‘Lies, Magicians and Blind Faith’ reflects a dynamic period of exchange between Australian and Filipino artists in the 1990s and 2000s. The changing political environment of the mid-1980s saw a surge in artist-organised activity across the Philippines. Concerned with social contradictions and colonial legacies, artists became interested in expressions from the archipelago’s diverse cultural communities, and began incorporating folk motifs and indigenous materials into their experiments with two- and three-dimensional forms.

The Visayan island of Negros, one of the central Philippine Islands, was home to the politically active group Black Artists of Asia, which included former political detainee Nunelucio Alvarado, and initiated the long-running artist-run biennale VIVA ExCon in 1990. In the Cordillera region in the country’s north, Santiago Bose and others co-founded the Baguio Arts Guild in 1987 and the Baguio International Arts Festival in 1989, creating a major platform for progressive artists from the Philippines and beyond.

Shifts in diplomatic, trade and cultural policy around this time created opportunities for Australian artists to engage more closely with their peers in the Asia Pacific region. Initiatives such as Perth’s Artist Regional Exchange (ARX), which ran from 1987 to 1999, and Asialink, founded in 1990, enabled close contact between Australian and Filipino artists, proving vital to the development of the first Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1993.

Named for an artist book produced by Bose, ‘Lies, Magicians and Blind Faith’ features rich and vivid experiments in painting, installation, and works on paper that share a scepticism toward belief systems and political structures, while demonstrating the expansive possibilities of artist-to-artist dialogue within the Asia Pacific region.

Feature image: David Griggs’s Frog boy's dissertation into a new karaoke cult 2008, installed for ‘Lies, Magicians and Blind Faith’, March 2023 / Purchased 2008 with funds from the Queensland Government's Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund and with the assistance of the Melbourne Art Fair Foundation / © Courtesy of the artist, Jan Murphy Gallery Brisbane and Station Gallery Melbourne / Photograph: N Harth, QAGOMA
 

King of the beasts is an ambitious collaborative painting by George Gittoes and Nunelucio Alvarado, bearing strong hallmarks of each artist’s painterly style. Sharing a deep commitment to expressing humanitarian issues through innovative forms of social realism, the two artists first met in 1989, when Gittoes spent several months in the Philippines. After visiting Brisbane for the first APT in 1993, Alvarado stayed with the Gittoes family for several months in Bundeena, near Sydney.

King of the beasts was produced as part of a performance piece at Canberra Contemporary Art Space — the two artists painted while actor Charles Freyberg presented a monologue. They worked without sketches, allowing themselves a timeframe of 90 minutes, but completing the piece in just 75, with the later addition of some detail. The work depicts a family threatened by the monsters of war, hunger and greed. It features a lion, a concrete soldier and a Somali Buddha painted by Gittoes, with Alvarado contributing a peasant family and the encompassing snake, its pattern based on the US flag.
 

In 1989 George Gittoes travelled to the Philippines and spent several months travelling and meeting Filipino artists, including Nunelucio Alvarado. Gittoes stayed with Alvarado's family and together the artists went on excursions, making studies of canecutters and other subjects. Gittoes brought a sample of Alvarado's work back to Australia and exhibited his own with Alvarado in Sydney and Melbourne (1990–91). At the time of the 'First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT1) at Queensland Art Gallery in 1993, Alvarado visited Brisbane and afterwards stayed with Gittoes's family for several months at Bundeena, near Sydney. Among their collaborative works is the ambitious composition, King of the beasts. Gittoes has said:

While working together at Bundeena in the period leading up to the show ('Legless bike'). we decided to design a large work and performance piece for the opening night. We collaborated on the ideas for this piece and it was clear in our minds what we were going to do but the work on the night was drawn without reference to preparatory studies or sketches.

The performance was titled 'Art Talks'. We both wore shirts with 'Art Talks' embroidered on the back. An actor, Charles Freyberg, also took part in the performance. While Charles presented a monologue and underwent three character and costume changes, Nuni and I drew the work using brush, hands and acrylic. A time limit of 90 minutes was set up for the completion of the drawing but we completed it to a satisfactory level in 75 minutes.

The symbolism related to a family threatened by the monsters of War, Hunger and Greed — hence the title of King of the beasts. I drew the three monsters — Leo the lion, a concrete soldier and the Somali Buddah. All images from my recent work in Somalia. Nuni drew the peasant family of a man, a woman and a child. We shared the background details but Nuni drew the large snake completely on his own.

Both Nuni and I returned for just a few hours in the period following the opening and made a few minor improvements.¹

Endnote:

1. George Gittoes, Letter to Anne Kirker, 9 November 1993.