Annie Cabigting on the Importance of the Viewer to Art

With works involving people viewing art, Annie Cabigting has always acknowledged the importance that the audience plays in art. So much so that most of her works involve people viewing art. To her, without the artist, there is no artwork; but without the audience, the artwork does not matter for it’s the audience’s role to appreciate the work. Without them, an object is just an object. Thus, a symbiotic relationship exists between the art, artist, and the audience.

We sat down with Annie Cabigting, a Filipino artist who splits her time between Philippines and Bangladesh, for a discussion where she emphasized this theme over and over: how the viewer is important to art and how she shares her experience to her viewers.

“What you see is what it is” is the best way to describe her work. Annie approaches her art in a straightforward way—even sharing that she does not have a creative process when she makes art. “Mine is very organic. I don’t sit down and think of what to do. It happens when I’m walking; it happens [with] just a spark of an idea so there’s no [method].”

The start of her interest with the viewer

Annie’s interest with the relationship between the artwork and the viewer began when she came across Roberto Chabet’s work in CCP. During the 60s and 70s, Chabet had an artwork wherein he tore up a book of Contemporary Philippine Art By Manuel D. Duldulao. He placed some of the torn papers in the trashcan and scattered the others. Annie said that when people saw the trashcan and the torn-up book inside, they thought that it was a regular trash bin. They even threw trash in it.

There was an image taken during Chabet’s CCP show. It was a picture of a woman–who happens to be a writer–looking down at the torn Duldulao book. Annie explains “No one is paying attention to the work except her. [She is] the writer, the critic, the audience. All in one person. That’s what we are. We are important in appreciating the work.”

‘100 Pieces’ by Annie Cabigting at Finale Art File, 2005

To Annie, the audience is important in art, and she approached her first solo show with this in mind. She said “I multiplied her [the woman looking down at the torn Duldulao book] because she represents all of us.” Annie made a close-up of the image, and deconstructed the image into squares and placed the deconstructed images beside each other, to make the image whole again.“By deconstructing you are also highlighting the image,” she explained.

Her whole show was one artwork but separate pieces. Annie points at one work which was painted two or three times. The artwork had images or canvases layered on top of the other. When asked why it was that way, she shares, “I’m multiplying it. It’s a Duldulao book that was ripped.” Annie mentioned that the next time Duldulao printed the new issue of Contemporary Philippine Art, he included the image of the book torn by Chabet. “Imagine that [the] actual publisher printed this image of the book being torn, and then years later, here I am painting it…it’s the same image but it has become different.”

Annie wants to share an experience to her viewers

To her, experience is not only important while making art, but when viewers look at it as well. When people visit Annie’s exhibitions, they see how she transforms the venue. The space where they hang her paintings is part of the experience. Annie shares that in a way she’s building a space for the audience to be in–with the audience being part of the work.

“That’s why I made a museum piece because it was also a social experiment of mine. It was not just a show about paintings. It was an installation. Once people enter those curtains, I like to wonder what their behavior would be. Imagine outside there was a party, there was a rock band, and then the minute they entered the space, they were more behaved, and their voices were lower.”

In recent exhibitions, she hid artworks from its viewers. She wrapped them or placed them inside crates. “My intention was to give people a different way of looking–with your mind and your imagination.” She wrapped her work with the original intention to make a commentary on people buying works. “Another was I’m not just giving you one work. I’m giving you…a thousand images that might make you wonder. Now you’re not just experiencing work visually; you’re experiencing it in a different way. Now you tap on your emotions and imagination. I’m forcing you to imagine.”

She first started this practice during an exhibition with Silverlens. It was a commentary on how people were buying works without even seeing it yet. People just bought it because it was associated with an artist and a name. It was rampant in different shows. Annie told Isa Lorenzo “I have an idea. I’m going to make 10 paintings. I’m going to wrap them up. They are never to be seen. Collectors are buying works. They don’t even see the work and they’re buying it.” Isa agreed. When the collectors went to the show, they were surprised that the paintings were wrapped. They had never seen the work before. The wrapping was part of the artwork. If someone unwraps it, the artwork is destroyed.