Images by Pinggot Zulueta
“Each place has its own culture, like a fingerprint, it has its own unique pattern,” said artist Lindslee. “I absorb this and apply it to my ideas, and sometimes [as] symbols to my art.”
For Lindslee, inspiration is borne in the present. An artist acutely aware of his immediate surroundings, he has always championed the value of being rooted in reality. For Lindslee, his creativity starts with his current experiences and within his immediate environment. Thus, he looks to penetrate the layers of meaning within the seemingly mundane and overlooked. The avid traveler purposely goes to crowded places, from markets to residential houses, and everything in between, like a hungry student on assignment to learn about life and the world we live in.
“It is a great pleasure for an artist to travel and experience other cultures and artistic communities,” he said. “It always makes you realize that there are so much things in the world, and it maybe in an art form of cultural differences. There are so many things I am affect by, I apply how I think, feel and work, to my art.”
Lindslee has found veritable distinction for his diverse oeuvre. A quick peek into his past works will show viewers only a fraction of the dynamic thought process that operates within this deeply contemplative individual. He is a consummate philosopher whose manuscript is shared in the form of three-dimensional artworks and installations. The visual eloquence with which he shares his sharp and often witty observations is communicated through pieces that showcase stunning workmanship and expert manipulation of materials, striking the balance between meticulousness and spontaneity.
The latest challenge came in the form of his most recent show entitled “Your Personality is Your Worst Enemy” currently on display at Galleria Duemila until July 29.
In the collection, Lindslee compels viewers to move out of their comfort zone, as he touches, on the eternal power struggle betweenfreedom and pragmatism. This palpable sense of breaking boundaries is evident in the unique juxtaposition of the expected with the unexpected. In the striking bodies that the artist presents us with, we see human beings as both the agents and the victims of the lives they have chosen.
Gleaning from his interest in neo-dadaism, abstract expressionist and contemporary art, Lindslee remains inexplicably obsessed with the idea of how thought creates our own reality. Playing on the limitlessness of thought, he also touched on how thought can be a barrier upon itself for those that choose for it to be so.
Lindslee expresses the infinite capacity that exists as an undercurrent to our everyday life in the wide variety of materials that he opts to work with: “Materials are essential to every piece of work. I try to study and explore as much materials as I can, so I can create different [works of] art. I also mix and extend the capacity of materials to create new forms. I don’t want to limit myself with regard to what materials can be used for art making, as it is not important in this generation, I believe. Thus, I am given more freedom to think and create new things.”
Lindslee continues to cultivate a deep interest in the unknown, finding himself seduced by the potential unveiling of new truths.
For the latest show, he laid bare his own thoughts on the power of mind: “Every day is a challenge and a choice on what you want to feel. Feeling bad doesn’t mean feeling bad, unless you realize that you chose to feel bad. It’s a choice that we face every day and a choice we need to apply in our lives. It’s a realization in my life that, I guess, we can all relate to.”
In exploring how our mind shapes our reality, he also looks to what we do to feed it, citing his favorite work as The Consumption, which is visually representative of food consumption, but also speaks of, both internal and external cues that we willingly take in to our consciousness.
As is typical of a Lindslee piece, we are driven to self-reflection as he encourages us to move out of what we know, in order to see ourselves as who we really are: “I believe we all have answers to our problems and questions, but we just always allow ourselves to opt for the comfortable and the familiar. We all have a clear answer on what we face in our life—lies, self-centeredness, and sometimes it involves other people. We all have our version of good and bad. We look atonly what we want to see, and we only listen to what we want to hear. But at the end of the day, we are the ones faced with the challenge of life. And you can always choose to make it good, whatever life gives you.”
Lindslee smiles, a knowing, almost encouraging smile that speaks of his resilient optimism. In exploring how we can be our own worst enemy, Lindslee reminds us, in bold recognition of the indomitable capacity of the human spirit, that we can also be instruments of our own redemption.
‘Your Personality is Your Worst Enemy’ runs until July 29 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring, Pasay City