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Lot Essay
The present lot, Bound, is part of the most recent exhibition of the artist which opened on July 11 (2008) at the Finale Art Gallery, Manila. The exhibition titled Turning Tides is "an ongoing interest in memory and remembering" as explained by the artist, "The exhibit is portraying children in a moment of reverie by the surf which is haunted by battering waves and threatening clouds, in pictorial detail, (I) affix them in a moment of stillness, caught as they are 'in an imperturbable world between tides parting'. (Source: https://www.finaleartfile.com/shows.html).
Bound reveals a continuing obsession of the artist with the theme of memory and the possibilities inherent in its malleability, as exemplified with works from the series entitled Gingerbread Girls. The earlier series which makes a direct reference to the young, female protagonists who are clothed in softly hued frocks that is evocative of a sense of nostalgia and timelessness is not dissimilar in sentiments to the present series. In Bound, the background of the jumping girl is depicted with an intense simplicity that allows the subject to teeter on the brink of a staccato effect visually. The swirling hair of the protagonist and her flying dress as she takes a leap intensified and dramatized a moment of joie de vivre, of movement and of rhythm. The artist, however is not plainly depicting a moment of play time of a child, like all her protagonists, the jumping girl in Bound, transcends time and context which makes her an enigmatic imagery to behold and ponder.
In many ways, Yasmin Sison's works calls to mind the Polish-born French painter, Balthus, whose work straddles the line between an almost magical realism and surrealism. Balthus is a master of nuance and this is a characteristic that is also striking with Yasmin as her setting for her protagonists are so carefully composed that they feel dreamlike, almost silent in their tranquility, but the viewer is often left with a palpable sense of unease. The young, pre-pubescent girls seem to possess an unattainable (perhaps sinister) knowledge, often inextricably tied to the mystery or to the history, of which the viewer is left to infer.
Bound reveals a continuing obsession of the artist with the theme of memory and the possibilities inherent in its malleability, as exemplified with works from the series entitled Gingerbread Girls. The earlier series which makes a direct reference to the young, female protagonists who are clothed in softly hued frocks that is evocative of a sense of nostalgia and timelessness is not dissimilar in sentiments to the present series. In Bound, the background of the jumping girl is depicted with an intense simplicity that allows the subject to teeter on the brink of a staccato effect visually. The swirling hair of the protagonist and her flying dress as she takes a leap intensified and dramatized a moment of joie de vivre, of movement and of rhythm. The artist, however is not plainly depicting a moment of play time of a child, like all her protagonists, the jumping girl in Bound, transcends time and context which makes her an enigmatic imagery to behold and ponder.
In many ways, Yasmin Sison's works calls to mind the Polish-born French painter, Balthus, whose work straddles the line between an almost magical realism and surrealism. Balthus is a master of nuance and this is a characteristic that is also striking with Yasmin as her setting for her protagonists are so carefully composed that they feel dreamlike, almost silent in their tranquility, but the viewer is often left with a palpable sense of unease. The young, pre-pubescent girls seem to possess an unattainable (perhaps sinister) knowledge, often inextricably tied to the mystery or to the history, of which the viewer is left to infer.