Underwrapps : Annie Cabigting

Solo Exhibition of Annie Cabigting at Silverlens, Underwrapps, showing from November 29-December 22, 2012.

The act and materiality of wrapping has been traditionally associated with concealment. It becomes a formal gesture straddling the acts of giving and receiving objects, or a signifier of secrecy meant to shield the final image from the eye of the beholder. Annie Cabigting engages this concept head on in Under Wraps, a solo exhibition at Silverlens Galleries.

The exhibition is comprised of wrapped paintings, with square canvases being carefully covered up with paper and set apart on pedestals. Each work is untitled, merely numbered; this catalogued sequence gives no clues as to what lies beneath.

Literally and figuratively under wraps, this form of presentation is an deliberate gesture: to display and put forth objects in that state of being veiled and covered up. Being under wraps is not longer the transitory phase that it was. Instead, it enters a state of permanent suspension, where the great unveiling, the grand moment of revelation never comes.

In this series by Cabigting, wrapping becomes a reflexive act of revealing. The artist writes that concealment highlights and thus reveals the work of painting. It poses a visual and experiential challenge to both artist and viewer, who must resist the urge to peek, open and unwrap the object beneath.

In recent years, Cabigting has focused on creating paintings within paintings: consciously self-referential images that re-examine the ways how people are literally standing in front and seeing works of art. Under Wraps pursues engagement with conceptualism, consistently reminding the viewer to rethink the ways we have traditionally accustomed ourselves to view art. - Lisa Ito