AAA 2009: A silent ode to Bach

"Death to the Major, Viva Minor" was the opening exhibit at the new Silverlens Lab (SLab) art gallery from October 16 to November 22, 2008. Twelve pieces using various media were created by artist Patricia Eustaquio (b. 1977) for the gallery which used to be the location of a piano school. And it was for this exhibit that Patty was chosen as one of the three winners of the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards. Three of the pieces are in the current exhibit at the Ateneo Art Gallery. Again, the gallery's notes on Patty's exhibit is below. 2009 ATENEO ART AWARDS SERIES #2 OF 4

Arteria Axillaris, ceramic

Untitled (Piano), carved leather and ceramic

Psychogenic Fugue, layers of crochet lace and epoxy


Dissonance transposes into harmony within the location of a former piano school where SLab's gallery now stands. Eustaquio's suite of works is read as an installation of very different objects united not by a message but by the artist's harmonious manipulation of what constitutes the skin, bone and organs of these crafted objects.

The artist's allusion to Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, equally a suite of short and progressive piano pieces that utilizes all 24 major and minor keys without perceptively going out of tune, is suggestive of an interest in tempering or harmonizing divides firstly between art and craft, given her practice as both a maker of art and a maker of clothes. She meanders through this discourse through fragments, wholeness and overtures on historicity in works of canvas as well as constructed and found materials.

What she aims to put together is not easily deduced; these are not visual translations of music. The process does not deign to parallel the making of music nor the sensation of music. As Eustaquio admits, she knows nothing about music and it is exactly this ignorance which allows her to experiment freely. Yet the works are evidently studied; there is nothing arbitrary in the play of color, texture and pattern. These are astute works of design, achieving sensuality and quiet elegance while evoking mixed memories and an unfolding of possibilities. Undoubtedly, it is a collection that comes together as a well-composed and thoughtful piece.