The Brave New Art of Xerography
The Brave New Art of Xerography
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, December 03, 1986
THE photocopy machine, popularly known in this country as the "xerox" photocopier, is a gem of modern-day technology. Its accessibility, ease of operation, and capacity for rapid reproduction, have made it an indispensible tool with varied applications in legal documentation, business communications and educational research. Indeed, for only a few centavos, virtually anyone can have vivid, lifesize copies of printed material, and just about anything that can be held aloft and horizontally compressed on a copy counter.
The xerox process, then, would seem an unlikely source of artistic produce. The photocopy image is so commonplace as to appear cheap and very nearly vulgar, while art is often thought to reside in objects of rarity and great value.
Surprisingly, however, the infant art of xerography appears to have gained greater acceptance in the realm of the visual arts than in the field of contemporary photography to which it actually belongs by way of generic affinity. The xerox machine is literally a large camera, and the image it produces is a photographic image. But while xerographs and other xerox-derived works are now regular fare at visual art exhibitions, they are rarely, if ever, to be seen in respectable photographic exhibits staged by local camera clubs and their more celebrated individual members.
Like many other contemporary artforms of popular orientation, the rise of xerography as a serious creative manifestation was a natural consequence of art’s growing disenchantment with the cult of the masterpiece. The centuries-old romance with the precious nature of paint and canvas was replaced to a great extent by a more recent fascination among the intelligentsia with commonplace materials and imagery. The Pop Art of the 50s and the 60s celebrated the urban iconography long taboo in an art romanticized, expanding the artistic context to include the banal, the vulgar and the everyday. Conceptual Art upheld the supremacy of the creative intellect over material, a notion often manifested in the celebration of the seemingly-effortless. "Disposable Art", a counter-aesthetic born of the 70s, was essentially photocopy-based, and sought to instill the idea of an art for everyone - out of the grasp of the elite - in works virtually devoid of monetary value. Within this scenario, the lowly xerox machine was elevated to a mythical status, at once the embodiment of technology, mass production and instantaneousness.
Which is not to say that xerox art, by virtue of its humble beginnings, remains an esoteric happenstance with little or no financial worth. On his return from over a decade of self-exile, the London-based Filipino artist David Medalla exhibited his painted xerographs, on sale for thousands of pesos each, in effect introducing the once-disposable photocopy to an artistic convention founded on marketability.
Like Medalla, many photocopy artists in this country have sought to enhance the cold mechanical image in their xerographs by incorporating collage and traditional handpainting techniques into the creative process. More often than not, these colored overlays alter their work to the extent that they assume the appearance of conventional paintings and fine prints, erasing the unique visual qualities of the photocopy image. On the other hand, artists like Mario Eric Gamalinda, Ami Miciano, and the late Ray Albano have utilized translucent glazes from poster paint and flourescent marker pens in their very successful attempts at maintaining a distinctly xerographic look, surviving the addition of textural and color overlays.
Experimentation by some of our more adventurous visual artists have also yielded exciting results with xerox-derived imagery. The gifted young painter Jun Domingo, for instance, has mastered a technique by which photocopy pictures are transferred directly onto his canvases with the aid of strong solvents such as denatured alcohol and paint thinner. The prolific young illustrator Christina Garzon has done extensive work with xerox on transparent acetate - a comparatively inexpensive procedure now widely in use by draftsmen and commercial printers - juxtaposing two or more layers of film that achieve a ghostly effect through the superimposition of multiple images. The folk artist Mario Parial, better known for his fine prints and vibrant canvases, has incorporated photocopy in elaborate collage of paper and cellophane, infusing his high-tech media with an earthiness rarely seen n xerox-derived works. Then, too, the accomplished visual artist Peque Gallaga, now a leading filmmaker and impressario, has done extraordinary pieces in which identical figures are individually costumed in extravagant space-age gear, accomplished by hand in mind-boggling detail.
But by far the most exciting developments are taking place in the direct manipulation of the photocopy process itself, without virtue of paints and other post-mechanical devices. Xerographic "purists" like Ige Ramos, Bing Caballero, and Rafael Gozum have made impressive advancements in innovative printing methods, at once recognizing the potential of the xerox machine for photographic versatility. Caballero creates haunting still-lifes by arranging three-dimensional objects on the copy counter, photographing these objects by using the xerox machine like a camera. Gozum has made award-winning xerographs of emotional depth and drama, simply by making conventional copies of his graphically-manipulated snapshots. And Ramos, among the more significant pioneers of the medium in this country, achieves startling effects akin to "action" shots by moving his xerographic subjects from side to side during the actual copying process.
To be sure, xerography is at the forefront of the current drive to de-mystify the creative experience. The invitation to attempt art, at will and without great expense, is probably its greatest gift to the world. Art now beckons from every street corner and shopping mall.
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “The Brave New Art of Xerography” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, December 03, 1986
