ABSTRACTS ON MARCEL ANTONIOS 2012 THE ROMANTIC LIE SERIES by V.I.S.V.

The Wall. In The Wall, Antonio pays homage to that typically idealized sculptural figuration reminiscent of Communist propaganda poster and mural imagery. But its a styleexpropriation thats here denied of any political intent, if that denial is possible, with the title parodying this type of propaganda for parodys own sake. Parody is, after all, almost always a rebellion against the monumentalities and elitism of official or otherwise society's walls. Ars Poetica. The painter says Ars Poetica does not depict but was inspired by my year-2000 online poem Ars Poetica. Antonios own visual ars poetica piece outlines one of his own predilections in his narrative art- (or pseudo-narrative art-)making, which in this pictures case is the exploration of a desire poetics, so to speak, or of roots of desire in figurative drawing/painting. The picture here does involve erotica or soft-porn clichs, but those clichs are quickly ruptured by the typical Antonio technique of juxtaposing his female desire-objects with images or figures that depart from the desire issue. These may be figures archaic or depicting intellectualism or something of some metaphysical import. Hangman. Hangman is another Antonio exploration of the absurd qua conceptual puzzle. Hanged man + a fruit tree bearing ripe orange fruit + donkey-headed female figure with wings + reading nude + Odalisque-like fashionista figure facing a dagger on top of a filled wine goblet + a male central figure who may be a self-crowned bard in the act of distributing copies of his new verse + a di Chirico tower in the background + an arched doorway = equals WHAT? To me, the piece is a portrait of poetry/art as an act of intellectual judging as well as of hedonism. The dagger and the wine seem to echo that reading. Waiting for the Gingerbread Man. Another composition

replete with female desire-objects, the juxtaposition of these with images devoid of sexual desire triggers a million possible stories or a long narrative akin to the novel. However, the presence of an illustrated gingerbread manshaped figure at the bottom right unapologetically signals the advent of mystery-making in Antonios characterization for a new narrative palette. But if the gingerbread man is to be read as a transition figure pointing towards the arrival of the five shaped canvases Antonio collaborated with me on, then the waiting could be read as a transition from this pieces novelistic format to the shaped canvas-series own short-story-series-esque fragmentation. The Ship of Fools. This 2007 painting is included here as if to demonstrate the painter's earlier passion for classicist facial expression as well as gestures as well as the conscription of this for a subtle facial dramaturgy. For while the figural collective in this Romanticist scene elicits facial classicism, the viewer can't be fooled by such a compositional claim in view of the Queen's orgasmic arrogance towards which her servants can only express ignorance as they function on in their respective serving roles. The Gift of Boon. Portraits of ennui, anxiety and discontent in this subtle depiction of the many angles upon human materialism (inclusive of art)? Thus read, could this be Antonio's commentary on the religious concept concerning "blessings"? Could this be his "ho-hum" and middle finger to that? The Bent Kiss is another old work called back to this show, being as it could be one of Antonio's best depictions of the relationship between boredom and desire. - *I think this will read better if we frame words in a more positive light, shunning the negativity or mediocre implications that words like old connote. Think of Starbucks drink sizes where they substituted the word tall for small or medium cup of coffee. The Prodigal Son again locates Antonio's blue funk'd figures

in a classic story setting, resulting in an examination of ennui within urban hedonism contrasted with the classic or Biblical story's rural ennui escaped from and to return to. Center of Gravity. Is this one of Antonio's almost-purely formal statements concerning circles and an elusive center within a rectangular composition? Or does this also depict the relationship between ennui and the flow of time? Should that elusive compositional center parallel the absence of a center in time's everflowing river, the clock's center therefore to be regarded as a warping of time? The Silence. This could in fact be Antonio's piece of mimicry towards painting's silence that results in a negation of that silence. The negation happens by the dramatization of silence and glances as anxious signifiers of a potentially loud oncoming tension or otherwise guffaw. The presence of boredom in a standing third figure functions as anchor to the signature Antonio loyalty to his sea of ennui figuration. The Deluge. Possibly one of Antonio's forays into black humor reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin's The Circus. I based this work on a Chinese folklore that tells the origin of floods as the result of the presence of a giant crab in the river. Its a story of destruction and rebirth, an end of world theme I have explored a number of times too. The White Ribbon is another humorous Antonio work that once again appropriates the methods of good ol' absurdist theater. -requires definition? The Romantic Lie. This show's eponymous piece looks like a brief on the common thread sewn into the series' other pieces. Here, soft porn and desire clichs are contrasted with a poverty or ugliness signifier. The symbology likewise hints at ambition as well as the searching for knowledge quasiangst. Here, Ren Girards mimetic theory must be briefly explained, that men and women learn from one another what it is they should desire (mediation). We are mimetic in our ways, (language, gestures, and other external attributes) and what we desire is never autonomous and independent. Girard rejects this romanticist idea, hence, the romantic lie.

Fragments. Antonio depicts an absurdist drama involving potential symbological fragments and dreams that yet elicits nothing but indifference, even boredom and consequent sleep. Is this one of the artist's spit-throw at Symbolism, or even at the more current strains of Psychoanalytic criticism? I try to make an oblique reference to The Colossus and to the poet Sylvia Plath. Manila Bay. Is this the artist's realist depiction of prostitution by the famous bay? If so, well, doesn't he include the reality of sleep in the equation of that realism? I was thinking of German Sturm und Drang and Romanticism in general, and the idea of the Sublime (Victor Hugo?) that characterized much of the landscape. Desire. Another realist depiction of reality's eternal partners: desire and boredom. Diary of an Ingenue. Meanwhile, the artist here explores that other partnership in reality, that one between boredom and thinking. Waiting for a Unicorn. Ennui here could be within the viewpoint of the intelligent viewer viewing (peeping at) the portrait of ignorance in this red light district scene of "nightdreaming". The Owl. As a way of a show disclaimer, the artist provides us a break from all the ennui and desire with the intrusion of a night owl in this humorously antithetical interior piece. The Owl is inspired by a poem by David Bottomss An Owl. I substituted a couple of images and made it my own. Pasipha. But while Antonio provides the show with a disclaimer piece in The Owl, he also inserts a two-handed thumbs up to the desire theme with this symbol of total desire in the literary persona of Pasipha. But is this to elicit a conservative audience-deriving anxiety? Leather and the Swans. In this five-painting collaboration between me and Antonio involving five canvases in the shape of spread-eagled gingerbread "men", I and Antonio explore narrative possibilities within the man-shape. Women figures placed inside tell short stories. One about attacking a

boring nature scene with the Leda and the Swan myth, another exploring the shape as a room for Little Red Riding Hood to posit herself and the wolf in, yet another concisely depicting a modern geisha's multi-costumed nature, another exploring the man-shape as a mere window hole for looking towards a free compositional indulgence, and finally one exploring a symbology eliciting readings of an erotic slur. The title of the five-painting series points to the female figure as not entirely images of leather (read: flesh) but also as swan images for potential narratives. The Simulacra. While this Antonio piece may be said to be a "so hang me" comment-cum-exploration on the art-historical issues of simulacrum as it involves Antonio's drawing vis a vis the arrogance of more realist and photorealist craftsmen, this seems to likewise thrust the point in our hands, as if to say: it's how the story is efficiently told, stupid, not the purple prose. And so here, despite the title, allusions to Germany as well as to domestic and political/economic misunderstandings arrive in our minds just as well as dialogue essayings might from drive-in movies. Or perhaps more efficiently than from a drive-in movie over and above an Americanized beetle-mind. This is actually a second version of a painting with the same theme, which are inspired by a poem written by D. Nurkses The Simulacra in 2009. Nostalgia, melancholy, & boredom permeates the work that I liked very much. PARE, CAN YOU GIVE ME YOUR OWN TAKE ON "On Old Ideas" AND "Doppelgnger" (IS IT? DI KO MABASA MABUTI)? I'LL ALSO WAIT FOR YOUR LINK TO THE STORY ALLUDED TO BY "CLUB VALHALLA" On Old Ideas is a work inspired by a poem written by Dorothea Lasky, 2007. Club Valhalla is of course inspired by a short story of the same title written by Palanca awardee Douglas Candano. But notice

that theres a strong & obvious reference to Picassos Les Desmoiselles DAvignon, Im surprised that you didnt catch that, hehe..