Warm Welcome
SOLO EXHIBITION BY
MAHAPUTRA VITO
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Allure of Manilla
Never has it been a dull moment during his visits. Even for a couple of days of stay, every opportunity is a chance not to miss. Mahaputra Vito’s first Manila visit in 2017 became the start of many more returns. Manila for him is a far place similar to home, with characteristics that mirror to cities of residences he had. From the outwardly easygoing lifestyle of Jogjakarta, the multifaceted societal perceptions of people living in Riverside, CA to the fast-paced life of Jakarta where he resides now. For him, Manila is a different place, with its character and identity yet it resembles a collection of what he wants to see and experience from the cities where he lives and used to live.
“Same same but different”
The visual landscape that the city offers has been an interest to Vito. Urban developments within its vicinity are always contrasted by a variation of clusters of makeshift urban spaces. The same as how pockets of individual spaces focused on providing a place for varying communities emerge on the outskirts of these exclusive developments. This contrasting imagery from the urban landscape is what gives Manila its own identity, but is also similar to where Vito has been.
Warm Welcome
With his latest exhibition titled “Warm Welcome,” Vito showcases pieces that are the embodiment of the entirety of his Manila experience. He portrays familiarity and belongingness from an outsider’s perspective of the city represented through various forms in his works. He creates characters with their own identities, a mirror of experiences and people he met alongside his artistic pursuit. For this exhibition, he introduced two new characters Juan and Batu to go along with his original one Dre. The three represent relationships with the city, Manila, the artists he met and himself. His works at first glance are abstractions, but examining the images closely exhibit traces of figures, mostly parts of a unified whole. It may seem a pareidolic approach but Vito’s process dissects images to not only understand every part of it but also to create new contexts from these fragmented parts. A new meaning is created based on these blown-up images.
On top of the somewhat familiar belongingness to the city, for Vito, Filipino hospitality is the cherry on top of the overall experience. The Philippines will always be a place “same same but different” from his home, but will always be a place with a warm welcome.
