2/F YMC BLDG 2, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City, Philippines
Gallery Hours are 10am to 7pm Mondays to Fridays and 1pm to 6pm on Saturdays.
(+632) 816.00.44 / (+63905) 2650873
For inquiries or to be added in our mailing list, email manage@silverlensphoto.com

Mirroring the elements, design and professional structure of the Silverlens Gallery, SLab (Silverlens Lab) is the new gallery, established 2008, for Philippine contemporary art under the Silverlens Group. Silverlens and SLab artists push the boundaries of their medium and are aggressive in their dialogue with a critical audience. The gallery artists are represented by Silverlens internationally for their exposure, recall, recognition, and collection.

I came across photos of Adolf Hitler's apartment New Chancellery in Berlin which reflects the Fuhrer's baroque, often sentimental taste. The apartment, immaculately beautiful and peaceful, one would imagine was once occupied by Gianni Versace or Tom Ford. The photos were taken by Hugo Jaeger, one of Hitler's personal photographers who had unprecedented access to the Fuhrer's private moments. These images, along with Adolf Hitler's infamous statement "The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence" resounded with a certain curiosity to look at violence that lies between past and future, between life and death.

Jean Baudrillard suggests that we have to give objects, including objects of desire, a chance to die violently... a chance to break inside your head and be smashed to smithereens. And I go further into quoting him: Keep objects as a system / Keep production as a mirror / Keep death as an exchange / Keep the world as a simulacrum / Keep the evil transparent / Keep the majorities silent / Keep your seduction alive / Keep your memory cool / Keep yourself as an other / Keep perfection as a crime / Keep illusion for the end / Keep on line for the while.

Not Past Nor Future, Neither Dead Nor Alive by Norberto Roldan runs simultaneously with Evil Postcards and Other Beautiful Stories by Johann Espiritu in Silverlens; and Underneath the Floorboards by Rachel Rillo at 20SQUARE.

For inquiries, contact Silverlens Gallery at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816-0044, 0917-5874011, or manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am–7pm and Saturdays 1–6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

Words: Norberto Roldan, Image: Hugo Jaeger, A diptych of Adolf Hitler’s apartment New Chancellery in Berlin

Rachel Rillo makes her debut in 20SQUARE with a personal project that reveals her "memories, aspirations, idols and inspirations". In this show, entitled Underneath the Floorboards, Rillo gathers "photographs and images from travels and tear sheets, which are reworked and transferred onto paper and vinyl", as modified versions of the collage.

Recalling these memory keepers, she also includes "pieces made from surface materials stripped and cut to reveal their undersides". On vinyl wood, marble and cork, Rillo transforms the layers of imagery into minimal, bare forms, revealing her influences as an artist. She deletes the details to keep the bones of the memory and the aspiration.

As in her previous show, Grain, Rillo takes the mixed-medium route but this time with self-reflection and more openness. Rillo invites us all to take "a peek as what she keeps in a safe place".

Unearthing the images she left 'underneath her floorboards', she reveals parts of herself she had until now kept hidden.

As a related event, Rachel Rillo and Isa Lorenzo have their first group show, Bare Tactics, which opens on August 7, Saturday at 6pm at the Blanc Peninsula. The show runs until August 28, 2010.

Underneath the Floorboards runs simultaneously with Evil Postcards and Other Beautiful Stories by Johann Espiritu at Silverlens, and Not Past Nor Future, Neither Dead Nor Alive by Norberto Roldan at SLab.

For inquiries, contact Silverlens Gallery at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816-0044, 0917-5874011, or manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am-7pm and Saturdays 1-6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

Words: Bea Davila, Image: Rachel Rillo, Basic Forms, 2010