Ariel Erestingcol

Up and coming visual artist Ariel Erestingcol has just had his first solo show at Togonon Gallery on Geary street in San Francisco. I was lucky enough to see the show–a colorful, interactive experience that seemed rare, if only because Erestingcol chooses what many artists shy from–to confront some of contemporary America’s toughest issues: war, terrorism and the American dream. The show consisted of interactive and wall pieces. A homemade bomb shelter for one, titled “Hidey-Hole”, that is triggered as a viewer sits on the bright yellow vinyl seat in the center of the construcion–complete with sirens and emergency lighting, an upside down Rubbermaid trash can hung so someone standing on their tippy-toes is able to crank out a distorted version of “When You Wish Upon a Star”, while encased in a cocoon of mirrors lighted like a stage vanity. There is the “Landmark” series which depicts different cityscapes broken by a familiar pattern of colored bars, and an enormous depiction of the Oklahoma City bombing, all created out of tiny plastic beads.

I met him a couple blocks from his house in Hollywood at a restaurant in Thai Town. Behind him, a TV is tuned to a news station with footage of a raging fire in Griffith Park…

Emberly Modine: So tell us a little about yourself.

Ariel Erestingcol: My parents came to the United States in the mid ’70s from the Philippines. They bought a house in Hollywood on Alexandria Street, in a very ethnically diverse, working class neighborhood. They brought my siblings and I over one by one and I lived there until I went to the San Francisco Art Institute. My brother is an artist as well–he does multiimedia art, a lot of video pieces, and has always been interested in multicultural topics. My father isn’t necessarily artistic, but he was always very handy. He could build anything. He did his own upholstery when I was younger, and even built a whole house in the Phillippines out of bamboo. I would say I’ve learned a lot from both of them.

EM: Where do you find your subject matter?

AE: Everywhere. Mainly the news, situations I encounter, current events, things that happened post 9/11. I find this age we live in extremely interesting, as far as the anxiety we go through and the way that people deal with it, and the interactions and systems that we’ve created for ourselves, whether it’s using TV or the Internet. I am pretty interested in the general audience that has learned to communicate and interact in a virtual space–where our opinions, videos and photos become markers for our shared experiences. Something that got my attention recently is what happened last weekend in MacArthur Park–the pro-immigrant march that happened. They’ve been calling it the Melee March, which started peacefully and turned into a huge altercation between protesters, police and the press. People were being pushed away and told to clear out of the park by police in riot gear. There were even some scuffles between families with kids. Anyway, there are images being circulated by the press of police in riot gear with palm trees behind them, shooting rubber bullets into the crowd and beating people down with batons. These images really reminded me of images of the Watts riots, where you had the national guard lined up–silhouettes against the streetlights that illuminated palm trees and people running–and you take one look and know it’s Los Angeles. I guess a lot of my work really centers around definitive landscapes–time and place.

EM: It seems that, in your work, you find a subject and use that as a point of departure, and work backwards in time, finding similarities in your subjects, where others may find dissimilar experiences.

AE: Well, in the series I did called “Landmark”, I take an image of familiar cityscapes and make a juxtaposition with the image that the Emergency Broadcast System uses, and you see them and it’s like – Emergency – Earthquake in San Francisco – Oklahoma City Bombing – Flood in Tokyo – Terrorist Bombing in Manila….it’s the idea of an attack or a natural disaster and a common signal that people have developed to communicate this emergency, and we all consider this TV broadcast as an authoritative source that people look to for information in these situations: what do we do next? But this system is only in place for the biggest things–huge events. Every day, people deal with emergencies or violent situations that are commonplace, depending on what kind of community we are talking about. Things happen everywhere that fall through the net of this kind of infrastructure, or don’t even register. I am really just curious how people respond. When the cookie starts to crumble, how do people react?

EM: How do you think people are reacting to your work?

AE: As far as a response? Visually, I think people find it kind of refreshing. I work with a really heavy-handed subject matter, but I use a lot of craft materials in my work that may remind them of their childhood or things that people could buy from a hardware store. I think the subject matter is pretty pertinent to most people and is presented in a way where they think, “Wow, I could have made this.” It’s not so distant and mysterious as, say, painting. But you know, the pieces are put together pretty elaborately–some of them are made of thousands of little parts. Maybe it kind of diffuses the fact of someone talking about fear and having that in their faces, but the way it’s put together is kind of…fun. Maybe a little bizarre, hopefully interesting.

You can see some of Ariel Erestingcol’s work and check for upcoming shows on his website – www.makemelook.com.