1979 / 50 pages, 30.48 x 22.86 cm each / Artist: Romulo Olazo

This fairly early work from the artist’s Permutation series demonstrates Olazo’s possibly clearest conceptual departure from the essence of printmaking—that is, inking a surface from which one pulls a predetermined number of editions. Ironically, the book was one of those that made up his honorable mention–winning entry in the 11th International Biennial of Prints, Tokyo, 1979. The Permutation books are a logical progression from Olazo’s diverse engagement with print media, ranging from cast paper, collage, paper relief, to the more conventional woodcuts and serigraphs. The work is a literal and figurative exercise in mining the plastic, physical, and visual properties of layered planar material. Rather than using paper as mere bland flat surface, Olazo’s books consist of sheets with variably cut out voids on each page. Through these spaces, one sees the layers of subsequent pages with other cutout shapes. The reader thus sees an illusion of pages penetrating into each other because of the infusion of light.

Perhaps because of the discipline and physicality imposed on the artist by printmaking, Olazo does not associate tedium with the repeated gestures of building up volume and depth by laboriously applying tint, one sheer plane at a time. Unlike more traditional printmakers who produce multiple editions to challenge the exclusivity of painting, Olazo casts his lot in a long-term project that eminent historian and critic Alice Guillermo refers to as a “brilliant concatenation of forms” (Guillermo 2011). In committing himself to exploring the potentials of the creative technologies enabled by both printmaking and painting, Olazo effects the fusion of material aspects in his composite media. In essence, the Permutation books play off the allure of the unique against the compounded and manifold transformations made possible by working within the framework of repetition.