CuadroFilipino (a review on filipino artists)

What Are Poets For in a Post Po-Mo Society?

2009-08-26T08:13:00.014+08:00

WHAT ARE POETS FOR IN A POST PO-MO SOCIETY?
By Danny Castillones Sillada

Published in Manila Bulletin

"Lumapos kaw. Ya tapos. Di kaw mauno."
(You will succeed. You will finish. Nothing bad will happen to you.)
– Mandaya Panawagtawag Ritual

In a far-flung village of Davao Oriental in a remote town called Cateel, there used to live a native guardian of “mangmang” (bamboo instrument). He was called the “Bamboo Beater”, whose task, in his entire life, was to wake up the villagers before sunrise by beating the bamboo instrument.

At exactly 4 o’clock in the morning, he would thump the “mangmang’ in a harsh manner and then, the sound would slowly ebb away with melodic beats. The rhythmic vanishing sound would serve as a reminder to the villagers that their endeavors should be fruitful and meaningful at the end of the day.

POETS AS THINKERS AND GUARDIANS OF TRUTH

Poets today are like Bamboo Beaters, they rouse people’s consciousness from indifference and complacency. Most often, poets create a discordant sound reflective of social reality and stir up the society’s conscience toward commitment and responsibility.

Poets are preordained to speak up the “Truth” and the “Summum Bonum” (highest good). When poets create, they reveal something that is not yet revealed before, but has already been happening within the lives of people in a particular society. This revelatory process is the disclosure or unveiling of “Truth” because poetry, like philosophy, is the embodiment of metaphysical realities, which are the Truth, the Good, and the Beautiful.

No poetry is created outside its own reality because it is an anathema to its ontological meaning as the precursor of “Truth”. In like manner, Poets as the guardians of “Truth”, have a moral responsibility to bring the ideals of “Truth” to be pondered upon by the members of society.

As thinkers and guardians of “Truth”, poets should make poetry accessible to the people as the primary recipient of their musings. They should not alienate their readers with lofty linguistic expressions, or confuse them with otherworldly imageries and symbols, because poetry, as a product of creative freedom, is neither self-conscious nor rigidly conventional. As the highest form of language, poetry is supposed to reach out and touch the human lives with dignity and meaning.

For instance, the poetry of an Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore or the Japanese poet Akiko Yosano spoke the language and sentiments of its people based on their social realities, beliefs, and culture. Tagore and Yosano had woven their sensuous experience of language by speaking from their own native tongue, in such a way that the people in their respective milieus could identify as though the written or spoken verses were their own.

Conversely, in a ‘post po-mo society’ (Post Post-Modern Society), it is not the conventional form or structure of poetry that is consequential, but how accessible it is to the people, how it addresses their concrete realities with urgency, and how it represents their “voice” within the particular conditions of their society.

In the same manner, as the revelation of truth, poetry seeks to establish a dialogue with people; it converses in their intimate moments with gentleness and compassion, rousing their souls to experience the transcendent amid their convoluted world, so to say.

As a dialogic encounter, poetry reveals realities that matter to the people’s lives rather than that of the poets. Even if poets were to write in a confessional or autobiographical manner, they can still address or respond to the people’s reality, as an eloquent representation of the latter’s “voice” or sentiment.

In the end, poetry is not about poets who write about poems, but it is about people living within a historical society. Poets dissect society and its historicity as the terminus aquo and terminus ad quem in their linguistic discourses about the “Truth.”

Poetry, therefore, can only be meaningful if it is conceived based on the concrete realities of a historical society, nurtured by the richness of its own language, and delivered with poignancy to be experienced and reflected upon by the members of the same society.

CROWNS AND ORANGES: WORKS BY YOUNG PHILIPPINE POETS

The recently launched “Crowns and Oranges: Works by Young Philippine Poets”, edited by Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista and Ken Ishikawa, is a compilation of carefully, if not arbitrarily, selected poems by young Filipino poets. Some of them are recipients of Palanca Awards and other award-giving bodies – both local and abroad.

Noticeable in the entire collection is the “binary perception” in the psyche of the young poets, mimicking the Western dichotomy of the world (e.g. individual vs. society, black vs. white, literal vs. figurative). The “I” or the poetic voice is generally distant, similar to the protagonist of Albert Camus’s novel “L'Étranger”; other elements apart from the “I” are mere subsidiaries within the content of the poem.

Apparently, the shifting of reality among the young generation of Filipino poets is imminent and the gap from the older generation, like Gémino Abad, Virgilio Almario, Cirilo Bautista, Marjorie Evasco, Edith Tiempo, Emmanuel Torres, and Alfred Yuson, among others, is cavernous.

As a point of comparison, the poetry of the older generation possesses rhythm, logical flow of thoughts, and didactic resolutions at the end of poetic narrative. Their perception of the world echoes the “I and Thou” phenomenology of a Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, which is identifying the world as another “I”, not a thing or “I and It”. The young poets, on the other hand, trudge on existential angst where the “I” is the center and the world is a drab picture to be conquered and understood in relation to the “I”.

At times, their voices can be sardonic, bold, or harsh yet, they offer no resolution at the end of their creative outputs, but an open-ended statement to be deciphered by the readers. They have demonstrated an exceptional skill, though, in creating an element of unpredictability in their respective poetic narratives. Perhaps, this is where creative freedom works best, the ability of these young poets to create texture and tension based on their own perception of reality.

In “Persona”, for example, Joel Toledo poignantly confesses at the end of his poem, “Allow me to introduce you to my other selves.” The line is tinged with cynicism and self-indulgence. Arkaye Kierulf delivers a strong ironic statement in his poem about pain and death, “For example: A Flower / is the most beautiful lie.”

Ramil Digal Gulle caught the attention of his reader in “Brassier Speak.” Call it dark humor; his introductory line lures the reader to read further, “The very first bra in China arrived in 1920.” And it moves on and on entertaining the reader with the poet’s tête-à-tête. Another element of unpredictability in the poem is the “quotability” of lines. Angelo Suarez writes a lingering phrase in his poem “At the Train Station,” which says, “Something in the mouth, like language, / breaks beneath the weight of a flower.”

Generally, the poetry in “Crowns and Oranges” is poignantly bleak, cynical, and melancholic – devoid of quixotic perception of the world – but effacingly grounded on the poets respective realities. It is awe-inspiring, though, how these brilliant young poets mastered the creative techniques and nuances of English language. However, it is also lamentable how little did these poets write in their own respective regional languages.

Famous poets who wrote in their own native tongues, like Tagore, Neruda, and Yosano, conquer the English-speaking world by asserting their own language. In our local literary scene, however, with the exception of a handful, like Virgilio Almario, Vim Nadera, and Sonny Villafania, to name a few, Filipino poets assert their own world by conquering the English language.

To sum, editing an anthology of poems from young generation of poets is parallel to the gathering of fruits in the orchard. The choice is not whether the fruits are good or bad, but the choice has to be made based on the degree of ripeness. Are the fruits ripe enough to be eaten or will they need more time until they are ready to be picked up or harvested? One has to make a critical choice and decide which poem or poet is worthy of inclusion and which one is not.

In like manner, the editor(s) is compelled to follow a paradigmatic pattern, not only to consider the poet’s achievements and body of works, but also to dissect the relevance of literary output in relation to the theme and structure of the book.

Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista and Ken Ishikawa have done an exemplary job in “Crowns and Oranges” which, in itself, is a work of art. It may not be a comprehensive anthology of the entire generation of young Filipino poets. Even so, its ambitious attempt to represent the “voice” of the post po-mo poets in Philippine literature is a long stride worthy of adulation.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Sillada, Danny Castillones. “What Are Poets For in a Post Po-Mo Society?” Manila Bulletin 7 September 2009: E 1-3.

The Abueva and the New Sisa Murals at the National Center for Mental Health

2009-07-10T09:57:00.016+08:00

Napoleon Abueva, National Artist for Sculpture

Abueva and the New Sisa Murals at the National Center for Mental Health

Text & photos by Danny Castillones Sillada

Published in Manila Bulletin

“We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!”
- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Even at the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City, art has found its place not only to uplift the souls of the mentally challenged patients, but also to signify as a historical symbol of those who served and those being served by the institution for almost a century now, or eighty years of its existence to be exact.

In this vein, two murals were recently re-dedicated and unveiled respectively known as the Abueva Mural, a 35-year old mural done by the National Artist Napoleon Abueva, and “The New Sisa Mural”, recently created by three Filipino artists known as the PST Muralists.

The re-dedication of Abueva Mural and the unveiling of a new one highlight the 80th year anniversary of National Center for Mental Health, one of the leading mental institutions in the country.

THE ABUEVA MURAL

Condescendingly standing at the right side entrance of National Center for Mental Health compound is a 35-year old mural by National Artist Napoleon Abueva. Carved on marbles and embedded on the concrete, the mural is composed of geometric mass of blocks, engraved figures and portraits of NCMH founders.

Intriguingly, at the extreme right of the mural, are three womblike shapes and inside in each section is a figure of awkward body posture; a naked boy holding onto a metal bar, a man crossing his arms above his head, and a naked figure in a fetal position. Another arresting element is the pictorial narrative of two mentally challenged patients; two hospital’s male aides are holding a madman while the other, a woman, is sitting in a classic position of a “mentally ill” patient.

After cleaning and restoring to its former grandeur, which was initiated by one of the staff of NCMH and an artist himself Jonathan “Jonski” Olarte, the mural was re-dedicated with the presence of its creator, National Artist Napoleon Abueva.

Sitting on a wheelchair with his ever-loving wife, the former director of NCMH, Mr. Abueva could only quip and smile over his earlier opus, which seemed to be swallowing up his presence. The mural was created in 1974 at the height of the artist’s career as a sculptor.

Present at the event were Bernardino A Vicente, MD, MHA, CESO IV, Medical Canter Chief II, who gave an inspirational message and a welcome address by Dr. Venus Serra-Arain, MD, FPPA, MHA, Chief, Medical & Professional Staff Community Service and Chair of NCMH 80th Anniversary Souvenir Program Committee.

THE NEW SISA MURAL

At the lobby of NCMH administration building is the “New Sisa Mural” with Sisa at the center, donning a sanely wide smile flanked by two children. (Sisa is one of Jose Rizal’s notable characters in his novel “Noli Me Tangere”.) The mural depicts the 80 years of NCMH service of treating and maintaining the mental health of Filipinos in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

The mural is a collaborative endeavor of three artists Bing Siochi, Ernie Patricio, and Harry Torres, the PST Muralists; they are all members of Las Piñas Tuesday Group. Jonathan Olarte, member of NCMH 80th Anniversary Souvenir Program Committee, proudly presented the mural and its creators during the unveiling headed by Dr. Bernardino A Vicente, Medical Canter Chief II, and Dr. Venus Serra-Arain, Chief, Medical & Professional Staff Community Service.

The mural is made possible by the effort of Dr. Venus Serra-Arain and Jonathan Olarte, who conceived and raised the fund for the project. “The New Sisa Mural” is envisioned toward a sound mind and mentally healthy Filipinos, in honor of the 80th anniversary of NCMH.

The blessing and unveiling of two murals, the Pavilion 2, and the NCMH Museum & Souvenir Shop were done by Fr. Apolinario Matilos, NCMH chaplain last May 13, 2009.

© Danny C. Sillada

*Above artwophotos: (1) National Artist Napoleon Abueva, (2) National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City, (3) 35-year old NCMH Mural by National Artist Napoleon Abueva, (4) Re-dedication of Abueva Mural at NCMH, (5) The New Sisa Mural at the National Center for Mental Health, (6) The new mural with NCMH officers and staff

Something about Sarah & Her Art

2009-07-08T19:18:00.019+08:00

Something about Sarah

& Her Art
By Danny Castillones Sillada

“Because we are also what we have lost.”
– From the movie “Amores Perros”

Published in Manila Bulletin

“If there’s anything bleaker and darker in this world,” says Sarah in the caption of her pen and ink drawing of a girl with a mask, “nothing can compare to a girl’s pain of being left orphaned by the deaths of her parents almost simultaneously.”

Perchance, tragedy happens for a reason; sometimes, it has no apparent reason, and whatever its reason, intrinsic or fortuitous, tragedy, as an inevitable reality in human existence, will either make a person’s life stronger or intolerable to live.

“I & THOU” ENCOUNTER

Some time ago, I met Sarah Demetria Gaugler at Cesare Syjuco’s art exhibit at F*ART (Fashion & Art) in Quezon City, which I attended as one of the performance artists. Sarah’s hair was purple, her eyes round, her smile mesmeric, and her face angelic. She was, then, a typical Fine Arts student of UST and a typical girl next door, whose bashful smile is incongruent to her hip personality.

She was there to interview me about my drawings on paper, as part of her college thesis. Her questions were scarce, reluctant and reserved. I spoke self-effacingly about the techniques and nuances of my works. I also mentioned some Filipino artists that I admired with their draftsmanship on paper, like Raul Lebajo, Amor Lamarroza, and Caloy Gabuco, to name a few.

As our conversation progressed, I noticed something about Sarah; it was something poignant that lurked in the depths of her eyes. As if those velvety, round eyes were inviting me to swim into a world laden with throbbing memories until, unknowingly, we had already barged in into each other’s private world.

I could not remember how she opened up the bleak pages of her life or how she spoke, in a reluctant manner, the anguish of her soul; all I remember was the sublime encounter between two people. It was not a romantic encounter, though; neither did it lead to something sensual or physical but, as the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber says, it was an “I & Thou” encounter in grace and compassion.

Like Sarah, I have had my own share of pains and tragedies in life; I lost almost all the people that I dearly loved and cherished. Consequently, as we laid our souls naked to each other, it was easier to open up because they were already broken. And that same human “brokenness” had become a transcendent encounter to acknowledge and embrace our respective wounds.

A GLIMPSE ON SARAH’S WORLD

A few months after her father’s death, Sarah’s mother, a Filipino-American nurse, followed, leaving her and her younger brother orphaned in the heart of New Jersey, USA. The year was September 22, 1997; she was 10 years old and her younger brother was barely 5 - both are born to American and Filipino parents.

“I went across the street to my house, to my room, to where my lifeless mommy was…” she writes on her blog journal dated August 3, 2007. “My heart stopped… I didn’t know how to contain myself... I didn’t know anything else, but the horrible pain in my chest… We’re now alone and my fears have come… I didn’t know what would become of me... And I cried and I cried...”

Two days later, Sarah left the US with her younger brother bound for her mother’s homeland. “I was on a plane for the Philippines,” she says in the same journal, “leaving everything and everyone that I ever knew and loved behind.”

Since then, Sarah’s world took a 180-degree detour on a different path that would mark the beginning of her relentless struggle as a young girl and later, as a young woman. She would also later pour out all her pains and anguish in her blog on the internet in the form of journals, drawings, poems, and photography.

In the Philippines, Sarah and her brother stayed with their aunt. However, wanting to live on her own, Sarah would rent a place and continue her studies at UST. But during those times, she underwent a terrible crisis in her life. In one of her journals, she wrote, “I've got all these shitty problems right now… I don’t want to go back to the self-destructive person that I was…”

But Sarah was also quick to regain the balance of her spiritual self and it showed how determined she was to overcome her torments when she wrote words that revealed her aplomb, “Everything is going to be all right! Cheer up! Pray! Work! Have faith in God! Everyone has his or her own problems to deal with! You’re not alone! Many people love you! Draw! Paint! Don’t worry about it! Smile! Breathe! Count your blessings!”

Perhaps, no one would suspect that behind Sarah’s beguiling beauty, talent and brilliance, lay something gloomy inside her delicate world. As reflected on her drawings of lone and masked girls, Sarah dons an archetypal persona to hide the looming shadows of her soul. In fact, I attributed one of my paintings to her, which I titled “Behind the Mask of Sarah”.

In the painting, I portrayed a huge mask at the center of the canvas with vibrant color, echoing one of Sarah’s journals: “Most of the time I’m sad, but you’ll only see me smile and you’ll only see me laugh. And even though I get tired, you'll never know my pain and you’ll never understand, as long as I keep you at a certain distance…”

REAL-LIFE HEROINE

It’s been a long while since I last saw Sarah. I heard that she already finished her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at UST, participated at group shows, won an NU Rock Awards as “best album packaging” for Orange and Lemons’ Moonlane Gardens, and worked as illustrator, graphic designer and part-time tattoo artist, aside from an occasional modeling stint for signature clothing.

Most recently, she has been performing as a vocalist of Turbo Goth band with Paofario. She is also “guesting” at some radio FM stations, either playing with her band or promoting her gigs at some music venues in Metro Manila.

I just can’t imagine how a young orphaned soul can rise amid the bleak conditions of her fragile world, transforming herself from a delicate, broken girl, into a very talented, strong and independent woman. But Sarah could not have been “there” had she given up her life too early or had she remained wallowing from the tragedies that beset in the early stages of her existence.

At the end of the day – after witnessing her joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and defeats – I can say that Sarah is my kind of heroine in real-life, who doesn’t give up hope in life. She uses her adversity, instead, as a vehicle to achieve her dreams.

Her self-respect and dignity as a woman remain integral, as she continues to embrace and live a decent life amid the temporal trappings of an indecent world.

© Danny C. Sillada

*Above artworks by Sarah D. Gaugler

WILLIAM YU and His Art of Divine Worship

2009-05-09T00:40:00.013+08:00

William Yu and His Art of Divine Worship
By Danny Castillones Sillada

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."
- Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Published at Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture), pp. E1-2.

His baritone voice progressively rises amid the placid stirring of his guitar, ascending steadily with the spiritual lyrics of his song composition. Then, slowly, the melodic sound ebbs away in a laid-back tone, as he tranquilly mumbles his prayer before an empty canvas.

Suddenly, in an almost daunting manner, he spreads his arms like a crane taking off from a marshland. His right hand, loaded with brush and paint, flaps across the windy air of his open studio, flailing and drifting in an élan but gentle manner.

Gestural and spontaneous brushstrokes, at the speed of 300 kilometers per hour, swiftly emerge on the surface of his canvas. Layer upon layer of loose forms and vivid colors begin to take shape. Then, in less than an hour or so, his divinely inspired enactment finally gives birth to an apotheosized creation.

The resultant processes of his composition sum up the momentary surge of passion – a spiritually inspired art making with a mesmerizing effect on the audience. The profound encounter with his creative feat characterizes the mystical amalgam of William Yu as a painter, “high priest” (exodus 35:30-32), and a performance artist.

“HALLELISM” AS AN ART OF DIVINE WORSHIP

William Yu’s artistic method called “Hallelism” has stirred controversy and raised eyebrows of some artists in the local art scene for infusing religious belief and ritual in the course of art making.

His ardent critics, on the other hand, labeled him as a charlatan born-again Christian for being outspoken of his faith in relation to his “hallelistic” art. However, to his friends and close associate of artists and those who witnessed his entrancing performance, he is like a Rabbi or a Bezalel (exodus 35:30-32) who conjures up the spirit to enlighten his act of worship to his Creator.

“Hallelism captures the heart of the viewers in an indescribable and riveting manner,” said Beverly Callaghan, a Canadian missionary who witnessed William Yu’s spiritual art performance. She described that William Yu, being the forerunner of new spiritual art movement, “embraces the process in the creative act of worship to the Creator of the Universe.”

“When I looked at William Yu’s paintings,” said a Chinese artist, Zhang Xun Lei, “the strokes and lines are so strong and free. He expresses his soul on his canvas that one could feel the presence of the spirit in his art.”

Hallelism, according to William Yu, is an act of creative worship to glorify God (Psalm 98:1-9) through painting. It is like any other charismatic or spiritual activities such as singing or dancing except that the artist uses art to praise and glorify God, the real Master of his creation. In the process of art making, William Yu sings and dances and, like a high priest, he summons the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to guide his hand in front of his canvas.

“Hallel”, as the etymology for Hallelism, is derived from the Hebrew word which means “to praise or worship God”. The artist coined the word “Hallelism” for his new concept of art that involves the worship of God through mind, body and soul (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Creating a work of art as an act of worship is the main concept of Hallelism. The ritualistic preparation before executing an artwork is vital to the whole process where the artist has to pray for the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8). The process in which the artist engages in his art is already an act of worship, and the result of that process (the artwork) is the product of divine inspiration.

The artwork in this context, however, is not the main objective of Hallelism but, indispensably, a part of the entire creative process of worship and adulation.

In similar manner, the creative process is not concerned with artistic style or technique for it is, according to William Yu, “an indefinite art with no definitive style and objective; it is constantly changing, and can only be deciphered through the infinite possibilities of coded symbols and meanings on the surface of the canvas.”

FROM SECULAR TO SPIRITUAL

At the outset, William Yu, who hails from Baganga, Davao Oriental, is already known for his “picasoid” figures that, along with Filipino masters like Legaspi and Ang Kiukok, uses a palette knife, instead of paintbrush in rendering oil color on canvas.

His previous art characterizes an exaggerated geometric form of human figure with a seemingly twisted body posture. At times, it could be bleak or whimsical with feisty, brilliant colors. In this mode, the artist has captured the pathos and sensibilities reflective of Filipino values and culture.

His current oeuvre, on the other hand, is entirely different from his earlier works. The geometric shape of figures is dissolved deliberately into a rather loose and tangential juxtaposition of forms and colors. His composition is more contingent on the dynamic flow of brushworks in contrast to his earlier works with calculated use of palette knife on canvas.

In a more holistic approach, his act of painting is no longer confined to a one-dimensional activity, but as a performative process that involves the activity of body and soul, the “ora et labora” of art making.

Conversely, the form and substance of William Yu’s hallelistic art is not far from the abstruse and flattened surface of abstract expressionism. In executing his art, he employs the surrealist unconscious and random processes of art making by redefining its automatist technique albeit, done and inspired in the context of spiritual worship.

In this manner, he “desecularized” surrealism and abstract expressionism by invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit during his creative enactment. By doing so, he redirects the creative energy from an ordinary experience into an extraordinary encounter with God, the artist’s Master Creator.

The dialectical development of his aesthetics, on the other hand, does not only focus on spiritual worship. William Yu, in his own right, acted not only as a painter, but also as a high priest who exorcizes the secular nature of art by infusing his religious faith and values, thus, bringing back the image of God in the midst of a secularized society.

In essence, his art transcends the conventional attitude of art making; it is a metaphysical and spiritual quest for the Divine Truth.

THE VIRTUE OF FAITH AND HUMILITY

“Master Yu,” as he is fondly called among his Filipino and American friends and collectors in the US, is the artist’s artist, whose personality evokes humility, kindness and benevolence.

His generosity to his fellow artists is unconditional. He shares his artistic gift by helping those who are eager to learn how to paint; he welcomes them with open heart and gives them shelter until they are confident enough to stand on their own.

His childlike faith characterizes the “Beatitudes” that Christ teaches in “Sermon of the Mount” and, while living a very simple life with his family, he lives his faith in total surrender to God and allows God to shape his art in accordance to His will.

As a religious person, he believes that art can become an agent of change in our society so long as it is directed to God (John 15:5, Isaiah 41:13), as the source of inspiration for any artistic endeavor.

The significance of Faith in our time, according to William Yu, is an indispensable gift that liberates man from his uncertainties and sorrows; it gives him wisdom and direction in life amid the trappings of materialistic society.

To sum, unlike the canon of post po-mo art where the movement of spirit is horizontal, which is the portrayal of the banal, secular, and the absurd; William Yu, in his own way, is redirecting its course to its original direction – the vertical movement of the spirit between man and his Creator.

The Pathological Migration of Truth in a Post Po-Mo Society (Culture & Philosophy)

2009-04-22T15:55:00.014+08:00

The Pathological Migration of Truth

in a Post Po-Mo Society

By Danny Castillones Sillada

"If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things."
- Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method

Published at Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture), August 25, 2008, pp. F 1-2.

In a convoluted world of mass media, spoken words, texts and visual images cascade like insalubrious waters from a huge repository of dense and elliptical concept of created realities. Subliminal images, casuistic answers to the problems that are not yet existent, textual and visual intimations are barraged, aggressively, in the human psyche as though they were the embodiment of Truth.

The illusive landscape of realities had never been before portrayed and magnified in such a persuasive manner that even those who speak about it convincingly believe that it existed. What is sensational before the very eyes of the consumers in a consumerist society is more real and tangible than the Truth itself, which can be bland and boring.

A showbiz personality, for instance, who has a steamy liaison, is more appealing and titillating to the human senses than the person who is doing a benevolent act to the society. The former is worth millions of audiences while the latter is worth only a handful and fifteen seconds of praise on the television.

And those who have the power and money to influence the mass media possess the power to distort and bend reality for their own advantage than those who have nothing but the Truth, which is also, ironically, tradable depending on the price being offered.

A multi-national corporation can pour millions of dollars on a questionable product via a mass media campaign by tailoring the “truth” for global market even if the “product” threatens the well-being of the society or the environment. Corrupt political leaders can invent or twist the Truth in their favor by hiring a high caliber PR company just to maintain their power and popularity before the eyes of their constituents.

Lamentably, the commoditization of “Truth” in our post po-mo (post-modern) society is so blatant that those who can afford millions of dollars worth of “truths” possess the power to influence, dictate to, and manipulate people and society.

Does Truth still matter or is it just subservient to the created world of mass media and popular culture?

Conformity of Freedom and Created Needs

Mass culture, as part of popular culture, produces mass production of goods and services to satisfy the needs of the consumers. Mass media presented these goods and services in a highly fashionable manner in such a way that the credulous consumers believe them as the real panacea of their needs.

The main target of mass culture is the exploitation of the insatiable human needs, creating and inventing realities to gratify the same needs and wants, which are obsessively ravenous and self-centered. The more consumer products pour in the market the higher the human desire to accumulate the “goods” in a frenzy manner.

The manic urge to accumulate seems irrational and endless, resulting in “decisional exhaustion” and “estrangement of needs” (when a man has already obtained what he wants but finds inappropriate or irrelevant on the “needs” that he just acquired). The symptom is subliminally pathological, submitting and surrendering oneself without question to the multifaceted array of commoditized products in the global market.

Who can resist, for instance, a new technological gadget that promises more features than the previously sold in the market? Who can resist a “wonder drug” that promises overnight beauty or slimming effect or instant relief from hopelessness and depression? Who can resist a sublime promise of various political, religious and rebel leaders for a harmonious and prosperous society?

No one! Because the human psyche of a thinking being in a post po-mo society is anxious, nay, gullible to believe on anything or anyone that can satisfy the absurd quest for sensational “truth”. Consequently, rational judgment has been diluted with an inordinate array of product-collocations and subliminal messages that are bombarded in the human consciousness.

Freedom is no longer defined as “free will” but a freedom to believe, accumulate or belong to anyone or anything that possesses the power to mimic, create or twist the “Truth”.

The Pathological Migration of Truth

The Truth is discernible because it is perceived by a thinking being based on the empirical and metaphysical realities of this world. What happens if a thinking being ceases to rationalize and perceive the Truth, can the Truth still exists or will it transform into a new facet of truth to fit within the irrational realities of a thinking being?

Intrinsically, the evolution of Truth from medieval to modern period follows a dialectic movement, a Hegelian principle on thesis, antithesis and synthesis. In popular culture, the Truth does not evolve in a dialectical mode; instead, it subverts and mimics the Truth to become the archetypal reality of a consumerist society.

The mass culture commoditized this “archetypal reality” by inventing and creating “human needs” in the form of consumer products. The advent of highly technologic “mass media devices” magnifies and heightens the commoditized human needs in varying moods and manners as though they were indispensable in the lives of the consumers.

The sensationalized “truth” that is presented by mass media is so illusively real and tangible that it transmogrifies itself into a new reality, creating an endemic effect on the credulous society. This transmogrification process is the pathological migration of truth from subliminal to a “commoditized truth”, which is subconsciously guzzled in the human consciousness by popular culture.

The “Pathological Migration of Truth”, as coined and defined by this writer, is the migration of subliminal truth in the human psyche with pathologic behavior to believe or acquire commoditized realities that provide instant or temporary relief in the human senses.

The migratory process is inevitably viral, dulling the human judgment amid the pandemic influx of product-collocations and subliminal mediums that are pounding the human mind on a daily basis. As such, the deviation of human behavior and perception of reality is inchoately encoded to believe on a “sensationalized reality”, which can be bought, sold, exchanged or traded in the global market.

The pathological migration of truth via commoditized product does not only alleviate the fleeting needs of the consumers, it also “viagrates” the frigidity of human soul by suppressing the previously unfulfilled needs with another “created needs” in a gradational manner.

Hence, what has been imbibed in the human psyche during the pathological migration becomes a “contiguous reality”, so that when a stimulus of commoditized needs is presented before the consumers, it immediately seeks instant response from the human senses. And the response is always programmed to acquire those “created needs”; otherwise, the unfulfilled “needs” will create existential void in one’s soul.

The Defragmentation of Convoluted Truths

Can we defragment the cluttered “truths”, as purported by popular culture, in the same way as we defragment the cluttered files in our computer system?

The truth is – the cluttered “truths” that we believe or acquire from the dictate of popular culture is nothing but the substitutions of our own uncertainty of realities. We believe in these “truths” because they respond to the urgency of our “sensual needs”. They instantly satisfy the insatiable desire of a pleasure-seeking “self”, which is egotistical by nature.

It is easier to believe, for instance, on a “magical pill” that promises an overnight slimming effect than believing on diet and exercise that will take several months for a 300-pounder to reduce. It is easier to believe on beauty product that is being endorsed by a celebrity figure with flawless skin even if, by birth, our own skin is craggy and irreparable, because we illusively want to identify ourselves with the endorser.

Conversely, to defragment the created “truths” is to redefine our hierarchy of needs based on our actual reality, and not the reality that is being haggled on us by mass media and mass culture. After redefining our hierarchy of needs, we have to validate whether these created “truths” are relevant or irrelevant in our pursuit for happiness and the common good of the society.

An individual can only be free if the mind is void of any preconceived notion of “truths”, because the very source of freedom to believe comes from the soul of a rational being, which seeks an Ideal Truth that resides in the human soul. This “ideal truth” is preordained to the Summum Bonum or “highest good” based on faith, hope and love of humanity.

The Summum Bonum does not seek gratification on material things but on the transcendent realities of Love, Beauty and Justice. These metaphysical realities provide lasting effect in the human soul rather than the fleeting effect of “created truths” in the human senses.

To sum, no one can destroy a man who is not programmed to believe on any created “truths” because he is his own reason of Truth and the Truth is the reason why he is.

© Danny C. Sillada
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How to cite this essay:
Sillada, Danny C. “The Pathological Migration of Truth in a Post Po-Mo Society”. Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture) (August 25, 2008) Vol. 428, No. 25, ISSN 0116-3086: pp. F 1-2.

Above Artworks:
(1) The Pathological Migration of Truth in Aesthetics, works on paper by Danny C. Sillada, (2) The Truth Behind the Mask (oil on canvas by Danny Sillada), (3) Truth Without Reason, pen & ink by Danny Sillada, (4) Created Truths in Art (works on canvas by Danny Sillada).

Revelation of Secrets & the Aesthetics of ‘Syjuco Tres Marias’

2008-10-02T21:16:00.019+08:00

Revelation of Secrets &

the Aesthetics of 'Syjuco Tres Marias'

By Danny Castillones Sillada

"The things we keep secret are always bigger and more frightening in the darkness than they are in the light of day."
– Elspeth Allcott

Danny C. Sillada, "Revelation of Secrets & the Aesthetics of ‘Syjuco Tres Marias’", Manila Bulletin, Pages F1-2, Lifestyle Section, September 8, 2008

In the corpus of aesthetic language, the disclosure of secret is the poetic revelation of truth through visual, literary and performing arts. As a poetic revelation, aesthetics uses visual imageries to reveal what is hidden based on the artist’s personal encounter of reality within a particular society.

This revelatory process is autobiographical by nature because art or any work of art, for that matter, is always personal – either representative of the artist’s reality or the reality of his or her environment. However, before the reality can be processed and translated into art, it has to percolate from the artist’s psyche and experience.

Inherently, the creator is personally involved in the process of art making so that, when a particular work of art is finally revealed, it becomes the “incarnate” of Truth from the artist’s perspective to be understood and deciphered by a historical society where art is created and addressed to.

MAXINE SYJUCO: “A SECRET LIFE”

In her first collection of poems titled “A Secret Life”, Maxine R. Syjuco is like a spider that lures her reader to tiptoe into the web of her secret world. She passionately weaves the vignette of her thoughts and feelings in-between verses, flutters and spins her delicate “voice” with grace and elegance, until the reader is gradually trapped within the complex web of her poetic creations. Dense and abstruse in form and substance, Maxine’s collection of poems possesses the characteristics of John Berryman’s lyricism, Sylvia Plath’s bold and elliptical lines, Anne Sexton’s sardonic voice, and Robert Lowell’s complex and autobiographical style of writing.

The 1950s and 1960s are described as the beginning of popular culture, the gradual collapse of cultural values and beliefs, the pluralism of social and political ideologies, and the advent of a technological and consumerist society. It was also the time where existentialism was gaining its momentum from such prominent literary figures like Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus.

The same era that “confessional poetry” emerged from the influential American poets such as Robert Lowell, identified as the father of confessional poetry, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton (both students of Lowell), and John Berryman that would later change the history of American poetry.

In the local literary scene of post po-mo “confessional poetry”, Maxine’s voice emerges as the dialectical representation of her generation. Her poetry addresses some salient issues, which are eminent in the post po-mo society, i.e., the dislocation of hierarchy of values and the susceptibility of human psyche amid the “created realities” offered by popular culture.

The poems “Dear Mr. Prick”, “How to Murder a Naked Woman,” and “Red Light District: Lost Rules of Usage” are looming pictures that mimicked the sensationalized staging of realities in mass media.

Other poems like “How to Murder a Mocking Bird,” “Caution: Falling Debris,” “That Men Are Creatures,” and “Mrs. Stitcher” are derisive protests on traditional values and beliefs, whose beneficiary-victims are, most often, the children and the submissive wives of a conservative Filipino society.

Her poems, per se, are not self-revelatory confession of personal anguish and torment, which are inherent of Lowell, Sexton, and Plath’s poetry, but more on Berryman’s subtle and lyrical characterization of different personas, addressing the Freudian’s “Id,” “Ego,” and “Superego”.

Using the “I” in most of her poems, Maxine has always emerged as the heroine of her oedipal narrative, a subtle dissent from the symbol of authority and traditional system of thoughts. Similarly, the poems “To Sartre,” “I Am in Love with Galileo,” “Chewing Chopin,” “Dear Seurat,” “Jackson Pollock and I,” and “Who Shot Bukowski?” are transferential reverberations of her academic studies, a satiric gripe against the prominent figures in Humanities.

Another salient element in her poetry is the use of familial imagery, exploring Jungian’s theory on personal and collective unconscious. In “Mrs. Stitcher”, for instance, there is the displacement of the imagery of “context”, blurring the lines between symbol and the actual derivation of reality.

In another poem “Caution: Falling Debris”, it opens: “My father was a drunken carpenter/ who liked to build fires. / He built three great fires in his lifetime, / all in all, at least, that’s what I remember.” Then, in the fourth paragraph, the father was trapped, figuratively, by his own fire “until he became a silhouette” including his daughter and wife “where recycling was not cheap”.

Gothic, witty, irreverent and, at times, laden with dark humor, Maxine has woven a new kind of poetry reflective of her generation. Her eccentric use of words and imageries creates a poignantly strange linguistic expression, which is unique to her voice: Freudian, surreal and existential.

“A Secret Life” is slated for launch in September at Mag:net Bonifacio High Street. A second launch will be held in October in Indonesia with her father Cesare A.X. Syjuco and Alfred A. Yuson, among the Filipino representative poets at Ubud Writer’s Festival in Bali.

MICHELLINE SYJUCO: “THE PRIMAL FORMS”

Another aesthetic revelation that was unveiled by one of the “Syjuco Tres Marias” last August 8, 2008 at Mag:net Café, Bonifacio High Street, is Michelline Syjuco’s collection of sculpted jewelry on metal titled “Armadillon”.

It features the artist’s handmade jewelry designs, which are made of unique and intricately sculpted and soldered metals, embedded with spikes, bullets, clenched pearls, gemstones and fragments of rocks from outer space.

Guest of honor National Artist Napoleon Abueva and other notable guests the poet and columnist Alfred A. Yuson, art critic-artist Cid Reyes, and restaurant mogul Raymond Reyes, among others, graced the opening of the event. Landscape and interior designer Al Sibal curated the show.

The opening of Michelline’s exhibit was a historic evening – “The ocho-ocho weekend that was” – as described by Alfred Yuson in his column “Kripotkin”, because of so many events that were unveiled that Friday (08-08-08) in the local art scene, needless to mention the opening of Beijing Olympics in China.

Packed with sardine-like crowd inside the Mag:net Café, the event was highlighted with the fashion show of “Armadillon” collection. Fashion models include Trix and Maxine Syjuco, Arianne Tonda, Cami & Chinky Hiquiana, Iza Elises, Natasha Rodriquez and this writer, the only thorn among the roses.

It was followed with live performances of poetry, music and performance art by the usual members of the Electric Underground Collective: Cesare A.X. Syjuco & Jean Marie Syjuco, The Syjuco Sisters, Eghai Roxas, Yanna Acosta & Project Ganymede, Alfred Yuson, Bailan & Ukay-Ukay bands, Bob Balingit & The Wuds, Alan Rivera, Danny Sillada & Mangayaw band, Mannet Villariba, Lirio Salvador & Elemento, Mitch Garcia, Art Casanova, Ian Madrigal, The Slave Drum, Parking in Mogadishu, to name a few.

The “Armadillon” collection is the debut exhibit of Michelline Syjuco, the eldest sisters of the “Syjuco Tres Marias”, daughters of avant-garde artists Cesare A.X. Syjuco and Jean Marie Syjuco. The exhibit is extended up to the month of September at Mag:net Café, Bonifacio High Street.

TRIX SYJUCO: “THE BLACK BRIDE”

As an offshoot of visual art, performance art subverts the form and structure of conventional art making by using material devices and bodily movements in presenting the imagery of reality during the performance.

Contrary to performing arts like dance, theater and musical, live art performance is a dynamic and unrehearsed presentation of symbolic images through live actions in front of the audience.

In her recent performance at the opening of her sister’s (Michelline Syjuco) jewelry collection at Mag:net Café, Trix Syjuco stunned the audience with her riveting feat in “Black Bride”. Clad with black wedding dress while her collaborator, acting as a priest-bridegroom (this writer), is wearing a white cassock and satin scarf with eye-shades covering his face.

The contrasting images are hauntingly surreal; the priest, instead of sanctifying the sacrament of matrimony, was going to marry the bride. In the same vein, the bride’s black wedding dress, a traditional symbolic color for a widowed wife in mourning, amplifies the gothic and bizarre imagery of the performance.

The tension heightens when the bridegroom (the priest) and the bride reenact a bodily sensual encounter in a dance-like movement. Then, the latter, as if awakened from demonic spell, chastises the bride by wrapping her body and face with plastic sheet. The bride, to complete the ritual, sprinkles her head with black and white powder and pours out the holy water on her body.

Passionate, primal and, at times, perturbing, Trix Syjuco’s performances break the wall of her mild-mannered archetypal “self” without subverting the form and content of her live art presentation. Her performances like “I Fell in Love with a Killer”, “Plastik” and “Black Bride”, to name a few, inherently follow a trail of existential angst, disillusionment, and embittered human relationships.

Her subtle use of imageries and devices is intelligently delivered in a dialectic manner, purging and liberating the harrowing quest of her inner persona as a woman and as an artist and, at the same time, creating a succulent seedbed to grow and nurture her aesthetics.

© Danny C. Sillada

Aesthetics of Collocation & the Women of Bencab

2008-07-03T08:59:00.030+08:00

Aesthetics of Collocation & the Women of Bancab

By Danny Castillones Sillada

“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”
- Albert Camus

Published at Manila Bulletin
Lifestyle Section (Arts & Culture)
Page F 1-2, June 30, 2008

“Mass Culture,” as part of popular culture, produces diverse products for mass consumption. As a commercial culture, it does not follow the principle of economics; instead, it subverts the laws of “supply and demand” by inventing or creating “needs” for the insatiable consumers.

Every day, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of products being advertised on television, newspapers, glossy magazines, internet, billboards, and so forth. The textual and visual images are, aggressively, inescapable!

Most often, the consumer’s capability to make a decision on what or which product to purchase is hindered by a wide array of “product-collocation”, as a result of multiple subliminal messages (textual or visual) that are imbibed in the human psyche and consciousness via mass media advertisements.

“Product-collocation” is a collective display of two or more similar products of different brands, placed side by side for the consumers to choose from.

Every consumer has to make a choice among those presented “product-collocations”, and before an individual can make a decision on what brand or product to purchase, he or she is already suffering from “decisional exhaustion”. When an individual suffers from headache, nausea, or unexplainable anxiety while shopping, it is a symptomatic result, if not the cause, of “decisional-exhaustion”.

In aesthetics, the counterpart of product-collocation is “media-collocation”. It is when two or more mediums are placed side by side as integral part of the pictorial composition.

As an aesthetic device, media-collocation mimics “mass culture”, albeit in an explorative or satirical manner. The best example of both product and media collocations is Andy Warhol’s serial copies of celebrities and branded products in what is known as the aesthetics of “pop art”.

MEDIA-COLLOCATION AS AN AESTHETIC DEVICE

The literal meaning of “collocation” is the close association of things, or the arrangement of things beside each other. The etymology of “collocation” comes from the Latin word “collocatus”, past participle of “collocare”, which means to place or to set side by side in a place or position. “Locus” is the root word of “collocare”, meaning “place” or “position”.

In the corpus of linguistics, “collocation” is defined as the co-occurrence of two or more words that are frequently or typically used together. For example, “herd of cows”, “crystal clear”, “blue sky”, “red sun”, “part and parcel”, etc.

In art, “media-collocation”, as coined and defined by this writer, is the juxtaposition of two or more mediums, arranged sided by side in a single or series of textual or visual composition.

As an aesthetic device, media-collocation elicits discursive interpretation of the binary subjects from referential to the final juxtaposition of the artworks. Media-collocation heightens the portrayal of textual and visual images into a deeper understanding of aesthetic symbol and meaning.

There are two kinds of media-collocation: inductive and deductive. Inductive collocation is to produce the same textual or visual image from the same subject and arrange them either in a linear or layered locus. The deductive collocation, on the other hand, is to extract a symbolic image from textual or visual sources and place the artwork (texts or images) side by side with the referential subject as integral part of the entire aesthetic composition.

A well-known Filipino avant-garde artist who uses both inductive and deductive collocations is Cesare Syjuco. His media-collocation, known as “literary hybrid”, is varied and complex as he explores both textual and visual images alternatively on Plexiglas, board, back-lit frame and boxes with Plexiglas or tarpaulin. His unique art is the multifarious combination of both literary and visual references, using an assemblage of texts and images within a defined space.

Another type of media-collocation can be found in Francisco Viri’s “Abstraction of the Figure”. During his 2005 exhibit at The Crucible Gallery, Viri created a four series of works from realistic to abstract images of the same subject and placed them side by side on the wall. Abstractionist and taxidermist Lindslee uses a unique juxtaposition in his “Figuring Abstraction”. In one of his works, he stuck a sliced taxidermal goat at the center of the canvas with texture, form and color that mimicked the skin of the goat.

Equally arresting is the video animation of painter and performance artist Jevijoe Vitug during the Philippine International Performance Art Festival in 2005 that was organized by Yuan Mor’O Ocampo. From the footage of his performances, he created a series of frame by frame drawings and morphed them into video animation as part of his live art performance.

Perhaps, the most complex and varied presentation of media-collocation was during the Chromatext Reloaded exhibit in 2007 at CCP, organized by PLAC and curated by Jean-Marie Syjuco and Krip Yuson. It was a brilliant and diverse array of textual and visual collocations from holographs to photographs, from illustrations to paintings, and from sculptural to video installations.

Among the participating poets, writers and artists were National Artists Edith L. Tiempo and Virgilio Almario, Jimmy Abad, Merlie Alunan, Tita Lacambra-Ayala, Juaniyo Arcellana, Cirilo Bautista, Butch Dalisay, Ophelia Dimalanta, Marjorie Evasco, Pete Lacaba, Vim Nadera, Danton Remoto, Frank Rivera, RayVi Sunico, Cesare A.X. Syjuco, Jean-Marie Syjuco, Ricky de Ungria, Krip Yuson, and the late Sid Gomez Hildawa, to name a few.

BENCAB’S WOMEN AND HIS MEDIA-COLLOCATION

Typical of Bencab’s works on paper, print and canvas like “Sabel”, “Larawan” and the “Japanese Women” series are, generally, demure and downtrodden but pullulating with majestic presence, pompously garbed in a seemingly stolid and austere manner.

With the exception of some of his works like the Bali sketches of women, which are more elaborate and relaxed with a well-defined facial expression. In the same vein, some of his “Cordillera” women elicit tension and drama with anxious look, muscular arms and body, and exaggerated hands and feet as if laden with hard work.

In his recent exhibit titled “Related Images” at Silverlens Gallery in Makati, Bencab explores and reinvents a new style and technique in his art making. He created a suite of stylish media-collocations, juxtaposing his nude photographs and drawings of women in a dynamic and sensuous manner.

He arranges his nude drawing, in a linear collocation, with the referential subject (photograph), dashes it with a single vertical stroke of color either red or yellow, and the result is elegantly stimulating. The viewer will have difficulty of choosing which of the two collocated mediums is better – the photograph or the drawing.

Bencab does not only explore the visual form and technique in his new series of nudes, he also exploits the technology of digital art as ancillary device to his pictorial composition. He crosses over between the traditional and modern art making and comes up with a unique structure of form, style and mood of his nude subjects.

For instance, in his “Related Images 01”, Bencab uses a negative filtering of nude photograph in digital manipulation, thus, enhancing the sensuality of bodily shape and contours of the female body. In similar manner, the transparent and oblique mass of dark yellow and gestural lines on the nude drawing creates a dynamic interplay between the binary subjects of his composition.

His nude women, in this particular series, are carefully choreographed, reclusive, genteel and, at times, dreamy. There is fluidity and harmonic structure of collocated images in a sumptuous and graceful manner. The artist’s hand and mood is placid and more relaxed as though he is relishing his subject or just having fun during the process of art making.

As a master illustrator, painter, printmaker and photographer, Bencab has created vicarious portraits of women that reflect their nature in different mood, time and epoch. He articulated the strengths and vulnerabilities of women with such passion as though they were his own in a metaphorical sense.

His “Sabel” series, for instance, is an iconic portrayal of a woman in flight, destitute and rootless. Perchance, this is the only series that the artist is so passionate about addressing the social issues in the country, translating the existential angst of the mother nation in flight, laden with adverse economic and political scuffles.

Bencab’s women, in general, are elegant, reticent and existential with a fragile existence yet, they evoke a powerful and enduring presence in his works. Whether they are dressed or naked, the artist conjures up their mystical allure not only as muse in his art, but as an indispensable presence both in his artistic career and his life as a painter.

He has explored and transcended the nuances of forms, moods and colors of his art in such a way that his women are portrayed not as a mere element or adornment in the pictorial composition, but as the very essence and convergence of female’s ontological meaning both in art and in the society.

To sum, Bencab’s recent exhibit is the simulation (drawing), in a philosophical sense, of the simulation (photography) of the simulation of empirical reality (the reference of actual subject), transforming the collocated mediums into a compelling symbol of metaphysical reality.

© Danny C. Sillada

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Above Arworks: (1) There Are no Hierarchies..., by Cesare Syjuco, (2) Campbell Soup I Portfolio, 1968, by Andy Warhol, (3) Figure with Umbrella, 2005, by Francisco Viri, (4) Nude Variations and Bencab (photo by Erwin Obcemea), (5) Related Images 01 by BenCab, (6) Related Images 03 by BenCab

Daughters of Eve and its Aesthetic Incongruity in Philippine Cinema

2008-06-29T02:20:00.019+08:00

Daughters of Eve and its Aesthetic Incongruity in Philippine Cinema

By Danny Castillones Sillada

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
- George Orwell

Published at Manila Bulletin
Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture), Pages F 1-2, June 9, 2008

Man is intrinsically inclined to invent his own reality as an indirect way of confronting the unspeakable condition of his life. If he does not invent one, others will create realities for him, and if he does not choose from those created realities, he alone will suffer from the consequences of his irrational existence.

In a post-modern society of consumerism and popular culture, invented realities can either be cheap or expensive, depending in one’s capability to purchase or acquire them. The promise of youth and instant beauty, the promise of instant fame and wealth, and the promise of a just society by religious, rebels and political leaders, among others, is a created promise of reality to make man’s life bearable to live.

Most often, in a struggle to survive from an austere condition, man tends to dwell on or believe in lies and fabricated truths rather than facing his concrete reality, which is more repugnant and humiliating. But, occasionally, man must come to terms and embrace the frightening realities of his existence as precondition of his freedom to live.

THE AESTHETHIC SIMULATION OF REALITY IN FILMS

An award-winning Filipino filmmaker, Elwood Perez, created both delusional and concrete realities in his 1986 movie “Daughters of Eve”, originally titled “Silip,” a film laden with grotesque cinematic images.

Never had such realities been portrayed in a nauseating, savage and hauntingly realistic manner, dissecting the human psyche and primeval issues of lust and passion, desire and repression, hatred and violence, religious belief and superstition, life and death.

The film simulated a dark and anarchic world, reminiscent of Shakespearian tragedies in the 16th century, or the Nagisa Ōshima’s 1976 film “Ai no korīda” (In the Realm of the Senses), based on a true story of deviant sex obsession circa 1930 in Japan, sans the graphic portrayal of murders and gang rape of “Daughters of Eve”.

Distinct from his conventional movies that centered on convoluted plots like “Ang Totoong Buhay ni Pacita M,” (1991) “Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit,” (1989) and “Disgrasyada,” (1979) to name a few, “Daughters of Eve” is a character-driven film with complex ensemble of anti-heroes.

Perez, as an eccentric filmmaker, created, from auteur’s point of view, monsters out of his characters, brought them together in a grisly-designed stage of reality and, like a Greek god, indulged himself at their scuffles against the atrocities of their illusive and fragmented world.

GLIMPSES OF “DAUGHTERS OF EVE”

The Slaughter of Animal on a Sand Dune: The film opens with Simon (Mark Joseph) hammering the head of carabao (water buffalo) mercilessly. The children, ranging from 7 to 14 years old, are crying and protesting for him not to kill the animal. (The carabao was, in real life, slaughtered to death). One of the children, a 13-year old girl Pia, had her first menstruation at the scene: red blood dripping between her thighs.

Gratuitous and Salacious Sex Scenes: A 14-year old boy, Tiago, is peeping through the slits of nipa where the naked Tonya (Maria Isabel Lopez) is bathing and casting away her lust for Simon. At another scene, the same boy witnesses his mother, Mona (Myra Manibog), making love to her lover (Simon) in open air in broad daylight.

Selda (Sarsi Emmanuelle), a liberated young woman and teenage friend and rival of Tonya for Simon’s love and attention, sneaks out every night into a hut provided by the villagers for her vacationing American boyfriend. They make love while Tonya, a catechism teacher in the village, secretly watches them through the holes of the nipa.

Religiosity and Occultism: Tonya, torn between her lustful desire for Simon and her religious belief, purges herself with bizarre practices. The more she prays to God, the more obsessive she becomes with Simon to the extent of rubbing her vagina with sand and salt to repress her sexual desire.

She teaches the girls that men who have large penises are devils and should be avoided. Her deviant behaviors and excessive religiosity have created a dangerous cultic belief, imbibing the children with false teachings.

Escaping from the irate villagers due to her bizarre cultic practices that involve the children, Tonya seeks the help of Simon. This results in a wild sexual encounter on top of the sand dune. Pia, the 13-year old catechism student of Tonya, silently witnesses the couple’s activity and bursts out, venting her anger on Tonya for letting her believe that Simon is the devil. Tonya hurriedly leaves, leaving the naked Simon and Pia in an uncomfortable situation.

This time, Pia slowly advances her steps toward Simon and, in a naïve and awkward manner, touches his dangling penis. But the latter pushes her away toward the slope; she hits her head on the rock and instantly dies. Simon, petrified with disbelief, carries the body of Pia toward the seashore.

The Murder of Simon: When the children suspect that Simon killed Pia, they cunningly plan their revenge. Headed by 14-year old Tiago, who was earlier angry with Simon for hurting his mother, the children take turns stabbing Simon’s back with a knife. Finally, Tiago cuts off the head of the lifeless Simon with an axe and brings it to his horrified mother, Mona.

Gang Rape and the Burning of Two Women: Always envious and jealous on the two women, Mona spreads the news that it was Tonya and Selda who killed Pia and Simon. The villagers become incensed and desperately search for their whereabouts.

Finally, they catch Tonya and Selda and tie them naked inside a nipa hut. While the villagers are still deciding what punishment they will inflict on the two women, some men sneak into the hut and begin to rape the naked Tonya and Selda.

After the gang rape, the villagers throw their torches into the nipa hut. Inside, the two women are crying in terrible pain until their voices slowly ebb away amid the blazing inferno.

THE FILM’S BRIEF HISTORY AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL MILIEU

Created in 1985, during the advent of anarchy against an oppressive political system, “Daughters of Eve” is the remaining film of ECP or Experimental Cinema of the Philippines in the 1980s.

In 1986, at the height of People Power Revolution that resulted in the downfall of Marcos regime, the film was shown at the select Philippine theaters. But the historic political event obscured the powerful presence of the film; it slipped unnoticed from the prying eyes of critics and morally upright religious groups.

Later that year, however, the film created an uproar at the Chicago International Film Festival because of its macabre and revolting images. And, then, it slowly fell silent for several years, but its silence was about to explode like a time bomb.

Two decades later, the film would resurface when it became part of the 2005 film series on Television aired by BBC in London: based on a documentary by British author and film critic, Pete Tombs, on the wildest cinemas in the world. So that by 2007, the film returned as if with a vengeance in a high definition DVD form, distributed under a British film company.

Prior to its 2007 release in DVD, “Daughters of Eve”, within the span of two decades, was given several titles in several countries, dubbed in different languages, and circulated underground in the Middle East, Europe, US, Latin America, and some parts of Asia. Never before that had a film, by a Filipino filmmaker, stirred world-wide interest and attention with mixed critical reviews 22 years later.

Today, the film has been eyed for viewing in a wide screen in Africa and Paris. Ironically, the film will remain elusive at the local Philippine theaters because it is still far ahead of its time, needless to mention the religio-cultural sensitivity and conservative consciousness of the Filipino people.

A PEREZIAN FILM

The film and its characters, with ambiguous beginning and ending, is the anti-thesis of all the Hollywood-like romantic and tragic stories in the Philippine cinema. Its fragile characters are left wallowing within the mire of conflicts with no redeeming value or meaning toward the end, but a mere presentation of good and evil.

As told in a linear narrative, traditional salt makers populate a small nomadic village, set against the backdrop of surreal landscape: bare mountains, sand dunes, blue sky and undulating horizon of the sea.

The time and place are blurry; the villagers seem to be rootless as if they had just emerged from out of nowhere and, then, created a story and plots within their characters with no ellipsis or flashbacks, as though the filmmaker just let the characters form the cinematic narrative based on the their actions and dialogues.

The plot of the film is dissolved within the characters, the characters are dissolved within the plot, and both elements of filmmaking have become one entity. The time in the movie is inconsequential, a mere device in cinematic motion to signify night and day, morning and afternoon and, essentially, there is no indication of season or year or epoch.

There is no clear beginning or ending, no gradual build up of the film’s perspective, but purely theatrical scuffles of the characters to resolve the conflict within the cinematic narrative. Whether the characters resolve the conflict or not, the film is already a completed work of art from the auteur’s point of view: it may begin from the middle toward the end or end from the middle toward the beginning.

A convergence of Filipino taboos and shocking images, “Daughters of Eve” is a crossover between film noir and baroque cinemas. It explores the darkest recesses of human psyche and primeval instincts within the repugnant human condition. It uses a natural backdrop (water buffalos, sand dunes, blue sky and the sea) as a setting to superimpose the gravity of feelings, emotions and cinematic images.

The resultant mise-en-scène is uniquely Perezian: morbid, dark and haunting, capturing the essence and timelessness of the film, literally or figuratively.

© Danny C. Sillada
------

*How to cite this article directly from the magazine:

Sillada, Danny C. “Daughters of Eve and its Aesthetic Incongruity in Philippine Cinema”. Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture) (June 9, 2008) 426, No.2: pp. F 1-2.

Lives and Loves of Artists & their Nude Models

2008-05-20T11:53:00.010+08:00

Lives and Loves of Artists

& their Models

By Danny Castillones Sillada

The Luncheon on the Grass (1862 - 1863) by Édouard Manet (left photo).

Published at Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art), Page F 1-2, May 19, 2008

The most controversial and, perhaps, the greatest work of a French painter Édouard Manet is “Le déjeuner sur l'herbe” (The Luncheon on the Grass), executed between 1862 and 1863 on a huge 81.9 × 104.5” canvas. Set against the verdant landscape, a naked woman, as if consciously posing on her side, is seated with two fully dressed men. At a short distance is a chemise-wearing woman bathing on a still-flowing stream.

The painting shocked the French public when it was first exhibited at Salon des Refusés in 1863. It was not really the female nudity that sparked the controversy, but the indecent exposure of a naked woman amid the fully dressed men.

Equally provocative is how Manet used two models for his female nude: Suzanne Leenhoff (his wife) and Victorine Meurent (his favorite model). A closer look on the painting, one can detect a slightly asymmetrical proportion between the woman’s head and her naked body. The artist uses Meurent’s youthful face while the hefty body belongs to his wife, Leenhoff.

Was the artist fantasizing Meurent’s face to be his wife’s while retaining the latter’s body, or was it his clever way of immortalizing Leenhoff’s naked body on the painting?

THE LIVES AND LOVES OF ARTISTS AND MODELS

In his recent coffee-table book “The Lives and Loves of Artists and Models” (320 pages, 243 illustrations), Manuel “Manny” D. Duldulao pays tribute to the models, whose identities are relatively unknown, and extols their vital role in the artists’ lives and creations. He travels back and forth in time by exploring the attitude and concept of nude art and the story behind the unflinching relationships between the artists and their respective models.

The most interesting topics are the historical accounts of nude models like a Greek farm girl named Phyrne (350 B.C.) to Sandro Botticelli’s on “The Birth of Venus” (1484) during the Renaissance period, Leonardo da Vinci's controversial “Mona Lisa” (1503) to Salvador Dali's complex relationship with Gala and her lovers?

Reading the book is like journeying back to the lives of artists from ancient to medieval, from classical period to postmodern era. It is a compendium of love stories and sinuous liaisons woven with romance, scandal, intrigue, betrayal and death of the creators and their models.

Ironically, in the local art scene, the author is discreet to explore the private relationships of Filipino artists and their models. Instead, he zeroed in on the development of nude art in the Philippines from 1930s through 1970s and from 1980s onwards.

The narrative account of the book is elegantly written, sensually provocative and, at times, indulgent. The author, in a more personal approach, has deviated from his objective and straightforward narrative, which is characteristic of his previous books, by occasionally injecting his sentiment: a quasi-narrative of his thoughts and feelings in between paragraphs and chapters.

A TOYM awardee (Ten Outstanding Young Men) in 1973, Duldulao’s passion, as art writer and historian, seems to be inexhaustible after several decades of chronicling the Philippine art movements and activities.

As a self-made man, he is the only non-academe art historian who has extensively written more than 20 coffee-table books in the fields of arts and culture and has, recently, launched a scholarly reference book (volumes I & II) on the history and development of Philippine law and judicial system. His colossal achievement as author and writer is beyond compare among his contemporaries and the new generations of art writers.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUDE ART IN THE PHILIPPINES

The following conversation with the author in January 10, 2005 was a brief glimpse of “The Lives and Loves of Artists and Models” prior to its final publication and launching in 2007.

D.C. SILLADA: What is the main concept of your book on Nude Art in the Philippines?

MANNY DULDULAO:
The main objective of the book, “The Lives and Loves of Artists and Models”, is to place Philippine art in the context of universal aesthetics. That is the reason why I developed the book by showing masterpieces of nude paintings around the world from Spain to Parish to New York and, then, juxtapose them in the context of Philippine art movement.

All of the paintings that I am featuring in the book are full-blown artworks in the respective style of the Filipino artists. I don’t feature sketches or drawings because we cannot elevate Philippine art into a universal level if we are going to show minor pieces.

Nude painting in the Philippines is relatively a recent activity. It only came out in the 1980s and before that, from the 1930s to 1950s, there were not much movement especially in the academe like the University of the Philippines because they could hardly get a Filipina model to pose for the Fine Arts students.

D.C. SILLADA: What is the attitude and concept of Nude Art amid our conservative culture from 1930s through 1970s and 1980s onwards?

MANNY DULDULAO:
Nude paintings in 1950s and 1960s, I would say, were practically academic. They were for studies of human anatomy along the lines of academic requirement, and not for the purposes of gallery exhibitions.

It was only in the 1970s with the organization of the Casa de Oro Group, which is currently known as the Saturday Group, under Alfredo Roces, Hernando Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi, when the nude as an art form began to emerge. Other artists took it from there like the group of Ernie Tagle; they took serious undertaking of giving the nude art form its due in the Philippine art movement.
I would, therefore, say that the flowering of the nude as an art form by itself began in the 1970s and blossomed around 1978 to 1979 and, then, started to have a heavy solid footing in the Philippine art market around the early 1980s.

Now, of course, anything goes... In fact, you can find nude session almost everyday and the artists are no longer looking at it as a form of exercise, but simply as an exploration of art form.

D.C. SILLADA: The Filipina nude models: how they respond to exposing their naked bodies in front of the artists, considering our conservative culture toward nudity?

MANNY DULDULAO:
In the 1950s, you could count on your fingers the girls who were posing in the nude, and they were mostly posing in academic classes like UP. However, it was only during 1970s that modelling became a profession, and one of the legendary pioneers is Nellie Sta. Maria.

When the girls realized that it was a serious undertaking and they could earn some good money in the process, many of them started modelling professionally for a moderate fee. Consequently, they were getting regular assignments especially with the group of Tagle, and they were common girls, not in the entertainment profession.

The girls were mostly students who put their trust (in) the integrity of the artists. One of them was a niece of the late art critic Lorna Revilla Montilla. She was fondly called Inday. One time, the model that they were waiting did not arrive so Lorna told her niece “O, Inday ikaw na lang ang mag-pose...”

It was the beginning of her modelling career that eventually prospered. Now, some girls took it as a profession: they are no longer embarrassed disrobing in front of the artists.

Today, Filipina movie stars pick up the modelling stints, so you can count on them as regular sitters. Girls like Tracey Torres, Julia Lopez, Rosanna Roces, Andrea del Rosario, Katya Santos, Honey Miller, the controversial Keana Reeves and Rose Valencia, they all posed in the nude sessions.

D.C. SILLADA: What is your main thrust in the book in relation to the artists and their nude models?

MANNY DULDULAO:
After reading several literatures on nudes, I found out that art authors and historians concentrated on the human body as a source of art form. What I did with my book, I researched on the lives of nude models.

Like, for instance, the famous painting of Sandro Botticelli titled “The Rising of Venus”; I was able to gather enough information as to who the model was and the family where she belonged to. Likewise, the model of Édouard Manet and his controversial painting “The Luncheon on the Grass”: who was she and what was her name?

These are essentially the main thrusts of my book: the artists, the models and their symbiotic relationships that create a compelling history and developments of nude art from ancient time to postmodern period.

© Danny C. Sillada

Above Photos: (1) The Empty Frame (2006) by Fidel Sarmiento,(2) Blush (2004) by Andi Cubi, (3) Bathing Sisters (2003) by Baltazar Fornaliza, (4) Ripened Womb (1999)by Danny C. Sillada.

A Tribute to a Mindanaoan Painter (The Art of Max Adlao)

2008-05-17T21:45:00.010+08:00

A Tribute to a Mindanaoan Painter

(The Art of Max Adlao)

By Danny C. Sillada

“I put my heart and my soul into my art, and have lost my mind in the process…”
- Vincent Van Gogh

Published at Manila Bullen, Lifestyle Section (Art), May 5, 2008

The summer wind is drifting through the lattice window of Max Adlao’s rented apartment in Cavite. The flapping of curtains, the creaking bed and the songs of migrating birds are the only sounds that he can hear in his quiescent room.

Across his bed is an empty canvas leaning on a paint-splotched easel. Though the canvas has remained untouched for some time now, the aging artist is patiently waiting for the right moment to paint the last masterpiece of his ebbing existence.

Whatever the price to become a Filipino artist and to dedicate an entire life creating beauty, forms and colors on canvas, Max Adlao, amid his recurring illness and destitution, has already contributed the finest feats of his artistic career, undeterred and unnoticed.

MAX ADLAO’S LAUGHING CHRIST

Some years ago, I met the man. Although, he was already in the late part of his existence yet, he was still full of vigor with an impish sense of humor. He was teeming with life then, full of dreams and madly in love with a young pretty wife half of his age.

I had the honor of working with him in 1996 when a good friend, Archbishop Tom Yalong, D.D., then auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Manila, commissioned me to paint a 6 X 10 feet mural in commemoration of the four hundred years since the Christianization of the Philippines.

I was struggling then -- and I still am -- as a full-time painter fresh from the corporate world where I worked as a junior executive in an HMO company in Makati. Despite our age -- or if I may say, mood gap -- he worked patiently with me like a loyal servant with his master.

6 X 10 feet Mural, 1996. Oil on Canvas by Danny Sillada & Max Adlao.

Permanently installed at the Roman Catholic Office, Arzobispado, Intramuros, Manila.

Occasionally, he would correct my preliminary sketches on a huge canvas in my absence without saying a single word. At times, when we were so engrossed painting together, he would suddenly crack sidesplitting jokes to soften the intense atmosphere. He had always a way of making a dull moment funny between us and, like a father, he would interject his opinion in a manner that I won’t be offended during our conversation.

For instance, in one of our strenuous routines painting together, he told me: “Danny, St. Lorenzo Ruiz will kick you out in heaven if you portray him with shorter legs on this mural…”

We looked at each other for a while and, then, burst into laughter. Our laughter receded temporarily and then continued with the same pattern until we parted ways from a hard day’s work. Oblivious to him, I was amused inside as though my father was alive again in his presence, guiding me through my oversight and blunder.

At another instance, I came late to our working studio at the third floor of the Arzobispado De Manila building in Intramuros. I was flabbergasted to discover that my sketch of risen Christ was already painted over, and the image was looking straight through my eyes, laughing!

I was petrified in disbelief! My original sketch of Christ was not laughing or smiling at all. I was supposed to paint the Risen Christ with my original drawing to portray Him in a somber mood with opaque color. I did not speak to Max Adlao that day.

At nightfall, after he left with his wife off to his rented apartment in Cavite, I repainted his laughing Christ with my original concept on a wet on wet technique until I finished the figure at three o’clock in the morning.

No one knows that secret until today: that behind my portrayal of gloomy Christ on that huge mural is Max Adlao’s happy and laughing Christ. I would like to think and believe, though, that our Christ is the same, albeit mine is a lonely one.

Detail of Risen Christ by Danny Sillada, 1996.Behind this portrait is a laughing Christ of Max Adlao

MAX ADLAO’S ARTISTIC JOURNEY

Max Adlao started his artistic career that spanned the late 1950s through the 1980s; he was a cinema billboard artist. He was so good at his craft that he was one of the most sought-after painters in his time from cinema billboards to the propaganda government murals at the heart of Durian City, the city of Davao.

During his spare time, he would settle in his small studio to paint his World War II memoirs. The haunting images of the Japanese and the American warplanes, flying bombs and bullets, tanks and dead soldiers were oozing out from his small canvases.

In 1988, after spending for more than three decades as a billboard artist, he was given a big break when the Central Bank of Davao gave him a one-man show highlighting his portrayal of the countryside sceneries and the early Davaoeño customs and traditions.

The exhibition was such a success that he eventually earned the respect of his fellow Davaoeño artists and art critics alike, and was hailed as the Amorsolo of Mindanao. However, despite the accolades, he had wished that his beloved wife were alive to share his joys and success as a painter.

Then came 1992, the turning point of Max Adlao’s artistic career: his daughter and son-in-law invited him to spend a vacation in Germany.

FILIPINO ART ON THE STREETS OF GERMAN SOIL

In autumn of 1992, Max Adlao arrived in Germany and saw a completely different world, the grandeur of old and modern houses and buildings, and the diverse art and culture of German people.

However, after staying in Germany for a week, he was bored staring at the television screen watching shows in a language that he could not understand. His routine was to eat, sleep and wake up, a rather arduous activity than putting his mind and body in painting.

Jaded and restless, Max Adlao began to wander on the streets of German soil and there, he eventually found a language that everyone understands – the language of his art. With paint, easel and brush in his hands, he started to sketch and paint the passersby, the mood and the environment of German people.

In such a short period, Adlao became the first Filipino street artist capturing the hearts of German enthusiasts and collectors with his almost ritualistic on-the-spot portraiture and plein air paintings. He mesmerized the curious bystanders and dilettantes with his riveting aesthetic performance and, eventually, gained students and followers on the street.

Despite his newfound fame, Adlao felt an indescribable void inside as if part of his life were absent and missing. He was searching for something that would fill the emptiness of his existence, but he didn’t know what it was.

FINDING THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE

After his brief stint in Germany, he went home and stayed for a while in Manila hoping to find himself in the art capital of the Philippines. This time, his emptiness worsened that he decided to make another journey back to his hometown in Davao. Unknown to him, he was about to meet the second love of his life, a young Davaoeña named Shirley.

In 1993, Max Adlao was no longer desolate or alone. Together with his newfound love, Shirley, they both sailed again, leaving the Land of Promise, to start a new life in Manila. With the help of his paizano artist, Lovino, he was introduced to the owner of Genesis Gallery, who bought the first batch of his paintings.

After some time, he became one of the resident artists of Heritage Gallery under the kind patronage of Atty. Mario Alcantara. Since then, he became active at the different group shows and other art activities in Metro Manila.

In 1996, he was one of the grand price winners at the national art competition, which was sponsored by the Supreme Court for the Philippine Judiciary centennial celebration.

In 2000, for almost a decade of his artistic career in Manila, he had his first one-man show under the sponsorship of Ayala Country Club in Alabang. It was, perhaps, the apex of Max Adlao’s life as octogenarian artist.

This time, however, he began to feel the descending thrust of his creative life due to his weak physical condition. Few months later, he suffered from a mild stroke that would put him in bed for a while.

Since then up to the present, Max Adlao suffered intermittent mild strokes that would later impair his sense of hearing and his capability to paint on canvas.

MY KIND OF ARTIST

Today, whenever I think of Max Adlao, I would remember him as a rising moon in my darkened window. He is like a father, who once taught me how to fly a kite – the stronger the wind the higher it rises. He is my kind of artist, who does not know how to give up life even if the whole world were to give up on him.

And every time I remember my somber Christ, I would always think of Max Adlao’s happy and laughing Christ behind the mural that we once collaborated and brought into existence.
© Danny C. Sillada

Max Adlao on the Mural we once collaborated, 1996.

I would lay down sketches on the entire canvas and divide

among us the portions where we would feel at ease to paint.

Photo by Danny Sillada (c) 2005. Posted by Hello

The Poetic Revelation in Language and Culture: The Vision of Sonny Villafania

2008-05-12T22:37:00.002+08:00

The Poetic Revelation in Language and Culture

(The Vision of Sonny Villafania)

By Danny Castillones Sillada

“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Manila Bulletin (Lifestyle section, pp. F1-F2, May 12, 2008)

Poetry, according to a German philosopher Martin Heidegger, is the foundation of truth. As a foundation of truth, it employs aesthetic symbols to reveal realities that concern the historical, cultural and socio-political conditions of man in his society.

The use of metaphor or allegory, for instance, is a symbolic device to magnify the objective reality and establish a rational basis in understanding the truth.

As a foundation of truth, poetry reveals what is hidden in such a way that the general readers or public will know it, and the most effective tool to reveal such symbolic reality is the use of language and linguistic expression common to a particular culture and society.

One of the greatest poets who had achieved such magnificent feat is a British-Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, whose poetry transformed, not only the lives of Bengali people, but also the Bengali literature and culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Tagore’s poetry like the famous collection of Gitanjali (Song Offerings), which was translated into several languages, has been sang and spoken by the common Bengali people such as farmers, fishermen, the monks, the townsfolk and the intellectuals.

THE POETIC REVELATION OF SONNY VILLAFANIA

In the local Philippine literature, there is one visionary, who is about to achieve such poetic revelation to the common people in his region, a multi-awarded Pangasinan-born poet Santiago “Sonny” Villafania.

His remarkable achievement, in the standard of anlong tradition (Pangasinan Poetry), defies the conventional use of Filipino literary languages, which are English and Filipino, by creating a suite of highly structured sonnets and villanelles in his native lingua franca.

In his book 364-page “MALAGILION: Sonnets tan Villanelles”, one of his poems “Rekindled”, which is included among the collections of poems written in Pangasinan, Villafania takes the reader into a sensual journey of bucolic life that reflects his origin and culture.

“There is a rice-pounding song tonight playing…” he wrote in a simple introductory line, yet the imagery is filled with sensual meaning that is only decipherable among the ordinary people in his region.

The “rice-pounding song” evokes the rhythmic sound of pounded rice on lusong or wooden hollow echoing amid the rising moon and the silences of the night. One could imagine the smell, the sound and the taste of unripe rice being fried on a cauldron and then pounded to make them crunchy.

As the poem continued in the second paragraph, Villafania introduces and defines the rice-pounding not only as an ordinary activity, but also as a ritualistic gathering of young men and women to celebrate the offering to the goddess of earth and harvest.

The poet reveals the symbolic meaning of rice-pounding as offering and ritualistic celebration. In the same way, as he uses a subtle allegory to signify the fruition and harvest of poetry in his own native language. “They will hear me scream my poems of hunting…”, thus, says Villafania with magnificent force and passion in his native language.

THE ELEGANCE OF LANGUAGE AND ITS ACCESSIBILITY TO THE PEOPLE

There is something mysterious and magical in the language or any language for that matter, that only a poet could fashion, magnify and unveil its hidden message through a unique linguistic expression of symbols and meanings.

A poet is like a messenger and, at the same time, a shaman, who conjures up the spirits to magically transform the language with unassuming meaning and become the common source of understanding among those who write and speak about it.

A good poet lifts up the soul of his or her reader to the symbolic and metaphysical meaning of reality so that his message can be understood and applied by the common people in their daily lives.

In the first paragraph of Sonnet 158, for instance, Villafania mesmerizes his readers with the use of sound and the fluidity of language that even a non-Pangasinan could feel the sensual rhythm and elegance of written words:

Panon takan aroen Pinabli?
Ipetek ko man ira’y sonata
Anlongen ko man ira’y sonito
Ag iraya onkana anganko
Ed puson agto amta’y ondengel
Ed saray Dangoan na panangaro
--------------

“How can I love you, dear?/ Even if I sing these sonatas/ Even if I write these sonnets/ These are nothing it seems/ To a heart who knows not how to listen/ To the Songs of Love.”

Villafania addresses that concern with urgency in such a way that his particular readers do not only feel and understand his sentiments, but also live and speak about it. He is like a chameleon immersing and identifying himself with the anguish of his people by gathering them toward a common understanding of reality.

In a sense, Villafania is not only a visionary poet; he is a linguistic philosopher who codifies the origin of language and culture. He dissects and juxtaposes the literary tradition against the modern influences by dialectically infusing them with his poetic revelation of truth.

THE BOOK IN THE CONTEXT OF PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

To understand and appreciate the literary content of Villafania’s 364-page “MALAGILION: Sonnets tan Villanelles” as an important contribution to Philippine literature, it is noteworthy to discuss the derivation of title, the literary content, style and structure.

The book’s title “MALAGILION” is derived from “malapati” (dove), “agila” (eagle), and “lion” (lion), an allusion to the alter ego of a Filipino-American poet Jose Garcia Villa, who called himself as Doveglion (Dove Eagle Lion). A title of the poem from which the famous 20th century American poet E.E. Cummings wrote as a tribute to his Filipino friend, Jose Garcia Villa (Adventures IV 5; CP 904).

In essence, “Sonnet” is derived from “sonetto”, an Italian word for little song from which, in the 13th century, became a poem signifying fourteen lines following strict rhymes and specific procedures. It is fundamentally a dialectical structure with contrasting ideas, emotions, beliefs, images, etc., allowing the poet to resolve the tensions at the end of the poem.

The “villanelle”, on the other hand, is a poetic form originating from French literature and was employed in the English-language poetry in the 1800s. It is composed of two rhyming lines. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. Composed of 19 lines, 5 tercets and 1 concluding quatrain, the villanelle is a complicated poetic form compared to sonnet.

One could imagine the regimen and artistry that Villafania underwent in conceiving and delivering his aesthetic creation, integrating these poetic forms in his own native language. The result of his painstaking labor is, impeccably, a magnificent work of art comparable to one of the Shakespearian opus in the 16th century.

Funded and published by the Philippine government’s Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino and Emilio Aguinaldo College, the book, among the very few written in native languages, is an ambitious attempt to bring literature to the masses, albeit a minute victory over the 170 Filipino languages spoken by the 80 million Filipino people inhabiting the 7,107 Philippine islands.

THE POET’S ADVOCAY

As a visionary Filipino poet, Villafania advocates the use of native language. He also encourages other writers to weave their craft in their native tongues so that literature will become accessible to the ordinary people, the same poetic vision, which the famous poet Tagore envisioned for his people. Villafania online publication of Dalityapi, for example, is a venue for all international and regional writers, who write in their respective languages.

To sum, in his regular column “The Breaking Signs” at Panorama Sunday magazine, a multi-awarded Filipino poet, writer and columnist Cirilo Bautista hailed Villafania’s book as “a source of rejoicing for readers of regional literatures... Villafania has created 300 sonnets and 50 villanelles in his own language that attempt to reflect the primacy of native culture and return the poet to the central stage of social life.”

© Danny C. Sillada

Above photos: (1) Book Cover, (2) The Author, (3) Poster of the book.

Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cesare & Jean Marie Syjuco’s Aesthetics

2008-04-24T11:51:00.016+08:00

Weapons of Mass Destruction in

Cesare & Jean Marie Syjuco's Aesthetics

By Danny Castillones Sillada

“Por que también somos lo que hemos perdido...”
(Because we are also what we have lost…)
-Amores Perros, the movie

Published from Manila Bulletin, Page E-4, Monday, April 21, 2008

There is an air of intangible emptiness and, at the same time, that ineffable feeling of finding oneself in the midst of Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco’s installation art. The more one goes deeper within the maze of their works, the more one feels that delicate part of human soul tiptoeing between the temporariness of time and eternity.

In their recent and first collaborative art exhibit titled “2 Minds, Many Madnesses”, after thirty years of their marriage, the couple virtually created an immense space on scanty walls and floor areas of the newly-opened Mag:net Gallery at The Columns in Ayala, Makati.

Congruent to the yin-yang principle of complimentary opposites, these two great avant-garde Filipino artists cradle their viewers with the intensity and the gentleness of their aesthetic creations.

AN ART BORN OUT OF A WOMAN

The birth of art from ancient civilization to the romantic and classical periods generally evolved and revolved around women. In fact, in the recent archaeological research about the ancient European civilization between 7000 and 3500 b.c., researchers found and unearthed some 30,000 sculptures of clay, marble, bone, copper and gold from 3,000 sites about the figure of goddesses, an indication of the ancient belief that the Creator of the world was Goddess.

The Filipino society, with its unique culture and tradition, is a society raised by mothers or women. Similar to the ancient European civilization, women have played a very important role in nurturing humanity in our post-modern society. And women, in general, are the artist’s muse and inspiration to create, the cradle of his dreams and the source of his creative power.

But what if a woman creates, what could be the source of her inspiration?

In her installation “I am the shadow of the waxwing slain by the false azure in the windowpane”, a quote from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Pale Fire”, Jean Marie Syjuco poignantly creates a sad picture of an orphaned egg snuggled on a tiny bird’s nest. The installation narrative tells a mother bird, after crashing through a glass window, fell and instantly died leaving its solitary egg untended.

Powerfully woven with realistic objects sans a dead bird, the theatrical composition of installation portrays the inevitable reality of death and abandonment. “Someday soon, I will depart from this world” said the artist to this writer with tears oozing from her eyes, “and I am worried for the eggs (children) that I will leave behind.”

In another installation, the artist tiptoes on the same trail of indefinable melancholy with her sentimental homage to a family friend, the artist-poet-writer Sid Gomez Hildawa, who recently passed away.

Jean Marie uses the premonitory last poem of Hildawa, which he wrote shortly before he died. She portrayed an empty wall with a trace of white rectangular space at the second floor of Mag:net Gallery. The only visible object is a rusted nail on top of a lighter surface, an indication that there used to be a painting hanging on that empty wall.

If one gazes long enough, he or she will experience that indescribable feeling of nostalgic sorrow looming in the air. And one will feel not only the absence of the painting on the wall, but also the absence of the one wrote the poem about an empty wall.

“Now that the artwork is gone,/”, wrote the late poet, “visitors ask, “What used to be there?”/ and “What was it about?,”/ as if they hadn’t seen the piece before,/ or maybe not carefully enough…”. (Excerpt from Sid Gomez Hildawa’s poem “Sick Leave”).

By just looking at an empty wall or by just reading the poem beside it, an individual will experience that wrenching feeling in one’s heart, so powerful as though one had just lost the presence of a loved one.

The artist, the poet, the viewer – all is confined within the symbolic reality of an empty wall – an inevitable reality of absence, death and departure.

THE FEMININE TOUCH IN AESTHETICS

The art of Jean Marie Syjuco, in general, touches the sensitive part of human soul. She brings her viewers face to face with their own existential realities. As indicative in her portrayal of orphaned egg, empty wall, floating roses, virtual cage, among other works, the artist as a woman perceives life, despite its bleak reality, as something to be endured, embraced and nurtured.

Her art professes its own unique source from the womb of a woman, whose maternal instinct is to conceive, labor and deliver life into the world to be nourished, healed or bandaged from the brokenness of human existence.

In essence, her art is not something to be dissected and decoded with complex meaning, but something to be seen and understood as it is. It must be felt in one’s heart and soul as delicate as the woman’s fragile nature. However, it is the same fragility where the woman’s power emanates, flourishes and nurtures.

As an art born out of a woman, in a philosophical sense, she maintains the balance to create rather than destroy and build again in order to maintain the balance. Unlike man’s art, which characterizes the conquest of the uncharted, a woman’s art, on the other hand, creates what has been empirically present with such passion and dexterity.

THE WIT AND HUMOR IN CESARE'S WORKS

Cesare A.X. Syjuco’s art, which is known as the New Literary Hybrid, is characterized with wit, humor and satire. In contrast to Jean Marie’s works that appeal to the human emotion, Cesare addresses the cognitive level, exploring the widths and depths of human consciousness through the linguistic and visual structures of his aesthetics.

For instance, in his “Weapons of Mass Destruction” installation, there are six framed artworks with texts and illustrations that are horizontally arranged on the wall: (1) If it grunts like an ox, (snail), (2) If it quacks like a duck, (mouse), (3) If it bleats like a sheep, (grasshopper), (4) If it squeals like a pig, (lion), (5) It must be bum yeggs, (eggs), (6) It could mean a World War, (nuclear scientist).

What would happen if a mouse quacks like a duck or a lion squeals like a pig or a grasshopper bleats like a sheep?

In an intelligent and playful manner, Cesare explores the sounds of animals and insects with hypothetical propositions and, finally, arrives at a conclusion in the last sequence that says: “It could mean a World War!”

Although, the syntactic propositions defy the logical principles, there is but one reality that the artist wishes to convey – the weapons of mass destruction and its imminent presence and peril to humanity.

In the same vein, in a more compelling installation titled “Divinities”, a meter-long acrylic panel backlit by fluorescent is vertically attached on the wall. On the transparent surface of acrylic is an almost invisible caption running upward in a vertical direction. At a relative distance, the installation appears to be an ordinary fluorescent bulb, yet, at a closer look, it signifies more than what it represents.

Human perception and judgment on reality can, sometimes, fail and the artwork itself proves that the viewers can be wrong with their perception of reality. Unless an individual is keen enough, he will notice that an ordinary fluorescent light tells more other than its factual existence as a bulb.

And, in this case, it announces that “God Speaks to Cesare” or to anyone for that matter, who notices the inscribed text on the acrylic panel. The fluorescent light signifies the light of God or as God Himself, a symbolic reality that the artist cleverly wanted to reveal.

For God, as the artwork signifies, could be everywhere speaking to anyone in any form or manner.

LANGUAGE AND AESTHETICS

The cohesive use of textual and visual devices in Casare’s art is akin to the mass media campaign, albeit, in a hybrid and avant-garde manner – highly intelligent, poetic, humorous and satirical. In the same manner, his aesthetics trudges on the philosophy of language addressing the problems of (1) the nature of meaning, (2) the language being used, (3) language cognition, and the (4) relationship between language and reality.

The basic principle that his art proposes is the symbolic elements of written texts with visual devices in relation to the truth and, whether truth is verifiable or not, he challenges his viewers to delve deeper based on the given elements of his aesthetic composition.

From the viewer’s point of view, perhaps, the salient question that he or she must ask: ‘What is the meaning of text in relation to the visual presentation of aesthetic elements or vice versa?’

In literature, this can be answered based on the “connotation” (what does art suggest and imply) of textual image, the “denotation” (what is the aesthetics’ point of reference and its essential meaning) and its “intention” (what is the final cause of the aesthetics in relation to reality).

Knowing the background of the artist as a poet, a literary iconoclast, his works can be best understood as visual poetry or poetry of space, text and image, all in one aesthetic presentation. Or, in a more poetic description – writings on the wall – which is infused with carefully chosen visual devices to enhance and magnify the artist’s revelation of reality.

“I am an experimental poet first,” says Cesare, “and a visual artist second. But I write mostly for the walls and not for the page, and that’s where the boundaries between the two get crossed.”

His genius as a poet-artist is incomparable in his generation. He is a linguistic philosopher, whose art and poetry challenge the normative concept of aesthetic reality. He is a poet, who engages a complacent mind to think deeper and explore the uncharted part of human brain, and a man of compassion and reason, who affirms the creativity of others and their respective contributions in the development of art and culture in the Philippine society.

PROFILE OF THE COUPLE

The art exhibit at Mag:net Gallery by the two Filipino renowned couple, Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco, is the first of a series commemorating their 30th Anniversary of partnership both in marriage and in their respective artistic careers.

Cesare A.X. Syjuco is a multi-awarded poet, painter and critic, known as the golden boy in Philippine art scene in the 1980s, while Jean Marie Syjuco is a multi-awarded sculptor, painter and performance artist.

The amalgam of the two great artists produced multi-talented children ranging from musicians, poets, performance artists, fashion models, among others.

To sum, Fr. Reuter says, “A family that prays together stays together”. Aside from praying together, art or creative passion binds the Syjuco family together. Hence, “A family that creates together stays together!”

Above Photos: (1) Jean Marie's “I am the shadow of the waxwing slain by the false azure in the windowpane”, (2) & (3) Detail of I am the Sahdow..., (4) "There are no heirarchies in the problem politics", by Cesare Syjoco, (5) Portrait of Cesare Syjuco, (6) "And I And I", by Cesare Syjuco

FIGURING ABSTRACTION: The Shifting of Reality in Lindslee’s Art

2008-03-27T12:36:00.010+08:00

FIGURING ABSTRACTION:

The Shifting of Reality in Lindslee’s Art
By Danny Castillones Sillada

“Modern art touches a sore spot, or several sore spots, in the ordinary citizen of which he is totally unaware. The more irritated he becomes at modern art the more he betrays the fact that he himself, and his civilization, are implicated in what the artist shows him.”
-William Barrett, Irrational Man

Published at Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture)

In his insatiable quest for aesthetic meaning, Lindsey “Lindslee” James Lee questions whether abstract art is the end in itself defaced and bereft of figurative elements on a flattened surface of canvas. Or is it an indefinite medium open to a more concrete signification in relation to the image man amid his changing society.

In his provocative paintings and installations with thematic title “Figuring Abstraction”, the artist challenges the normative concept of abstract art as a medium. In the same way, as po-mo (post-modern) art questions whether the image of man is confined within the traditional and conventional belief, or is it shifting toward a more concrete definition in the post-modern society.

In the “Wake-up Call” installation, for example, Lindslee nestled a taxidermal rooster on top of a backlit box. At the right side of the box is an inscribed text “Idealism” and on the left “Paranoia”. The rooster, in an elegant posture, is clothed with knitted pink apron in a fashionable manner as though the chicken is geared up to ramp before the audience.

Tinged with satire and sarcasm, the sculptural installation signifies the existential reality of man and his society. Lindslee dissects the darker side of human psyche torn between the pendulous tensions of idealism and paranoia. The haunting imagery symbolizes the two opposing sides of man’s perception of reality. He can either be fearful and suspicious of reality or he can be desperate to believe on something sublime, which is beyond the rational comprehension of man’s consciousness.

As indicative in his incisive use of symbols, the artist completely deconstructs the finitude of abstraction by substituting it with a more sensual and perceptible elements. The use of taxidermy, for instance, and the aleatory portrayal of figures, amplifies the inevitable reality in the context of his own image of man within and beyond the borders of his creation.

Figuring Abstraction: The Equivocal Meaning

Figuring Abstraction, as an ambiguous theme, is the artist’s discursive proposition from savoir-faire (conventional or commonly accepted norms) to savoir-vivre (the ability to live and explore beyond the conventions or the given sets of rules and values).

The savoir-faire, as employed by this writer in the context of modern aesthetics, is the inherent principle of art as an end itself with fixed essence and nature – i.e., material composition, form, color and texture – its capability to become in-itself and for-itself. The savoir-vivre, on the other hand, is the symbolic principle transcending beyond its material composition – the source of revelatory meaning in contrast to what is conventionally accepted as a norm.

For instance, in one of his abstract paintings titled “Defining Gravity”, the artist painted a varying tone of black, white, and grey colors. At the upper left of the canvas, is an undefined mass of crimson lake adjacent to the realistic figure of man (self-portrait) standing on his side. The textures and colors of the canvas are arbitrarily arranged, which is, evidently: the characteristics of abstraction.

What makes the artwork arresting amid its mass of undefined forms and colors is the portrayal of realistic figure within the canvas. Otherwise, without the figurative aspect of the composition, the canvas is bleak and dreary. Obviously, the artist intentionally infused the figurative element to create a pictorial tension. Hence, the title “Defining Gravity” literally creates a gravitational impact within the composition and from the perspective of the viewers.

The artist, subsequently, redefines and introduces new dimensions in abstraction. First, he explores the aleatory symbol of selected elements, i.e., the realistic depiction of man, chicken, ladder or bicycle, etc., as a shifting device to put gravitational weight on the surface of his canvas.

Second, the artist does not only explore what is abstraction in literal sense. He uses his auxiliary skill as a taxidermist to heighten the symbolic meaning of reality within the forms and structures of his creation.

The Taxidermal Elements

As an abstract and taxidermy artist, Lindslee skilfully concocted a more challenging formula in his art by integrating the two aesthetic entities into his works.

The unique use of taxidermal elements in Lindslee’s art is arbitrarily born out of the desire to explore and elevate his aesthetics into a more concrete expression of reality, a reality from which the artist wishes to reveal be it beautiful or ugly.

In his work titled “Ugly Painting”, an installation of taxidermal duck sitting on a bench painted with the figure of Jesus Christ (Sacred Heart); the picture is painted at one side of the bench. Below the bench is a huge white egg, which is five times larger than the life-size duck.

The symbolism of the duck, giant egg and a religious icon elicits a haunting reality. The poignant imagery signifies two realities. First, it symbolizes the complacency of man’s religious faith, still being hatched, as shown on the figurative symbol of giant egg. Second, the work itself becomes a symbolic icon of complacency in creating a more sublime aesthetics. It is a common experience among artists, who have already attained the pinnacle of their creativity; it is as though nothing is worth exploring anymore in art making.

The taxidermal elements did not only signify the reality that Lindslee wanted to portray in his art. But it also magnifies that same reality to a higher level of man’s consciousness and his struggle to create and to become. As a supplementary device to his art making, the artist has achieved his artistic freedom with magnificent force, creating a powerful medium in his quest for a highly sensitive aesthetics.

The Aesthetic Symbol as a Revelation of Truth

The use of symbolism in Lindslee’s art is generally coherent and rational but, at times, it can be capricious and satirical. In his painting titled “Vindicated”, the artist reveals a bleak symbolism – epitomizing his existential perception of life.

Typical of his abstract works, the canvas is pullulating with undefined mass of forms and colors. At the upper left portion of the canvas, is a realistic figure of a tilted diamond ring. An inscribed text is passing through the ring cascading down to the bottom of the canvas that says: "Things are made to be broken".

Obviously, the symbolic meaning is about a broken relationship. At a second look, however, one can feel that looming shadow of intangible sadness enshrouding his canvas. There is that feeling of resign and surrender that all things in this world, sooner or later, will pass away, and what remains is the awful reality of death and mortality.

“Everything is meaningless”, says the artist, “because someday, like man’s life, my art will vanish and disappear in oblivion”.

Despite the drab portrayal of reality, the artist’s symbolism persuasively touches the delicate part of human soul. His revelation of truth is a symbol of the here and now, penetrating the human psyche with urgency, anchoring man’s existence to his bleak but concrete reality.

The Unity of Art and the Vision of Reality

Is the interpretation of art limited to a particular medium or genre? Or, is it open to a more daring concept that reflects the shifting image of man in the post modern society?

As an artist of magnificent vision, Lindslee questions the parameters of abstraction, goes beyond its conventional form, and redefines his own modal structure of art making. The unity of aesthetic concept and his vision of reality culminate not from mere painting the surface of his canvas, but by integrating and fusing one or more mediums into his art.

Generally, abstract art is flat and abstruse, plane and simple. However, the artist goes beyond from its flattened surface to a more concrete signification of reality. He proposes, vis-à-vis, a dialectical concept of what it could become as a symbolic entity in contrast to the pre-conceived reality of art as a genre in-itself and for-itself.

In the end, the shifting of the artist’s vision, his dialectical concept and his departure from the normative practice of art making has become a liberating device to embrace the limitless possibilities of art rather than being confined within the conventional principles of aesthetics.

To sum, symbolism in po-mo art, be it visual, literary, film or music is boundless and metaphysical. It transcends the bleakness of the world and conquers the absurd by magnifying and revealing concrete realities so that the post-modern man may live with profound meaning and understanding of life in the midst of his changing society.

Creative freedom, like the infinite space of the universe, is boundless and eternal.

© Danny C. Sillada

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*ABOVE PHOTO: Photo of artworks coutesy of the artist; 2008 works.

"Indecision" by a Filipino surrealist painter JON JAYLO

2008-02-02T19:25:00.000+08:00

A British politician, Aneurin Bevan (1897 - 1960), once said on indecision: “We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down.”

In this picture, the artist allegorically illustrates “indecision” as opposing forces by using the imagery of a three-wheeled bicycle with two faceless men sitting back to back pedalling in opposite directions.

A satire and a metaphorical quest for truth depict, not only the psychological conflict within, but apt amid the political crisis of our country (Philippines) and the conflicting personal interests among our political leaders.

The contrasting colors and the subtlety of symbolic elements make this painting so appealing to the mind and senses, addressing an urgent universal message on shared vision, concern and unity in our politically-troubled society.

Using a water mixable oil paint, the artist has achieved an elegant style of pictorial composition with the classic appeal of a master’s touch.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: "Indecision" by a Filipino surrealist painter Jon Jaylo.

Artist's Site: http://back2basic.multiply.com/

“Yakap” (Embrace) by a Filipina-Chinese painter JANICE LIUSON-YOUNG

2008-02-02T19:12:00.000+08:00

There is something celestial in the portrayal of “Yakap” (Embrace), something invincible that only an experienced mother could depict such sensitive and warm ambiance of mother and child bonding.

Securely nestled at her mother’s arms, the child seems to be relishing that timeless moment of warmth and comfort. While the mother, dressed in a traditional Filipino costume, tenderly feels the fragile presence of her child as though she is listening to the incessant beatings of their hearts.

Using an acrylic paint as a medium, the fluidity of thin brushstrokes is conspicuous on the surface of the canvas, thus, giving the artist a free rein to achieve a placid texture on his subjects.

And if one would take a closer look at the artwork, a yin-yang element is likewise noticeable in the rendition of tonal values. The lighter portion at the left side of the painting signifies “yin” (white) while the darker portion at the right side signifies “yang” (black).

Here, the artist, consciously or unconsciously, fashioned a powerful interplay of elemental energies that gives life and drama to the mother and child interaction.

As a Filipino symbolic image for motherhood, the mother and child painting gives the viewer a fresher look from the woman’s point of view, as the artist proficiently created mood and feelings in the final touch of her delicate composition.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: “Yakap” (Embrace), acrylic on canvas by a Filipina-Chinese painter Janice Liuson-Young.

Artist’s Site: http://janiceliusonyoung.multiply.com/

"Soul Mate" by a Filipino sculptor Seb Chua

2008-02-02T19:07:00.000+08:00

A soul mate may not be a husband or a wife, a lover or a friend, but someone whom you feel connected as though you had been part of each other in the past.

In this piece of sculpture, the artist depicts the woman securely resting on the man’s breast with her right hand touching gently on the man’s shoulder. His right arm, on the other hand, is wrapped around the woman’s body giving that feeling of reassurance that everything is all right.

In this particular instance, one could feel that indescribable bonding between the man and the woman, that pervading heat of their bodies and that sense of eternity lingering in their souls.

Ironically, the characteristic of metal is a contrasting element in the artwork, but the artist painstakingly transformed its cold and hard nature into a soft, warm and sensual image of human bodies.

Rendered in geometric shapes and forms, the sculptor successfully created the tension and drama between the material and the final touch of his creation.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: “Soul Mate”, by a Filipino sculptor SEB CHUA.

Artist's Site: http://sebchuajr.multiply.com/

"Dog Show" by a Filipino painter CJ Tañedo

2008-02-02T18:59:00.000+08:00

Perhaps, the closest and loyal among the domestic animals to human beings are dogs. There are heroic stories between man and dog; they are heart-warming stories of loyalty and friendship.

In this painting, however, the artist uses the imagery of dog to portray a bleak yet comical socio-political reality in our society.

Political leaders are like dogs as though they knew nothing but to squabble and bark at each other. And when a political scandal or controversy erupts, they utilize the mass media to stage their “dog show” and cover up their ineptitude before the very eyes of their respective constituents.

The artist redefines the current political situation through a compelling image of half-dog and half-human portrait, an unscrupulous persona, which is hauntingly residing in the politicians’ psyche and sub-culture.

Ironically, dogs are more sensible and loyal to human beings than the political leaders who used and abused their political power for their own advantage instead of the common good of the people.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: “Dog Show” by a Filipino painter CJ Tañedo.

Artist's Site: http://cjtanedo.multiply.com/

“Typical Alaska Home” by a Filipino photographer LEONARDO VILLAFRANCA

2008-02-02T18:52:00.000+08:00

Photographs are optical memories from the visual world percolating from the lenses of the photographers to convey reality and meaning through the human eyes and senses.

In this particular picture, instead of revealing the perspective of the composition, the photographer deliberately obscures the subject so that one can only see a glimpse of an incomplete image reflecting on the stagnant water on the ground.

The photographer invites the viewers to see a different perspective of reality, a reality that literally or figuratively reflects nature or human life for that matter.

Titled as “Typical Alaska Home”, this is one among thousands of images seen and taken by the photographer in his journey at different places around the world.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: “Typical Alaska Home” by a Filipino photographer Leonardo Villafranca.

Artist's Site: http://filipinopilgrim.multiply.com/

“Turn the Beat Around” by a Filipino sculptor FERDINAND CACNIO

2008-02-02T18:36:00.000+08:00

If I were to define the aesthetic meaning of “dance”, I would describe it as a poetic ascend of body movement within the spatial beat and rhythm of musical instruments.

The sculpture “Turn the Beat Around” captures that essence of poetic body movement in a timeless stance, masterfully choreographed in a suave and élan manner.

At a first glance, one could almost feel the dancer’s whirling hair, arms and body searing with energy, flailing with the surging beat and rhythm of music, as if liberating that restrained desire from within.

Though seemingly frozen in space and time, the sculptor successfully created a theatrical picture of the dancer’s compelling performance in the human imagination.

Using metal sheets of brass and copper, the artist deftly fashioned the pliability of the medium to mimic the sensual form of human body – breathing life and energy in the final stroke of his oeuvre.

© Danny C. Sillada
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Artwork: “Turn the Beat Around”, metal sheets of brass and copper by Ferdinand Cacnio

Artist’s site: http://cacnio.multiply.com/

RONALDO RUIZ & HIS TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIMATION

2006-12-17T13:44:00.001+08:00

The Art of Ronaldo Ruiz and His Technological Sublimation
By Danny C. Sillada

LINKS: The Art of Ronaldo Ruiz

Ronald Ruiz Multiply Site

Abstract paintings pullulating with red and golden hues, black baby dolls crawling toward a television screen, and labyrinthine electronic gadgets with eerie lights sum up the “Technological Sublimation” of the award winning Filipino painter, installation and performance artist Ronaldo Ruiz.

In his particular installation “Technological Sublimation”, Ruiz came up with a concept how television and computer could distort the minds of the children and teenagers with his powerful imagery of baby black dolls watching another doll on TV monitor with iconic head and body stuck with syringes. The result is hauntingly surreal and mesmeric.

The artist never ceases exploring what technology could offer in his art, be it installation or live art performance. He manipulates and exploits technological gadgets to send across his message that technology could either build or destroy. It sounds trite and banal but Ruiz, like a shaman, had masterfully delivered his ingenuity with a powerful specter of reality in our society.

In contrast to his abstract paintings, his installations and live art performances are more dynamic and visually compelling. His paintings, on the other hand, evoke the balance of forms and colors, a conscious portrayal of yīn and yang. The subdued primary colors and refined patterning textures on canvas reflect the artist’s archetypal persona.

Surprisingly, however, the artist’s installation and performance art reveal the repressed side of his personality. His installation, for instance, discloses his inner self dashed with satirical sentiment and existential angst. The unrestrained histrionic portrayal of his three-dimensional pieces serves as a liberating device of his inner struggle as an artist of incalculable vision and eloquence.

To sum, the art of Ronaldo Ruiz invites the viewers to immerse into his own world of harmony and disorder. At times, his art can be visually appealing, evoking serenity within, but most often, his art perturbs and provokes bringing the viewers to their own reality, a reality numbed with complacency and cynicism.

WAWI NAVARROZA, AS I REMEMBER HER, THEN & NOW

2006-08-26T13:56:00.002+08:00

WAWI NAVARROZA - musician, poet, performance artist, writer and a photographer has blossomed to a full-grown artist in her pursuit for highly sensitive aesthetics.

Three years ago I met this lovely petite girl at the opening of my exhibit titled “Surreality” in White Plains, then haven of the revived Philippine Art Gallery, one of the oldest galleries in the Philippines. She was vivacious with a goddess-like face teeming with life and passion. I didn’t know then what this lovely girl’s artistic life awaits her in the future.

In 2005, our path crossed again when I invited her to read my poems at the opening of my show titled “The Collection” at The Podium, Mandaluyong City. And it was also the time when I recommended her to the PIPAF Director Yuan Mor’O Ocampo for the 4th Philippine International Performance Arts Festival that was held in September 0f 2005.

At that time, I didn’t know that Wawi is the vocalist of a rock band named “The Late Isabel” and I didn’t know either that she is already a professional photographer, who had been winning awards from photography, one of which, from the prestigious AAP competitions. Wawi is still the same girl that I met two years earlier except that her new look resembles to one of the personas portrayed by Winona Ryder in the movie.

At the opening of my show at The Podium, Wawi performed my poems with a powerful imagery of a motherland, clad in semi-Filipiniana attire with the Red Cross symbol printed on her chest and a wreath of thorns around her head. She followed the red tape trail on the floor that was created by Moro Ocampo’s live art performance earlier in the event, as a segue to her own interpretation of my poems. The thrilling response of the audience was overwhelming.

During the 4th Philippine International Performance Arts Festival that year, Wawi surprised me again with her riveting performance at the Dance Forum titled “Truth is Many and Lies in Between”. She danced like a gypsy wearing her uniquely designed attire with empty cans attached around her dress and between her head. Here, Wawi portrayed the plight of human relationship between sanity and insanity, reality and illusion, truth and lies. Her inner soul flowed like the gypsy’s ritual song resonating with her body movements - bizarre but mystical.

In her “Labyrinth” at Rajah Soliman, a durational performance of the same festival, Wawi once again enthralled the audience with her mesmerizing feat. She was wearing beige attire with hood; her face was covered with black veil while she was pulling the cart filled with household objects. One remarkable object on the cart was a lamp as though it was guiding her through a long, winding journey into a dimensional world.

With her natural sense of theatrical characterization and sensitive use of framing devices in her live art performance, Wawi emerged like a powerful “babailan” or shaman, provoking and engaging the ‘sore spots’ of her audience. Her haunting portrayal of symolic elements is reflective of her passion as a photographer, capturing not only the visual images of her performance but stories of her subjects in detail.

Today, I see Wawi as a delicate legendary flower in my land in Davao called “Itum na Buwac” or the “black orchid”; her smell spread out throughout the mountains and rivers, reaching out and healing the lonely souls through her aesthetic creation.

© Danny C. Sillada

photos (from top to bottom): (1) wawi's poetry performance at my 7th one-man show at the podium, 2005; (2) Wawi & me at the opening of my 8th one-man show at art center, sm megamall, 2006; (3) wawi at dance forum, philippine international performance art festival, 2005; (4) wawi at rajah soliman, philippine international performance art festival, 2005; (5) wawi reading my poems at the opening of my 8th one-man show at art center, sm megamall, 2006.

Director Elwood Perez, Maui Taylor & Me in "Private Parts"

2005-11-16T15:01:00.001+08:00

Maui Taylor & Me
Filmmaker Elwood Perez, the most rumored movie actress Maui Taylor and Me in “Private Parts?

Well, not really but it was my controversial painting “Menstrual Period in Political History”, which will be used as part of the play at the Music Museum in Greenhills on November 30 – December 1, 2005.

I thought, after a brief hiatus from the controversy in Philippine art scene, one of the contentious pieces that I exhibited early this year will be laid to rest forever in anonymity. Until a week ago, my good friend, a legendary and multi-awarded movie director, Elwood Perez, called me on the phone that he is going to use the artwork as icon of private parts, literally and figuratively, in his theatrical show titled “Private Parts”.

Director Elwood Perez, Myself & Paula Brillson.
At first I was hesitant to say yes, but later I realized that it was him and another friend Paula Brillson, a lawyer and media consultant from New York, who fought and stood by me at the height of my controversial one-man show at The Podium last July 2005. For one thing, it was too offensive, according to the mall manager, to the sensitivity of the Filipinos because of the outright portrayal of vaginal form. Second, it was a provocative artwork criticizing the political leadership of a female President of the country.

Me & the former Pres. Corazon Aquino in 1996.
It was also during the time of my exhibition that the former female president, Madam Corazon C. Aquino, went out from the comfort of her shell and led a massive rally at the Ayala Avenue in Makati protesting the present Madam President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to resign from her post because of allegedly electoral fraud that won her presidency with its infamous nickname “Hello Garci”.

Because of the irrational uproar on the vaginal form and the political content of my artwork, the rally of Madam Cory and the “Hello Garci” hullabaloo, my two prospective collectors, a Belgian and a Filipino-Chinese who were vying to own the “Menstrual Period in Political History”, withdrew from the reservation list because they don’t want their names to be dragged into the controversy.

"The menstrual Period in Political History", mixed media on metamorphic rock (left), "The Cocoon of Life",oil on paper (center), and the "Poetry of Nails & Blood", acrylic and nails on metamorphic rock and board.

Ironically, these two female presidents (past and present) had, in one way or another, been connected to my art. Madam Cory Aquino had been a guest of honor in a group show that I participated in 1996 at the Eugenio Lopez Museum while Madam Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo owned my painting titled “The Cocoon of Life”, a gift to her by my aunt, Congresswoman Corazon Nuñez-Malanyaon, during the president’s visit in my town two years ago.

Fashion Model Avi Siwa
Meanwhile, visiting the rehearsal of “Private Parts” at the Viva Productions studio was exciting because I met another legendary and veteran movie director Behn Cervantes and, of course, Maui Taylor, and other casts of the play.

Talking of Maui Taylor, she is a very lovely cuddly petite young woman whose angelic face could be mistaken as an innocent girl next door. She is not a prima donna type of actress but down to earth, soft spoken, intelligent with mesmerizing presence.

Actor-producer Allen Dizon
In the middle of our conversation about art and philosophy, which eventually led her plan to purchase one of my works the “Poetry of Nails and Blood” for her condominium unit, Maui asked me to join her lunch at 5 p.m. (?) while other casts were still rehearsing. She was so hungry that she finished two meal-packs of scrumptious spaghetti served by Dennis Evangelista, the manager of movie actor Allen Dizon.

The “Private Parts”, written by another friend screenplay writer Jigz Recto, is a satirical take on the politics in show business and the dying "sexy movie" industry in Philippine cinema. The play is produced by actor Allen Dizon and his manager Dennis Evangelista; music by Jobin Ballesteros and choreographed by Bong Embile.

Fashion model/movie actress Wilma Doesn't.
The casts are director Behn Cervantes, the controversial movie actress who had been linked to the presidential son, Maui Taylor, actor and producer of the show Allen Dizon, Wilma Doesn't, Myles Hernandez, Ynez Veneracion, Avi Siwa, Vangie Labalan and Margie Sofia Rei under the direction of Director Elwood Perez and assistant dierctor Armando Reyes.

The “Private Parts” will be shown on November 30 – December 1, 2005 at the Music Museum in Greenhills, Quezon City.

A NIGHT OF LIVE ART AT PENGUIN CAFÉ WITH CHUMPON APISUK by Danny C. Sillada

2005-10-18T21:38:00.001+08:00

The night had just started at 11 p.m. on the busy streets along the Remedios Circle in Malate. Metro hoppers – artists, poets, writers, corporate executives and young lovely women – flocked to one of the busiest bars on a Friday night in Manila.

One of those frequently visited bars by the artists is the Penguin Café – the haven of visual and performance artists, theater and dance artists, movie actors, poets and art enthusiasts. Chumpon Apisuk, founder of Asiatopia, an Asian Performance Art Festival in Bangkok, came and performed at the café with other Filipino performance artists headed by the founder and artistic director of PIPAF Yuan Mor’O Ocampo.

There were eight performance pieces that rapt the audience on the 14th of October 2005 – a one-night happening in honor of the legendary performance artist from Thailand – Chumpon Apisuk.

Performance Artists and their Live Art performances:

1. Ronaldo Ruiz “Revenge”
2. Yuan Mor’O Ocampo “Diaspora”
3. Danny C. Sillada “Sewing the Hole of Water”
4. Jethro Jocson “Drifting and Falling”
5. Mitch Garcia “Desserts/Stressed”
6. Lorina Javier “Submission to the Void”
7. Jeho Bitancor “Mirror Image”
8. Chumpon Apisuk “Five Actions of Body Performance”

RONALDO RUIZ's "Revenge"

2005-10-18T21:30:00.001+08:00

Ronaldo Ruiz

Ronaldo Ruiz’s opening performance titled “Revenge” reexamines his trademark of sound using small electronic gadgets such as microphone, speaker, camera, electronic alarm and recorded sounds of frog and cicadas. As he moves his hands from one gadget to another, he produces different sounds creating an ethereal and discordant noise, resonating with the recorded nocturnal sounds of the frog and cicadas at the background.

One riveting gesture is the swinging of a small microphone near the speaker, creating a rhythmic sound in a circular motion, as if time and space converge in a g-force to create the poetry of sound and movement. On the other hand, there seem to be an internal incubation of crossness that was released inside the artist’s chest in the process of swinging the microphone, more liberating than the title itself “Revenge”.

Ruiz’s penchant for electronic gadget explores the sound like a conductor of an orchestra with his own hands. But unlike an ensemble of musicians, Ruiz has the control of manipulating the sound to his own liking in a random and spontaneous manner. There is a certain degree of playfulness in the process of his performance and his imagery evokes wonder and curiosity of a child.

YUAN MOR'O OCAMPO's “Diaspora”

2005-10-18T21:23:00.001+08:00

Yuan Mor'O Ocampo

The second to perform was Yuan Mor’O Ocampo with his “Diaspora”. Here, Ocampo was tying the knots on the unused ribbons of medals, thus creating a long sequence of string with the color of the Philippine flag. He tied the other end of the string in one corner and the other end at the pillar located at the center of the bar. Then he asked the audience to tie the other ribbons on the string.

The dangling ribbons created an image of “banting”, which is typically used during the town fiesta celebration. Then, Ocampo began circling around the posts located at the center of the bar murmuring: “Life is hard, not here, not for me” until he completed wrapping the string around them.

Ocampo’s imagery of reality is powerful, addressesing the plight of 10 million overseas workers around the world and the knotted string dashed with ribbons symbolizes the convergence of overseas workers to make the Philippine economy afloat from the pit of perdition.

“Life is hard, not here, not for me” is like a Shaman's urgent call to reexamine our political and economic conditions; it is also a call for the overseas workers to bring back their broken dreams into their own homeland.