Watercolor is the medium that plays a big part in capturing the essence of a faded memory and lends itself nicely to the way Bachoco paints. Colors are applied in a way to give the artwork itself a narrative and history, where the process of its creation can be glimpsed at in places – similar to the way in which the memory deals with the hazy recollection of a place once visited. Vicente Bachoco was born in Iloilo in 1952. He studied architectural and mechanical drafting at the Iloilo School of Arts and Trades. In 1973, he worked as a trainee artist for a bottling company in Iloilo. He later moved to Manila to work in publishing as visual artist before he landed a Senior Artist position at of Manila’s more prestigious advertising firms. These jobs, though focused mainly on commercial art, finessed Vic’s native gift for color, composition, and draftsmanship.
Bachoco lived in the Middle East for 17 years, where he worked as airbrush artist/studio manager in a large advertising firm in Saudi Arabia. His first group exhibition was in Jeddah, in 1998, with a group of Middle East-based Filipino artists. At present, Bachoco is still making his mark in Manila art circles as a skilled watercolorist.
Bachoco’s visual language is a kind of truth-telling, matter-of-fact realism: representations without commentary, just facts, as it were. There seems to be no trace of the Middle East in his motifs, but perhaps only the surface. A prolonged absence heightens one’s attachment to things back home: Consider Tuyo (112), a typical Filipino meal of dried fish, fried egg and a piece of ripe tomato served on a strip of banana leaf. Seen from the context if the Filipino diaspora, this image takes on a whole different meaning if seen through the mind of, say, a domestic helper in Scandinavia, Jeddah, or Hong Kong.
Artworks
