An artist’s shifting perspective on the human experience

If there is one truth that we have all come to know, it’s that life is made up of a myriad experiences and encounters that color our days and our memories. All these inspire who we are and who we become. Interdisciplinary artist Josephine Turalba creatively captures these vignettes in her current exhibit — Click. Tag. Share. — at Salcedo Auctions.

When you enter the gallery, the first panel you will see is “Tambay Sa Bubong,” which is the third panel in this collection. On one side is the dome of a mosque and on the other is a solitary figure sitting on a tin roof, coexisting amidst the “kaleidoscope of tattered and colorful roofs of Tondo.”

It tells the story of Filipino resilience, while the setting speaks of life’s impermanence, since the tin roofs could easily be blown away in a typhoon. This train of thought carries across the other nine panels, as Turalba takes us through the different facets of the human experience. When you get to the end, you discover the real charm and magic of this artwork — it is meant to be viewed individually and as one whole mural. Put together, the panels mimic the value of connections and community across the fragmented world we live in.

Turalba’s roots as an artist go back to her childhood. She learned to work with oil at a summer art workshop when she was just 12. But it was a hand-me-down box of pastels and paints from her mom that cemented her love for art. “I was fascinated with all the colors. The stories from them are unlimited.”

She applied this principle in creating the different vignettes, using subdued earth tones contrasted by sharp red in “What You See, And Don’t Want To See,” then opting for brighter shades in, say, “Waiting For Your Ride.”

Turalba feels that the panels’ color palettes are pulled from her own emotions, but are also “very similar to the Philippine visual landscape…” in its mood and spirit.

Click. Share. Tag. was first created as an art installation to be displayed at the CCP about a decade ago. Turalba was overwhelmed by the space, forcing her to cocoon for a time to find her vision. She began creating by noting down small phrases, pulling from her experiences and her travels, hoping that the jumble of phrases will form the foundation of the finished work. Slowly, the narratives for each panel fell into place as individual stories that reference a larger whole.

Unlike most murals, Turalba goes off the beaten path by using leather as her main medium in creating the artwork. This was an offshoot of the period where she worked with discarded bullet shells, creating body armor and armor dresses for guerilla performances “connecting to the violence and conflicted memories of the city.” The leather holsters she found then sparked the idea of using the material in her art.

Working with a collection of scraps and larger pieces, Turalba let the leather’s natural colors and textures dictate how they are placed within the panel. In “Analysis Paralysis”, she shares “…this should have said dental clinic, but the leather was cut for the ‘D’ so pinalitan ko na lang. Ginawang (I changed it. Made it) mental clinic.”

It felt more apropos, to be honest, with cut-outs of three friends sitting next to the sign, presumably gossiping about life or talking about their problems. On some days, her process works in reverse. “It can come from material, and then tell a story. Or come from a concept and then work with material.”

As working with leather is already an unexpected choice, Turalba ups the ante by using grommets, waxed thread, studs and glue to piece it all together. Each of the panels are designed to connect at specific points — some strategically, while others more organically. There was the cascade of falling cars, then the unassuming umbrella in a corner, or the gypsy looking out of her balcony. Separate but seamlessly drawn together through stories of human connection.

Standing in front of the completed mural, the viewer is challenged to think and rethink their perception of their own lives, the community they surround themselves with, and the world at large.

“Reality is subjective, and so is perception,” says Turalba. For her, this is most true when she is traveling — “Manila can be seen as magulo (chaotic). You don’t want to see it, but sometimes you want to see it. ‘I miss Manila na.’ So I grapple with what is real and what is perceived.”

She drives this point home in two parts of the mural — the photographer in “Look Through My Lens” placed in the foreground, and the two teenagers taking photos with their mobile phones in “Rooftops Of Contemplation” placed at the top. Are we viewing the scene from his lens, or from theirs? Whichever you choose, what do you see? Who do you see?

Josephine Turalba reminds us that while the world is immense, we are all part of a greater whole, and our actions ripple out farther than we can imagine. In her catalogue bio, she describes Click. Share. Tag. as “providing a brief moment of relief from the overwhelming feeling of fragmentation and brought a sense of wholeness to my experience.”

Click. Share. Tag. is on display at Salcedo Auctions, NEX Tower, Ayala Avenue, until 25 May.