Photograph of a detail of Roberto Chabet's Untitled Yellow (Proust/Vermeer) showing a clipboard with a photograph of Vermeer's painting, View of Delft. The work is included in the group exhibition 'The Unnamable,' Manila Contemporary, 27 March - 18 April 2010.

'The Unnamable' takes off from Samuel Beckett's final book in a trilogy of novels. Chabet's work in the exhibition refers to the 'petit pan de mur de jaune' (the little patch of yellow) in Vermeer's painting, View of Delft, a detail which obsessed a character in Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. The character, an elderly writer named Bergotte, visits a Dutch art exhibit in Paris, and while examining the yellow detail in View of Delft, falls ill and dies. Proust himself visited an exhibition of Vermeer and saw View of Delft a few months before dying; he translated this experience in the final chapter of his novel. The night he died, Proust was said to be rewriting the chapter on Bergotte's death. Samuel Beckett, who wrote an essay on Proust, also referred to Bergotte's death in his story 'Yellow.'  

Artists in 'The Unnamable' exhibition: Ronald Achacoso, Catalina Africa, Poklong Andaing, Felix Bacolor, Argie Bandoy, Ringo Bunoan, Bea Camacho, Roberto Chabet, Lena Cobangbang, Louie Cordero, Al Cruz, Cian Dayrit, Lara delos Reyes, Nona Garcia, Nilo Ilarde, Robert Langenegger, Pow Martinez, Jet Melencio, Jayson Oliveria, Mawen Ong, Gina Osterloh, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Raul Rodriguez, Gerardo Tan, Gail and Marija Vicente, and MM Yu.