The End of the Affair
Juan Alcazaren
The End of the Affair
2018–2019
Published by MO_Space
January 2019
©Juan Alcazaren
Printed in Makati, Philippines
Watch the flipbook animation here.
about
the book
The End of the Affair
2018–2019
Published by MO_Space
January 2019
©Juan Alcazaren
Printed in Makati, Philippines
Watch the flipbook animation here.
Objects and Flipbooks
MO_Space AFP 2019
An object on a table or shelf has reached the stasis its maker destined it for. But the movement never ends, for some artists. The process was just arrested—by a subjective decision or even a deadline. My guess is that’s why variations on a theme or multiples get made. An artist is the image of a moving image. His objects just mark where the tumult has taken a breather. To generate an actual moving image though, he only needs to turn to film or digital video technology.
Or he can make a Flipbook.
The humble Flipbook is one of the simplest mediums for breathing life into images. It is probably the most direct and tactile way of transforming still images into living vignettes of movement. It is patently low-tech, even no-tech.
The feel of paper, the gentle whirring sound, and the miniature breeze generated make flipping a Flipbook a uniquely simple pleasure. This activity, commonly reserved for school children, hobbyists, and students of animation can be a viable medium for the ‘serious’ contemporary artist. The “Do Not Touch the Artwork” sign will certainly not apply.
A moment of movement through one’s fingers can be powerful on a very personal level, story or no story, abstract or not so abstract, pointed or pointless, drawn or undrawn; most certainly, not static.
See the Flipping Out exhibition here.
about
the book
About the Artist
Juan Alcazaren (b. 1960) is a sculptor, bricoleur, collagist and object maker who works with a wide variety of materials ranging from construction steel to industrial and household detritus to ubiquitous everyday things like plastic monoblock chairs, school supply materials and melaware plates. Everything is material to him. In the 90’s he learned steel welding from Napoleon Abueva, CCP National Artist for Sculpture and has since always come back to this medium attracted by the way steel only “knows” how it wants to be formed. He always maintains a patina of rust on his steel pieces to show earthly life’s steady march towards death.
He tries to coax profundity out the ephemeral and overlooked in the world of the permanent and covetable. Alcazaren’s faith informed sensibilities make him see humble material as a metaphor for our own material nature, being creatures created by the Uncreated one. Juan Alcazaren has a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture and studied sculpture the University of the Philippines where he also was a lecturer in 1995 at the College of Fine Arts. He was conferred the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2000. He lives and works in Pasig City, Philippines and continues to actively exhibit in major galleries and art fairs in his home country and around the region.
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