Photograph of a detail from the first part of Roberto Chabet's two-part installation, Intermediate Geography, showing a box-framed clipboard with an uncaptioned photograph of a World War II secret police archive from the book, Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald.
Other components of the first part of the installation are walls made out of corrugated G.I. sheets, a neon text that reads 'Velvet Painting,' a black body bag on the floor stuffed with a black velvet comforter, and a box-framed oil painting of the Unabomber's cabin in a forest in Montana, USA. The second part is made with unpainted plywood walls, the title, 'Intermediate Geography,' in neon, five upturned plywood houses, revealing interiors lined with mirrors, and an oil painting showing the Unabomber's house in an unnamed storage facility where it was hidden after the Unabomber's arrest.
As early as 1995, Chabet used 'Intermediate Geographies' as a title for an unrealised group exhibition that he proposed to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He wrote that 'Intermediate Geographies' 'explores the peripatetic nature of recent art and investigates nomadism and exile as realities of Philippine life, history, art, and culture. It investigates the physical and psychic aspects of 'place and displacement' and examines their local and global implications in contemporary art discourse.'
Intermediate Geography was first exhibited under the same title in one of Chabet's annual simultaneous exhibitions at Finale Art Gallery and West Gallery, SM Megamall, in 2005. This photograph shows the reconstructed version exhibited at Osage Soho, Hong Kong, from 4 March - 9 May 2011. The exhibition is part of 'Roberto Chabet: Fifty Years,' a year-long series of exhibitions organised by King Kong Art Projects Unlimited in various venues in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manila from 2011 - 2012.
Online
2005
Philippines
Plywood, GI sheets, neon, mirrors, body bag with velvet comforter, box-framed clipboard with book, oil on canvas paintings
Dimensions variable
artwork documentation
What does this mean?
This item is covered by one or more copyrights. It is available for research only or use within Hong Kong’s fair dealing rules. Please do not copy, re-use or reproduce this item without the permission of the copyright holder.
Intermediate Geography (Detail)
Application for Access to/Reproduction of Research Collections