Looking Into Bacolod Artist Brandon Braza’s Persistence of Practice

(SPOT.ph) Twenty-three-year-old Brandon Braza is a young Bacolod-based artist who explores the intersections of personal, political, economic, and social realities in his intermedia installation. In a conversation with SPOT.ph, he remarked that his works at times feel too personal. But he was reminded by a mentor-friend that the personal is political. For Braza, delving into his personal narrative reveals the depth of socio-political struggles experienced by many Filipinos daily.

Bacolod Artist Brandon Braza on the Masks of MassKara

One of his notable works is "Disconnected Connections Through Time" (2022), which was part of Majica Elemental at Orange Project in Bacolod City. Majica is a yearly exhibition that serves as a visual response to the annual MassKara Festival. For 2022, the team—through the direction of Manny Montelibano—explored the unmasking of the Filipino experience, particularly during the difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Majica Elemental, the biggest iteration of the exhibition yet, brought together over 60 artists, reflecting on the past few years of disruptive existence. The idea was to let more senior and established artists work together with younger and emerging artists through their concepts. For Braza, it became a platform to unleash his personal difficulties which resonated deeply with his community.

"Disconnected Connections Through Time" is a wall-bound interactive installation that borrows the form of the Pisonet, an affordable set-up where access to the Internet via computers is paid through coins. Before the pandemic, Braza’s family relied on their Pisonet for their family income. For a struggling community, the Pisonet allows them to access the Internet, talk to family members who are working in other cities or abroad, and connect with schools and other online services by paying in smaller denominations they can afford. They don't have to subscribe to an expensive monthly service or purchase any gadget or additional equipment. For Braza’s family, the accumulation of Pisonet earnings helps them get by, survive, and even assist in his education.

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Pisonet and Lockdowns

But with the COVID-19 pandemic came harsh lockdowns. People were simply not allowed to go out except for basic necessities such as buying food and going to the hospitals. This also meant the closure of the Pisonet, along with many small to medium businesses in Bacolod City and all over the country. The government’s draconian approach to the pandemic resulted in people getting cut off from their main source of income. The initial two-week quarantine supposed to stave off the virus stretched to months and even beyond a year of erratic lockdowns. Braza’s family is among many others who lost their small business. This was the starting point of "Disconnected Connections Through Time" as the viewer is invited to put coins in the machine, similar to the Pisonet, allowing the image to come to life for a short amount of time.

The piece also deals with how people with limited income manage to keep connections through disconnections. With the Filipino diaspora, either to bigger cities or more often now, abroad, the Pisonet is the means of communication for those with limited resources. The disruption of the Pisonet went beyond Braza’s lack of family income, affecting those whose only access to loved ones is through intermittent Internet connections powered by coins they can spare to make contact. Yet, reflecting on the form, Braza adds another layer of disruption, that of termites.

Termite Colonies and Disconnections

Surrounding the small screen and coin machine is sawdust that mimics the house and a line that termites form as they create their colony. Exacerbating the lack of somewhat steady income, termites started forming a colony in the Braza home, eating away at the structure. Normally, this would be dealt with pest control. But the lack of expendable income and limited services due to the pandemic meant that Braza had to look on as the termite problem worsened in his home. "Disconnected Connections Through Time" shows the movement of termites as the audience looks through it with a lens. Braza used a combination of an LCD monitor and polarizing sheets to render the image on the screen invisible, the coin operation to turn the machine on, and a polarizer to render the image visible to the audience once again.

Such complexity of looking, experiencing, and making connections are the provocations for Braza as he processed the events of the past few years. His small-scale but complex installation for Majica Elemental fused the personal and social, producing an interactive artwork that deeply resonates with the political and economic struggle shared by the majority of Filipinos in the past few years. This struggle also meant that Braza had to pause his schooling at the University of the Philippines - Cebu, where he was pursuing a Certificate of Fine Arts in Studio Arts. It is still an open question of how he can continue with his studies, but through the difficulties, Braza persists, following his Majica Elemental exhibit with an installation for Art Fair Philippines 2023, also with Orange Project.

Ato Bala and Going Beyond

Ato Bala, curated by Moreen Austria, was Orange Project’s presentation for Regional Focus. Braza, along with fellow Negrense artists Aeson Baldevia, Guenivere Decena, Daryl Feril, Erika Mayo, and Megumi Miura, reflected on the concept of "ato bala," a Hiligaynon phrase that roughly translates to "that or those or there" and "you know." According to the curatorial note, "Without any explicit or direct English or Filipino translation, 'ato bala' is a phrase that could mean anything from the most mundane to the spectacular of thoughts, things, or ideas all mulled over and introspected. The commonality in all is that these are undoubtedly shared. What intrigues the most is the seeming vagueness of what is shared." For Braza, he looks at 'ato bala' as nostalgia, his memories of childhood, and what affects the formation of his memories.

"Ato Bala, sa Balay ta Sang Una" (2023) translates to "our home back then." The interactive installation has five components: a stand where the eye-shaped lens is placed, a sawdust-covered mannequin with an LCD monitor on the body and a coffin-shaped plywood behind, a framed box where electronics controlling the components are placed, the Pisonet component for turning the machines on and off, and another LCD monitor. "Ato Bala, sa Balay ta Sang Una" is in many ways an expansion of "Disconnected Connections Through Time", as he dealt with his relatable personal struggles. But this time, it delves deeper into the ideas of childhood and the ephemerality of life and memories.

Childhood Nostalgia, Life and Death

The familiar threads of sawdust imply the presence of termites, which is very recognizable in tropical countries like the Philippines. However, this time, it threads through the mannequin with a screen, placed on coffin-shaped plywood. Similar to "Disconnected Connections Through Time," the screen is obscured by a polarizing sheet, and the screen is revealed through the eye-shaped polarizer. Gazing at the body through the eye unveils fragments of Braza’s childhood memories and home. Using Google Street View, he takes the viewer through the neighborhood he grew up in, which was the site of his growth and struggles.

Braza, much like his artworks, is deeply reflective. He placed the sawdust-covered mannequin in a coffin-shaped plywood to evoke the complexities of life and death. Imagining what happens towards the end of human life, Braza believes that memories will all come flooding back, especially happy ones. But he hopes that people will not wait for death to relieve and realize the importance of the lives they have lived. The idea is not to forget. Despite the numerous struggles of the past few years, Braza is deliberate in approaching his past and his memories in a nostalgic light. He takes the viewer back to his community, to the site of his trials, and invites them to go beyond and hold on to the strength of formed relationships. The termites and strains may cause erosion and disrupt connections, but Braza, through "Ato Bala, sa Balay ta Sang Una," challenges the audience to persist.

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Emerging and Forming Connections

"Disconnected Connections Through Time" and "Ato Bala, sa Balay ta Sang Una" showcase Braza’s growth with Orange Project. His earlier works, such as "Heavyweight Champion" (2020), a mannequin wrapped in an aluminum screen, and "Worth the Weight" (2021), a kinetic sculpture made from an aluminum screen, explore the human form and gestures as expressive of emotions. "It’s only hair." "Exactly." (2021), shown at the Visayas Art Fair, critiques the dynamics of human hair, with women having to remove hair, while men get to keep them as they see fit. His play on the body and the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism in Philippine society has always been present. Yet, with his recognition of his personal narratives, comes the depth of his interactive works.

Braza’s works resonate with his viewers. His personal struggles are not isolated from the wider socio-politico-economic struggles sweeping through the country. As an emerging artist, who has faced limited opportunities in formal education, trials are a part of Braza’s narrative, but he is not limited by them. There is still a lot to expect as Braza continues to explore and experiment with his art. With Bacolod City and Orange Project as sites of practice, perhaps they can help bridge some of the gaps. Much remains to be seen, but if his current series of works suggests anything, it is that he will continue to persist and prevail.

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