If we should locate Gabriel Barredo’s disposition in the repertory of Philippine sculpture, we could situate him between the expressionism and foreboding. If Barredo’s things are put together at a fairground pageant, probably quotes science-fiction special effects of futuristic impulse.
Gabriel Barredo’s fascination with detritus, of ruination’s plenty, may stem from the gesture to gather culture in pieces and reanimate them within a spiritual technology. Gleaned in his oeuvre is the glut of worldly necessities that is collected, severed from the tedium of the industrial life cycle, refurbished and retooled. Barredo’s universe is built on the principle of assemblage in which hybrid species of fabrications crowd each other out, spawning a swarm of grotesquerie that enchants as well as it bedevils.
In Barredo’s project, two devices are germane in this respect. First are the automata: components of time pieces that work with precision and regularity and intrigue the inquisitive mind with the movement they generate. They signal routine and are the source of persistent sound: the ostinato of apparatus. Second are the springs of different sorts that are transformed into swaying grass; or constitute live-cast bodies painted white and bearing green, glassy hearts and faces that defy gravity and the overwhelming pull of earth. These beings soar, take to the air. Their lightness is stunning, their agility entrancing. It is at this instance that the artist gains the resolve to express relief from the surfeit of pressures and the fatigue of compromises.
The art of Gabriel Barredo recoils from this amalgam and like a spring wearied by the flesh of the world, spirals, invisibly.
But for all to see -- and maybe over-look.
