“People think dreams aren't real just because
they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of
viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.” – Neil Gaiman
One way to moderate
an artist is through his power as a storyteller. After all, all artists work
with their own experience, constructing a visualized dream. The audience,
therefore, is compelled to journey through the world the artist creates—in
effect a character in the artist’s story. It doesn’t really matter if there is
no logical outcome, or that the necessities of a plot structure are seemingly
abandoned. Dreams, after all, never follow the elements of a plot, yet somehow
people can still recall and narrate what happens. And this does not dilute the
emotional impact of the experience.
In this case, artist
Edwin Tres Reyes (b. 1972) is a dream factory, with a unique vision that is
combined with a capable technique to realize it visually. John Lennon once
said: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is
reality.” Through Tres Reyes’ ability as an artist, these dreams – these pocket
narratives – find their form in canvas and resin sculptures.
Thus, Dream
Machine is more than a visual art exhibition. At its conceptual core,
it seeks to capture the zeitgeist of an age where stories were told in their
purest form—as the product of dreams. Utilizing a distinct technique, Tres
Reyes creates canvas works that also find their volumetric form in identical resin
sculptures. These are considered one works, symbolic of the process by which an
individual dream becomes a collective reality.
Opening on 6:30 in
the evening, Wednesday, May 29, 2013, the works in Tres Reyes’ Dream
Machine find an appropriate home in Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, in
collaboration with 371 Art Space. Inside the artist community in Makati known
as The Collective, Vinyl on Vinyl and 371 Art Space are among some of the most
avant-garde independent shops and galleries. The Collective is located at 7274
Malugay Street, San Antonio Village, Makati City. They may be reached through
landline at 727-8182 or email at 371art@gmail.com.
Edwin Tres Reyes (b.
1972) is a product of the Fine Arts program at the University of Santo Tomas.
Tres Reyes has won several awards in his career, including the On-the Spot
Drawing Competition of the Central Bank of the Philippines (1986), the GSIS
High School Competition (1988-1989), the Art Association of the Philippines
Apec Stamp Design Competition Award (1996), and was a semi-finalist in the 1996
and 2001 Metrobank Young Painters’ Annual National Painting Competition. A
Founding Member of the Guevarra Group of Artists, Tres Reyes has had several
one-man shows to his credit and has participated in numerous group shows in the
Philippines and in Singapore.
The works on display
at
Dream Machine mirrors the artist’s experiences as an artist juggling
with the demands of the advertising industry. He infuses his practice with a
narrative edge that is lined with the aesthetic nous of surrealism which lend a
subliminal subtext to his works. His style recalls the a tradition of
illustration and printing, acknowledging the importance those mediums play in
crafting narrative. The artist works with the ideas of desire, and thus his
works show characters at the onset of journeys. Witty and light-hearted
political, his works and their openness to various interpretations make
conversation pieces among his audience.
The artist’s
approach to Dream Machine is to examine the manifestation of individual
dreams, represented by canvas works, into collective reality—in this case, the
volumetric representation of the canvas work as resin sculptures. These two
tangible dream products are taken as one artwork—and available to collectors
accordingly.
It is a unique
approach that makes Tres Reyes’ Dream Machine an interesting
show—one that definitely should not be missed.
