Performances by:

Tether
Turbo Goth
The Dropouts
Pastilan Dong
The Black Vomits
Identikit
Butchercons
Team Fallback
Running Late

Gallery Exhibit by:

Dan Fajardo
Vincent Trinidad
Paulo Correa
Angelo Ibe

 

NOIR Group Exhibit

Noir, black. Sounds simple enough a concept. But is anything ever simple in this genre of ambivalence and grit and raw darkness even? Whether it is a "genre" at all is up for debate, when some call it a theme, and others merely a treatment. You have heroes flirting with vixens and vixens flirting with warlords and warlords flirting with the law, but what it all comes down to is there are no rules. There is no formula: not in those seedy fictional streets; and not in noir itself. It is as malleable as its founding works often looked flat; as versatile as its themes seemed rigid. No, there is nothing simple about noir at all.

Walk in four young artists armed with ink and distinct visions. Throw in strong influences from pop culture, graphic design, and comic books, and we are given a taste of yet another flavor of this genre. Gone are the low-key lighting, the brutality. Noir serves indeed as the context and not the style. What you get is noir in its truest essence: a vision that captures you, as if permeating your skin, yet eludes you and stays just out of grasp. It lets you float, dreamlike, but punches your senses into awakening. It's an enigma, not quite definable, but all the more captivating for it.

Words by Julia Escaño