next project, Ching thinks it’s too early to say. “We all need to take a step back to evaluate our work but we still need to distance ourselves from the current show and reflect. If we feel we can still push the concept or there were some concepts or techniques we have not fully explored in this show, it may be carried over to the next show.”

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickenson

Richard Koh Fine Art, in collaboration with Finale Art File, presents recent works by Philippine visual artist Jonathan Ching in a one-man exhibition entitled And They Say the Stars Are Worlds. The show will be on view at RKFA Singapore from October 12 to 25, 2011.

Th exhibition presents recent paintings exploring the concept of parallel worlds: other realities undeciphered or undiscovered in our own immersion with the immediate and the present. Ching offers viewers paintings that engage both memory and possibility: open ended stories and representations of the everyday, rendered unfamiliar and strangely surreal.

Appropriating its title from a quotation from Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the works in the show utilize images from familiar and alien locations, art works of the past and present, and everyday objects. Ching intentionally builds upon layers and layers of visual references—from Hokusai’s woodblock prints to Gericault’s oil paintings to Philippe Halsman’s underwater photography, for instance—and combines these disparate influences and images into singular works, sometimes splicing together different visual elements into a seemingly unified sequence. Ching also incorporates in his paintings bronze and copper pieces cast from found objects–seahorses and foliage, for instance—as markers of meaning. Ching’s works, though seemingly disparate in subject matter, are unified in their tangible sense of desolation and enchantment, inviting the viewer to venture further into their parallel worlds.
Manila-based artist Jonathan Ching is among the members of the defunct arts collective Surrounded by Water, which sucessfully established an alternative artist-run space from 1998 to 2004. He obtained degrees in Civil Engineering  from De La Salle University and Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Parallel Worlds

“Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?”

“Yes.”

“All like ours?”

“I don’t know, but I think so.

They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree.

Most of them splendid and sound – a few blighted.”

“Which do we live on – a splendid one or a blighted one?”

“A blighted one.”

- Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

In his latest one-man exhibition, titled after a quotation from Hardy’s classic novel, Jonathan Ching explores the idea of creating parallel worlds: other realities undeciphered or undiscovered in the face of our own immersion with the immediate and the present.

The works in the show, ranging from oil on canvas paintings to installations of found objects,  juxtapose images from familiar locations, art works of the past and present, and everyday objects to create new scenes and contexts.  Intentionally disparate and unrelated, Ching’s choice of images defy any obvious logic of sequence or narrative between themselves: a garden set, seascapes filled with bodies, an urban park divided by sunlight and shadow, the expanse of space enclosed in a desolate atrium. By doing this, the artist offers viewers a preview of different worlds, like what a folio of short stories or random recollections does.

He uses multiple sources of images to underscore the simultaneous representations that exist in our world. In one work, for instance, Ching intentionally builds upon layers and layers of visual references—from Hokusai’s woodblock prints to Gericault’s oil paintings to Philippe Halsman’s underwater photography—and combines these different influences and images into a singular scene, splicing together different visual elements into a seemingly unified sequence.

Ching also continues to experiment with fusing painting and sculpture—something he started in 2009—into a single work. By attaching to his paintings bronze and copper pieces cast from found objects—seahorses and foliage, for instance—he does beyond the two-dimensional limits of canvas and paint and additionally positions these objects as markers of meaning.

The strength of Ching’s art is how it engages both memory and possibility: open ended representations of the everyday, rendered unfamiliar and strangely surreal. Though seemingly disparate in subject matter, his works are unified in their tangible sense of desolation and enchantment, inviting the viewer to venture further into their parallel worlds.

Richard Koh Fine Art is located at 71 Duxton Road, Singapore, Singapore 089530. Representing contemporary South East Asian artists, the gallery is open from Tuesday-Friday  (11:30 am-7:00 pm) and Saturday (12:00-6:00 pm). For inquiries, please contact info@rkfineart.com or +65.6221.1209 (phone) or visit their website at http://www.rkfineart.com.

The exhibition is organized in cooperation with Finale Art File, located at Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Avenue (Pasong Tamo), Makati City, Philippines. Gallery hours are from Monday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. For inquiries, contact the gallery at (632)813.2310 and (632)812.5034 ,or visit www.finaleartfile.com

The show was featured in Time Out Singapore http://www.timeoutsingapore.com/art/feature/spring-returns-and-the-winter-snow-melts-by-jonathan-ching

Thanks James!

Grace Is Found Between the Saddle and the Ground

Jonathan Ching lassoes a portion of the cowboy’s rugged and mythic life as immortalized by the Marlboro Man. Titled after an Irish proverb, Grace Is Found Between Saddle and the Ground depicts a weathered leather saddle, the only evidence of a phantom rider and an equally phantom horse, floating through the American West’s big sky and billowing fields. Screwed to the bottom of the canvas, a rattlesnake made from a sheet of hammered copper slithers through the underbrush.

Muscular strokes of ominous cerulean and black contrast with the delicate brushwork of the saddle, which exhibits the highest level of detail thus far from Ching. Straps twist, dangle, and end in stirrups; floral curlicues blossom up and down the worn leather seat, shiny from years of use in the great outdoors. Writhing flower patterns similar to those on the saddle race over the rattlesnake’s sinuous back.

Beyond, fine blades of grass create a melancholy and expansive landscape, natural habitat of the iconic cowboy, America’s symbol of individualism, self-reliance, and virility. Ching leaves the absence of man and beast for viewers to interpret; it is not far-fetched to imagine the fading of a legend. As the Marlboro Man rides off into the proverbial sunset, the lyrics of Johnny Cash echo through the grasslands: “Make me as big and open as the plains. As honest as the horse between my knees. Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains. Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze.”

In The Day’s Last Light, A Golden Lake

By Sam Marcelo

Jonathan Ching transforms a Sante d’ Orazio photograph into a setting worthy of Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, a magical realist novel from which Ching’s painting borrows its title.

The artist unleashes his imagination on a sepia photograph of an Italian villa and, with his impasto strokes, turns it into a fairy-tale bedroom. The heavy drapery of an antique four-poster bed is pulled back to reveal a lake harboring a pair of solid aluminum ducks. The birds, unbothered by the wondrous circumstances that surround them, swim through a textured surface of brown, violet, and orange. The folds and creases of the bed’s canopy leap off the canvas, begging to be touched. The thick paint reflects light just so and bathes the canvas in a glow reminiscent of sunset.

Ching, one of the founding members of the now-defunct arts collective Surrounded By Water, (which counted amongst its members Geraldine Javier, Yasmin Sison, Mariano Ching, Wire Tuazon, Kieye Miranda, Lena Cobangbang, and Louie Cordero), began incorporating objects into his paintings in 2009. Previous artistic endeavors using this technique saw his canvases populated by creatures made from polymer clay and metal.

In The Day’s Last Light, A Golden Lake is a poetic example of Ching’s ability to weave literary and visual references into a conversation piece that invites you to explore its narrative potential. This bedroom exists in Rushdie’s “half-discovered world” of “visionary, revelatory dream-poetry” and you become the traveler, a teller of tales who “could dream in seven languages.”

An exhibition on how history, fate and free will repeatedly alters one’s life journey and influences one generation after another.

Jonathan Ching presents a suite of oval-shaped canvases featuring objects that relate to the past.  The painting depict isolated forms in a dense mixture of oil and clay, evoking a sense of mystery and nostalgia.

View online catalog on ACC website:
http://www.asianculturalcouncil.org/files/
Please email inquiries to: accartauction@gmail.com

Group Show, West Gallery, West Ave. , Quezon City

Opens on December 8, 2010

Blossfeldt’s Field Series

Oil on Canvas | 2010 | 12 x 9 inches