Cover "Untitled" triptych from the Ephemeral Abstractions series, by 0270501, works on paper, 13 x 8.5 inches, 2020 to 2022, mixed media (volcanic ash, soot, burnt industrial wood and carbon, charcoal, handmade ink, acrylic, water, graphite, charcoal, aerosol, time, mixed media, on artist's collected dead stock paper, and sourced wood frame)

Like no other, there is a creative genius putting up extraordinary works around Metro Manila's vibrant art scene with nothing but a number series as their name

If you clicked this article to know the real name and identity of 0270501, you'd be disappointed. The artist aims to be a non-character, using a set of numbers for easier identification and attribution to their works. However, the artist prefers that we, the viewers, find their art as it is and relate it to our own shared consciousness and musings, emotions, and stories.

The first time I came across their works at 1335/Mabini, during the gallery's vernissage for the 2022 Art Fair Philippines, I was intrigued. Not just by the elusive identity of the artist but more of their works that seem to be blotches of inks from afar. Looking at them closely and seeing the name cards, I was entranced by the mere courage of the artist to use a complicated set of mediums on paper. I honestly have never seen anything like it, and I believe that I will never find a similar approach. If I do, I know it wouldn't be as daring, evocative, expressive, and grand as the masterpieces of 0270501.

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Tatler Asia
Tatler Asia

"By not creating this image of who the artist is, this becomes the motif—a counter-culture in the world of the Internet where connectedness is expected and more, so governed and surveyed," The artist said to Tatler. "The disassociation to the work leads to a more realistic relationship between the viewer and the artwork," they added. Indeed, the coup creates more of a deeper neural connection to viewers because they are now free to associate their own perspectives with their own experiences, as explained by 0270501.

Modern Manila—brimming with news on the war on illegal drugs, sectors of society opposing the government, and ongoing war with ourselves—is a key factor why 0270501 delved into the arts. "It is impossible to paint the kind of paintings that are primarily present like flowers, nudes, beautiful Filipiniana [dresses], as the artist explores ideologies, beliefs, and concepts rather than form or representational art," 0270501 explained. This conscious rejection of focusing one's art on objects has given the artist an engagement with the invisible world of ideas and allows their audience to come up with potential meanings of their own in relation to the present.

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Above 0270501 working on their pieces for District Art Gallery's exhibition at Art in the Park 2022
Tatler Asia
Above 0270501 working on their pieces for District Art Gallery's exhibition at Art in the Park 2022

Aside from being inspired primarily by abstract expressionism and the Japanese avant-garde group Gutai, 0270501 also expresses their response from their own individuality. "Abstract expressionism was an exploration of expression, with material and modernity derived from the combination of the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools by the artists in America in the 1940s," they explained. "Gutai was an avant-garde post-war Japanese group formed in 1954 whose radical ideas and approaches to making at anticipated later performance and conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s," they continued.

From these influences, 0270501 experiments processes that involve the subconscious mind. "Thus letting the unconscious part of the psyche assert and express itself in the manifestation of the act of pure creation that opens a series of new possibilities," they said.

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In hindsight, 0270501 labels their art as "the process of exploring the outcome". With their brush strokes arranged separately and simply, moving from ideology to the material, 0270501 is able to explore ideas in modern culture, rooted in the concepts of modern technology and ideology, and come up with sculptural and immersive experiences using certain technologies. "The artist communicates the fascinations rooted in the aesthetic and technology to the world of spiritualism that further finds the conjunction between them," they explained.

Tatler Asia
Above "Untitled" triptych from the Ephemeral Abstractions series, by 0270501, works on paper, 13 x 8.5 inches, 2020 to 2022, mixed media (volcanic ash, soot, burnt industrial wood and carbon, charcoal, handmade ink, acrylic, water, graphite, charcoal, aerosol, time, mixed media, on artist's collected dead stock paper, and sourced wood frame)

0270501's early works are centred on mark-making and form, which emerged from handmade paper, found objects, organic materials, and custom canvasses to reveal luminous surfaces. "These undulating textures created by countless processes produce an atmosphere that captures the viewer's gaze. The shapes disappear and fragment within the paintings, leaving ordered and chaotic movements simultaneously. The layering allows the possibility to explore spaces inside the paintings, which dissolves the distinction between reality and appearance. It explores the idea of absence and presence, a way to reveal breath and mindfulness," they explained.

The artist's works are inspired by stories, with the materiality of the objects dictating their history. "These objects are then juxtaposed with original handmade paint recipes from sourced materials and pigment where the washes and strokes of automation, paint, and layering show the tactile physicality of things, rather than emphasising a figurative form," For 0270501, their monochromatic works that highlight instead the history of the medium are never complete but only sent off, given the liberty to interact and merge to form themselves.

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Tatler Asia
Above "Untitled" triptych from Imperfect Circles series by 0270501, works on paper, 18 x 13 inches, 2020-2022, mixed media (volcanic ash, soot, burnt industrial wood and carbon, charcoal, handmade ink, acrylic, water, graphite, charcoal, aerosol, time, mixed media, on artist's collected dead stock paper, and sourced wood frame)

"Creating inner harmony, principally by artistic means, through works that translate from their physicality a more subtle value," 0270501 said when asked what message they are trying to convey through these works. "The artist expressed a distance from the purely aesthetic and strived for ways to constantly renew. All these with the commitment to a systematic approach, generating the artwork with conscious decisions and relentless experimentation and almost nihilistically concentrated, not on what was applied but on what was removed further," they continued.

For the artist, the works belong to the spectators, aside from the gallery, the artist themselves, and collectors. "The audience lives and experiences the work, which we deem able to invite and empower people," they said. Adding to that, interactive and immersive experiences with their works according to the artist are achieved by the use of light, sound, and space as these break through the limitations of a confined frame.

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Above 0270501's works on abaca, seen at 1335/Mabini during Art Fair Philippines 2022

Meditating and deconstructing are two important things for 0270501 that they think artists today should take note of. "What we do is some explorations on art that can provide moments when people can experience something outside of normal life, a kind of spiritual entrance to a new perspective on what we can learn in this world," they said.

"We live in a world that is in constant motion and change. As human beings, we apply laws and structures to try and control them. To understand. Art applies structures in this chaotic world—visualising all we experience as human beings,

"As the works are completely left to chance and momentary inspirations, as practices, and explorations, these become visual guides to active meditation— the ability to yield to the present moment," 0270501 concluded.

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