THE WEEKEND IDEA ] Lena Cobangbang on our increasingly sticky situation

A work labeled elmer-jj_lo and, right, by Yvonne Quisumbing.

Stickers, tapes, adhesives, decals--you are holding something like it right now. You see these normally affixed to flat, smooth surfaces such as walls, folders, envelopes, mirrors, windshields, car bumpers,refrigerator doors, ...dresser doors, locker doors, flip flops, luggage, airplane tickets, fruit crates, shiny red apples, boxes, bottles, report cards, tin cans, washing machines, license plates, ID cards,registration papers, traffic citations, postal notes, price lists, electrical posts, metal gates, guitar cases, fenders, Gibson guitars, skateboards, surfboards, school bags, notebooks, laptops – everything it seems that need to be ascertained of its identity as a product, name, ownership, authorizing agent, point of origin, ideology, allegiance, nationality, degree of importance, expediting instruction, washing instruction, use instruction, content, material, etc., etc., etc. Its function as a branding tool and as necessitated by free market capitalism build up to a hypertextual landscape of meaning, desires, systems and neuroses. Contemporary life seems stuck from this surfeit of surface treatment that walls scream dread of horror vacui, holes howl of vapid voids. Peeling through these layers would only reveal the lacerated skins of this dread and the incessant need to patch up this dread.

Gallery walls that act as transitory tabula rasas now willfully submit to this anarchic decoupage. Not because street art has become in fashion and is fully accepted with its auspicious marketing potential, (well, partly it is) but it has been its intrinsic task as an institution to tag or be tagged for the surfaces with which it chooses to please its target viewers or clientele. It is an industry, after all, or another wall to be filled in and stared at. However, blank stares equal an anesthetized engagement.

Clockwise from topmost left: Cubao Expo 017, Mariano Ching + wewilldoodle, Phone, and Theresia Irma Aryani.

This show will hopefully bomb this white out on SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 at Mo_space.(Notice that we were very careful not to be too sentimental as to coincide this with 911. This is an isolated event and not in any way connected to anything of that sort.)

Post-its, grocery lists, stamps, sticker books, duct tape notes, bumper stickers, warranty stickers, star stickers, red dot stickers, character stickers, stickers of your own design, stickers with your name on it, layers of decollaged stickers, stamps, decals, manufacturing labels, programming manuals, campaign stickers, stickers on your niece’s sticker book, stickers that come free with your favorite cereal or chips, stickers that indicate your clothes or shoe size, band aids, striped band aids, seals of approval, seals of validity--anything that adheres to any flat surface or anything that has evolved from R. Stanton Avery’s invention of self-adhering labels is acceptable for this show.