Roberto Chabet
APT9
Born 1937 Manila, the Philippines
Died 2013 Manila, the Philippines
Lived and worked in Manila, the Philippines
Roberto Chabet is widely acknowledged as the founding figure of Philippine conceptual art and one of the most influential figures of the postwar generation of South-East Asian artists. He is highly regarded for his experimental works, ranging from sculptures and installations made from everyday and found materials, to paintings, drawings and collages. He was the founding Museum Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) from 1967–70 and subsequently led the alternative artist group Shop 6. He taught for more than thirty years at the University of the Philippines while continuing to be involved with artist-run spaces in Manila. Chabet’s sculptures often drew on and extended conceptual ideas of relational and serial structures, using materials such as plywood for their association with the rebuilding of Manila after it was bombed at the end of World War Two, and implicating the body of the viewer into an experience of the work in space.
Roberto Chabet / The Philippines 1937–2013 / Waves 1975 / installation view, showing 15 of 21 panels, at Mo_Space, Manila, The Philippines / Courtesy: Mo_Space / © King Kong Art Projects / Estate of Roberto Chabet
At the time of his death in 2013, Roberto Chabet was widely acknowledged as the founding figure of Philippine conceptual art. Chabet’s signature material for his installations and sculptures was plywood, a ubiquitous material in Manila — makeshift shelters in the poorest districts are constructed from plywood, and it symbolised the city’s reconstruction after it experienced heavy bombing during World War Two. He also explored the ocean and seafaring as ongoing subjects in his work, which allowed him to address histories of trade and colonialism in the Asia Pacific region.
Waves 1975 is one of Chabet’s most significant works: first shown in a survey exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, it is his only surviving installation from the 1970s. Composed of 21 plywood panels hung from ceiling pivots, the gentle swaying motion and changing contours suggest the undulating surface of the ocean, while the pale blue colour was selected for its properties as a light receptor.
Chabet was not only an influential artist, he was also renowned for his work as a curator, director and lecturer in the Philippines. His installations demonstrate how serial, modular forms and conceptual principles can collapse the boundaries between sculpture, painting, architecture and theatre.
