tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87173182024-03-08T06:29:13.946+08:00CuadroFilipinoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-74393611636373890952014-06-21T10:54:00.002+08:002014-08-25T11:08:22.598+08:00Francisco Pellicer Viri and His Metaphors of Unbroken Lines<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Francisco
Pellicer Viri with his </span></i><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14.720000267028809px;"><i>paintings</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></b></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">“Longing is the
agony of the nearness of the distant."</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">~ Martin Heidegger (German philosopher, 1889–1976)</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">IN HIS SHOW</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">titled “<b>One Liners</b>” at The Crucible Gallery in SM Megamall
last March 18, 2014, Francisco Pellicer Viri draws both childlike and
complicated lines in his paintings. With his developed principle of “one-liner”
or unbroken line figure, he consistently treads on the pendulous themes between
existential freedom and solitude, innocence and inanity, coherence and
absurdity. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The line is not just a simple
line that Viri might have started as a child then continued during his formal
studies (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Rhode Island School of Design, a prestigious
school in fine arts and design in USA. His line is a streak of continuous line,
which starts from a certain point then goes back to the same point after
forming a seamless figure, thus mimicking the unbroken perimeter of a circle
with no beginning or ending.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">“The line,” says Viri “is the
basic element that forms the figures in my works. Each composition is
structured by only one line. The line is the heart of the drawing. The line is
the soul of my paintings.”</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">In this vein, Viri proposes
an eccentric artistic style that embodies the principle of continuity. Behind
the opulent forms and colors of his art, lies the symbolic representation of a
solitary figure, drawn or painted in a circuitous unbroken line. What is
profoundly tangible in his art is the poetic rendition of solitude and, to a
certain extent, his proclivity to existential soloism. However, even in
his elegiac portrayal of solitariness, Viri’s sensibility and humor emerge in
some of his compositions. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In “The Linear Passion,” for instance,
Viri depicts a nude woman with left arm holding a scarf-like element flinging
into the air. With both arms raised at shoulder level, the woman is traipsing
in a leisurely manner as if tramping on a catwalk. Despite the semi-abstract
rendition, the artist’s sensibility is deftly reflected on the free-flowing
line of feminine figure: laid-back, graceful, and elegant.</span><span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">THE LINEAR PASSION, acrylic on canvas</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> </span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">In another painting titled “The Educated
Sadness,” Viri depicts a lonely man donning dark eyeglasses. The color of the
canvas is golden ochre with concentric lighter hue against the figure’s head
while its body, in blue and green colors, interspersing from lighter to darker
tones. The human figure is half-drawn, thus exposing the two lateral
unconnected lines down the horizontal edge of the canvas. The disrupted single
line, whether consciously or unconsciously intended by the artist, expresses
the desolate presence of a disjointed figure, literally and figuratively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">In “The Daydream,” similar to the golden
ochre background of “The Educated Sadness,” albeit lighter and inchoately
textured, Viri portrays the same solitary figure, but this time with a convoluted
single line. The picture describes a man sitting with his right elbow resting
on the table while the palm of the hand supporting his slightly bent face.
Above him are colored shapes that resemble the twigs and leaves of a tree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">Apparently, the male figure is drifting
in meditative mood, reminiscent of Rodin’s bronze sculpture “Le Penseur” (The
Thinker) or better yet, Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche’s main character in
his philosophical novel “Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen” (Thus Spake
Zarathustra).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">Other paintings—like The Enlightenment,
The Fantasy of the Magical Spirit, The Imagination, The Light of the Poetic
Cry, and Linear Head, to name a few—are all but existential evocations of human
condition, tiptoeing between joy and solitude, loss and acceptance, separation
and reconciliation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">Ubiquitous and recursive, the theme of
Viri’s art depicts the visceral state of patrician solitude. Every figure on canvas exemplifies either an
alienated or a self-contained man or woman floundering in solitary activity. By
merely looking at Viri’s figure, one can immediately feel that sense of
vertiginous aloofness, which seems detached from the world akin to Albert
Camus’ Meursault, the main character of his novel L’Étranger, or that sense of
being resolved with the self at the end of a lonely journey of Nietzsche's main
character in “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJj37JRNNtGm2oDgjtWsKxSndu4Qdv9ckBu1972gcdwK2LYH7gyJjNH3VTGx_9Oe8w6LcpXon0fENTwsPZbdQnTjMOAZGS_8sDVRfDnktXfQ7p1qycIsDYA8AdP7ptgO4eFCQ/s1600/THE+IMAGINATION,+acrylic+on+canvas+by+Francisco+Pellicer+Viri+(photo+courtesy+of+The+Crucible+Gallery).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJj37JRNNtGm2oDgjtWsKxSndu4Qdv9ckBu1972gcdwK2LYH7gyJjNH3VTGx_9Oe8w6LcpXon0fENTwsPZbdQnTjMOAZGS_8sDVRfDnktXfQ7p1qycIsDYA8AdP7ptgO4eFCQ/s1600/THE+IMAGINATION,+acrylic+on+canvas+by+Francisco+Pellicer+Viri+(photo+courtesy+of+The+Crucible+Gallery).JPG" height="305" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">THE IMAGINATION, acrylic on canvas</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">Indeed, Viri’s solitary human figure
personifies Zarathustra and his cyclical quest for life and meaning. It
implicitly signifies the frightening human struggle in the process of evolving
and becoming. The becoming characterizes the growing tensions between the
terminus a quo and terminus ad quem until the two points converge and become
one, as in Viri’s one-liner figure. Once life has found its purpose and meaning,
the beginning and ending are no longer reckonable, as they become one harmonic
line of a fully lived and understood existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">At hindsight, every artist undergoes the
same dialectical process in the quest for the self and aesthetic meaning. As Viri evolves beyond the empirical
compulsion of art making, dramatic changes gradually occur on the themes and
colors of his works. His recent paintings are teeming with pulsating colors
contrary to his earlier works that were bleak and discreet. The feisty colors
compensate his inherently solitary figure on canvas, a transcendent
transformation from previously drab and muted world to a deeply felt existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">A closer look at Viri’s oeuvre, the
symbiotic relationship between him and his art dissolves the barrier of his
private life (as an enigmatic person) and the solitary imagery of his painting.
His deepening awareness of life nurtures his art, while the latter mollifies
his seemingly nihilistic perception of the world through the coherent
intimation of his forms and colors. Although, his subject is innately
self-contained within the confinement of his canvases, that simple or
circuitous unbroken line from which his figure is made of—a one complete
harmonic line—unifies his vision and his being as an artist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">“Thus spoke Zarathustra and left his
cave, glowing and strong, like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains,”
wrote Nietzsche at the end of his novel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 150%;">Hence, the transformative process of
Viri’s art is akin to the awakening of Zarathustra who transcends from the
misery of his world by coming to terms with his homesick self, as a
convalescing man who finally comes home and makes peace with himself and the
world.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">THE EDUCATED SADNESS, acrylic on canvas by Francisco Pellicer Viri (photo courtesy of The Crucible Gallery)</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>(For inquiry of Francisco Pellicer Viri’s
works, The Crucible Gallery can be contacted at tel. no. 635-6061 or emailed at
charrie14@yahoo.com.) </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">©
Danny Castillones Sillada</span><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-87912440160254978212013-03-11T01:42:00.000+08:002013-03-13T03:05:46.594+08:00The Song of Water Hyacinths along Belligerent Rivers: Lila Ramos Shahani’s ‘Boses Ng Pagbabago’<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDTD8W8PhwBWDc3sypifKDOGKusBVZOJXTdENP1rbw3U5BuULxy4kxPceyFY6Lis-5iB9FpycoN4zHQgnKMklLOHXfAe3gCObFSc4y5f7np5mWIZbxnbM2tguH8f9Bg8Fp4hF/s1600/1.+Book+Cover-+Boses+Ng+Pagbabago.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDTD8W8PhwBWDc3sypifKDOGKusBVZOJXTdENP1rbw3U5BuULxy4kxPceyFY6Lis-5iB9FpycoN4zHQgnKMklLOHXfAe3gCObFSc4y5f7np5mWIZbxnbM2tguH8f9Bg8Fp4hF/s400/1.+Book+Cover-+Boses+Ng+Pagbabago.jpg" width="302" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Book Cover: Boses Ng Pagbabago (Voices of Change)</span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Have
compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some
suffer too much, others too little.”</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~ Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Imagine
an affluent little girl who brought home an emaciated and abandoned kitten in
the neighborhood, painstakingly fed and cosseted the poor creature until it
restored its health and felt at home in her delicate arms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now,
imagine that diminutive gesture of kindness as the genesis of human compassion.
As that affluent little girl grows older, that tiny seed of compassion grows
deeper. And by the time she turns and matures into a woman, that compassion, particularly
for the less fortunate, consumes her soul and being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
her <b><i>Boses
Ng Pagbabago</i></b> (Voices of Change), a recently launched book at the Department
of Education in Pasig last February 26, 2013, HDPRC Assistant Secretary &
Head of Communications Ms. Lila Ramos Shahani passionately voices out the
unspoken struggles and victories of the 18 poor Filipinos from the different
strata of our society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
launch was attended by former President Fidel V. Ramos; Sec Armin Luistro and
the Executive Committee of the Department of Education; former Senator Leticia
R. Shahani; Mahar Mangahas of SWS; writer and columnist Krip Yuson; writer and
head of the Siliman Writer's Workshop Susan Lara; Dr. Isagani Cruz of La Salle;
Dr. Rebecca Añonuevo of Miriam College; artists Mac MacCarty and this writer;
contributing photographers Christian Malubag, Bing Roxas and Jordee Queddeng;
Rochit Tañedo; Anita Celdran; and other members of government agencies (DSWD,
DILG, PCW) and civil society.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjomu6YUeMmIul-xSiRvVORjovgnaGMrVo3f8OATLBqPQ8fnTDRd1NW0_s-OjoaVxWhSCOLkFx14Khc9ILLzi8SP0WVyLJ3f2Hv_glGNpr11kiDBRwLaGCCvE31BVrYJ7vD0QSI/s1600/2.+Lila+Shahani,+former+President+Fidel+V.+Ramos,+DSWD+Secretary+Dinky+Soliman,+former+Senator+Leticia+Ramos-Shahani,+and++DepEd+Secretary+Bro.+Armin+Luistro.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjomu6YUeMmIul-xSiRvVORjovgnaGMrVo3f8OATLBqPQ8fnTDRd1NW0_s-OjoaVxWhSCOLkFx14Khc9ILLzi8SP0WVyLJ3f2Hv_glGNpr11kiDBRwLaGCCvE31BVrYJ7vD0QSI/s400/2.+Lila+Shahani,+former+President+Fidel+V.+Ramos,+DSWD+Secretary+Dinky+Soliman,+former+Senator+Leticia+Ramos-Shahani,+and++DepEd+Secretary+Bro.+Armin+Luistro.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Lila Shahani, former President Fidel V. Ramos, DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, and DepEd Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> Elegantly
designed by Felix Mago Miguel with arresting full-colored images by Neal Oshima
and other Filipino photographers, the book is a project of the Human
Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet (HDPRC) Cluster, which covers 26
government agencies dealing with poverty and development. The Cluster is headed
by Secretary Dinky Soliman of DSWD, who also gave welcoming remarks after Asec
Lila Ramos Shahani, head of communications of HDPRC and the book's
editor-in-chief.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
18 brief stories of the poor, as portrayed in the <i>Boses Ng Pagbabago</i>, are success stories of sacrifice and struggle,
of finding opportunities provided by the different government agencies and
NGOs, of achieving dreams and aspirations through perseverance and hard work,
thus making them self-sufficient and productive in their respective
communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although,
the stories were written in formulaic form, i.e., ‘From penury to self-reliant
and productive citizen’ plot, juxtaposed with scholarly analysis, data, and
information on the government’s anti-poverty programs and policies, the book
provides a glimpse of hope and assurance that the perennial problem of poverty in
the country is conquerable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
poignant story of a 56 years old blind printer, for instance, named Rebecca
Arabain; her poor condition and visual impairment did not prevent her vision from
achieving her dreams for a better life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For
30 years, as a supervisor of the Philippine Printing House for the Blind, she
passionately devoted her life preparing, reading, editing, and printing the
braille for the visually impaired students in the Philippine public schools. Consequently,
she was able to open the eyes of her fellow blind Filipinos to see the color of
hope amid their murky condition, literally and figuratively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“What
is particularly meaningful about this book is that it seeks to capture and
present the voices of the poor themselves,” Ms. Shahani cogently said in her
opening remarks at the book launch. “It tells stories of deprivation and
destitution, and of efforts to overcome conditions that are nothing short of
inspirational. In this way, it attempts to humanize those who have
traditionally been consigned to the margins, having been rendered almost
invisible.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
another story, it tells how a group of Liguasan women exploits the surplus of
nature, turning the ‘explosion’ of water hyacinths at the war-torn regions of
Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat into a productive source of
livelihood. After gathering and pulling the stalks of the plant, they dry and weave
them into bags and baskets for both local and foreign market. From there, the
poor women’s elusive dreams blossom like the teeming water hyacinths along the
rivers of their belligerent land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Aside
from the variegated success stories of the poor, the book discusses the
historical aspect of poverty in the country, the government’s anti-poverty
policies, and the poverty alleviation program under the Aquino administration.
Equally compelling is the thorough analysis about the Philippine economy and
its growth, and how the 2.3 million Filipinos fared in their destitute
condition, as a tortuous scuffle to be constantly fought in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Arguably,
Ms. Shahani saw the paradoxical discrepancy of ‘economic growth’ in the country.
For example, the reported 4.8 economic growth between 2003 and 2009 should have
reduced the number of 19.8 million poor Filipinos; it catapulted, instead, to
23.1 million. “In short,” she says in the book, “economic growth did not
benefit the poor as much as it benefitted corporations and families who were
better-off.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“In
fact,” says Ms. Shahani bluntly, “economic growth heightened the disparity between
rich and poor, across regions.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But
who is Lila Ramos Shahani, and why she gets entangled with the problems of poverty
and human trafficking in the country? Instead of occupying a lucrative position
in New York where she obtained her academics and clouts, what prompted her to
come back: A nostalgic memory of home or a haunting emaciated call from the squalid
alleyways of our society?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZ1Ou7dcai0PB2YrTOGF6Qc-pGBxwskmRxAUn9epkvjeLnwkBKzuIv964pxP2d2zHdsjaCHR5Y0CRZ62tSdRc_aKUWdSEJneedc-vMhnIaVHTqMOz6JWHhJbLHgWMV1FS75mY/s1600/4.+Lila+Shahani+with+her+mother,+former+Senator+Leticia+Ramos-Shahani.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZ1Ou7dcai0PB2YrTOGF6Qc-pGBxwskmRxAUn9epkvjeLnwkBKzuIv964pxP2d2zHdsjaCHR5Y0CRZ62tSdRc_aKUWdSEJneedc-vMhnIaVHTqMOz6JWHhJbLHgWMV1FS75mY/s320/4.+Lila+Shahani+with+her+mother,+former+Senator+Leticia+Ramos-Shahani.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Lila Shahani with her mother, former Senator Leticia R. Shahani</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Lila
Shahani is an academic born into political aristocracy,” to borrow the words of
John M. Glionna of <i>Los Angeles Times</i>,
“who lived abroad for most of her life, until a natural disaster brought her
back to the Philippines.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Indeed,
it was that disaster, Typhoon Ondoy, which impelled Ms. Shahani to write a
moving letter, as accidental blogger, to her uncle the former President Fidel
V. Ramos, expressing her disenchantment how the government poorly managed the
crisis during and after the deadly Typhoon in 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Our
government,” she wrote, “was as much to blame for the colossal loss of life and
habitation in the country as was climate change.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She
might have had earned the ire of her uncle and some cousins during that time, but
her ardent supporters began to pour in on social networks. One reader, for example,
commented: “This is one Filipina worthy of emulation. She speaks and writes the
truth. The Philippines needs more people like her—women with balls!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perchance,
Ms. Shahani is one of the most powerful female voices in the Philippines today,
a controversial figure with acerbic but honest opinion as a social critic.
Aside from advocating the rights of the victims of human trafficking and
prostitution, she also defends some government policies and programs that are trenchantly
criticized by both Filipino and foreign bloggers, political critics, activists,
and intellectuals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She
sees the intrinsic benefits of government programs for the Filipinos,
particularly the poor, they just needed time to take effect and yield results. But
she is also critical how the government system works, laden with unnecessary protocols
and bureaucracies. However, instead of being querulous over a failed system,
she goes out her way, and even spends her own personal resources to offer the
quality of service that she wanted for her fellow Filipinos. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I
am more of an artist that passionately pours her soul into her work,” she
self-effacingly said to this writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
the middle of asking her questions, after the book launch right outside the
entrance of DepEd Pasig, it was halted for a while when she thoughtfully asked
her staff, helper, and driver if they had already eaten, if they needed money,
or if they were fine. She talked to them with delicate voice and alacritous
smile as if she was talking to a dear friend or a family member. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Such
sensitive and solicitous gesture reflects the humanity of Ms. Shahani as a
public servant. A degree of incredulity and skepticism that burrowed in the
mind of this writer, about the government officials in Metro Manila, was partly
transformed with awe and respect, after witnessing her caring nature for the
majority unnoticed government workers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She
may look like a Bollywood actor or intellectual elite with endearing presence,
or she may be perceived as the privileged daughter and niece of the prominent
politicians in the country. Yet, in her own right, she is just that ‘affluent
little girl’ who has a big heart for the downtrodden and the voiceless in our
society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although,
there may be other government officials like her, the Filipinos, especially the
poor, abused and violated women, need a younger blood with unwavering passion
that they can identify with—intelligent, intrepid, honest, and compassionate—a
woman with independent voice and principle to represent their hopes and dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To
sum, the <i>Boses Ng Pagbabago</i> does not
only tell the plight and the success stories of some extremely poor Filipinos,
it also provides a map in a wider perspective, with critical analysis and
evaluation, how to combat the daunting problem of poverty in our midst.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Given
the right opportunity, the ‘fortunate poor’ can also help their fellow poor
Filipinos (2.3 million) in the form of ‘subsidiary empowerment,’ ‘dialogic
immersion,’ and ‘equal dissemination’ of opportunities and livelihood resources.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hence,
if the poor Filipinos have that ‘political voice’ and ‘second chance’ to live
their dreams and aspirations in life, as what the <i>Boses Ng Pagbabago</i> implicitly suggested, they can become an
effective ‘agent’ of socio-economic reform in diminishing poverty in the
country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As
the old adage says, “Only the poor understands the poor!”</span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd2L8IezlxEpB_dVjYIip6JLebDocY8kn-1tvSgVaFtcgr9DcvUKS2S6dEGbXZegZmzrTjqZ_DOw2ZAz_sh248h77gaH2RdHRgb3-xQEBymbwFe4n6SZUgOEQnsKMVe9MKlP7/s1600/5.+Exhibited+photos+at+DepEd+Pasig+during+the+book+launch+of+Boses+Ng+Pagbabago.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd2L8IezlxEpB_dVjYIip6JLebDocY8kn-1tvSgVaFtcgr9DcvUKS2S6dEGbXZegZmzrTjqZ_DOw2ZAz_sh248h77gaH2RdHRgb3-xQEBymbwFe4n6SZUgOEQnsKMVe9MKlP7/s400/5.+Exhibited+photos+at+DepEd+Pasig+during+the+book+launch+of+Boses+Ng+Pagbabago.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Exhibited photos at DepEd Pasig during the book launch of Boses Ng Pagbabago</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-49725750768028405232012-04-28T12:18:00.004+08:002013-02-16T01:40:42.834+08:00Noli Aurillo, The Portrait Of A Musician's Musician<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5Y2G-_-p4jHGzDFfCLwZd3yALD1-FNNbGOYRKK4QHezwI9aqOsr-O_k4bZXIyYhbD4WiCC42_U5KePQU7q8E8Au3ZWLvgYgbMIBuQYTSc8UV3toalmjr8a2UrCxTmou-UYnG/s1600/3.+Noli+Aurillo%252C+photo+by+Catrina+Lee+Gothong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5Y2G-_-p4jHGzDFfCLwZd3yALD1-FNNbGOYRKK4QHezwI9aqOsr-O_k4bZXIyYhbD4WiCC42_U5KePQU7q8E8Au3ZWLvgYgbMIBuQYTSc8UV3toalmjr8a2UrCxTmou-UYnG/s320/3.+Noli+Aurillo%252C+photo+by+Catrina+Lee+Gothong.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos by Catrina Lee Gothong</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/353257/noli-aurillo-the-portrait-of-a-musicians-musician" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Manila Bulletin</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, Lifestyle: Arts & Culture, March
5, 2012</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">“A musician, if he’s a messenger, is
like a child who hasn’t been handled too many times by man, hasn’t had too many
fingerprints across his brain.”</span> </span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">~ Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">THE GENTLE WEEPING
of his acoustic guitar is like a spider’s web that gradually and steadily loops
and coils around his audience until they become an acquiescent victim of its
transcendent melody, as if every rhythmic line or phrase that his guitar evokes
is an encounter in eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> “If there are
mad scientists in the world,” wrote the late Filipino rock goddess Anabel Bosch
(vocalist of Analog and Elektrikoolaid) in her 2007 Multiply blog, “this man is
definitely the mad guitarist. He had his dark cherry Takamine and played it as
if it was a cross between an electric guitar, a violin and a cello (without the
bows). His fingers flew across the fret-board and this guy never uses a
pick. It’s insane to watch and it’ll definitely blow you away.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Former Lifestyle
editor of The Manila Times Rome Jorge said in his 2008 column, “He is the
greatest Pinoy rock guitarist you might never had heard of. He is one of the
señors of rock and deserves as much recognition from audiences as Wally
Gonzalez of the Juan dela Cruz band and Jun Lupito.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> A fan named
Carrie wrote in her 2007 Friendster blog: “He could be classified as a jazz
guitarist but, perhaps, a little too eccentric for the conventional audience.
But, I swear, his performance of “Blackbird” on his guitar, which lay on his
lap where he plucked out notes as a pianist, made my jaw drop and moved me to
tears.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But who is this
man, and why has he touched many generations (both young and old) with the
riveting sound of his music?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Musical Style,
Technique and Modality</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Noli Aurillo’s
proclivity for guitar started as early as he could skulk his fingers across the
fret-board. As a young boy from Tacloban, his parents discouraged him from
becoming a musician because they thought there was no money in music. However,
he was stubborn; instead, he persistently pursued his passion for music despite
his parents’ disapproval. He would later recall how his big brother would
painstakingly teach him how to play guitar chords and melodies. Since then, at
the age of seven, he started playing acoustic guitar with moderate fluency. But
he never had his own guitar until he worked in Malaysia as a musician at the
age of 26.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">His musical
knowledge and ability are raw and eccentric, uncompromised by the conventional
rules of music, as confined in the academe. His instinctive and intuitive
ability to create emanates from the necessity to express the creative outburst
of his soul. Like running water, it has to find its course on a long and
winding channel, and by doing so, it creates seemingly unending rhythms and
harmony along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The fluidity of his
music can be both poignant and impetuous, arising from within, that is, from
the convulsion of his mind and feelings. His stylistic acoustic chill and
improvisation characterize a diverse and unrestrained chord and string pitch
manipulation. Most often, it has no climactic end, but a progression of another
transitory phrase in between, generating a dramatic shift of ambient mood with
varied tonal forms and textures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For instance, in
his 2009 adaptation of Michael Jackson’s hit songs titled “Michael Jackson
Medley Solo Guitar by Noli Aurillo,” he embellishes the rhythms with
contrapuntal texture of dense and supple values without losing the melodic structure
of the original. Sleek and bubbly, he creates an expressionistic stratum of
mood and rhythm unique to his own style and technique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Conversely, to
describe Noli Aurillo’s musical prowess based on recorded medium is an
understatement, because the real essence of his music is both experiential and
metaphysical. Only those who witnessed him perform live could describe how they
are being touched and transformed by the phenomenological presence of his
music.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“He played with
such almost-painful-passion, as if he put his entire soul into bringing out his
music, plucking strings with harmonics and syncopations. His moments of
genius came when he and his guitar seemed one, and his hand seemed to have a
life of its own!” Thus, continued Carrie in her 2007 Friendster blog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The power of Noli
Aurillo’s music can be best relished and appreciated during his live
performances. He simply shines on stage with ineffable brilliance in front of
live audiences. His power is his passion to create, and his creation is his
power to mesmerize and bring his audience to the magical encounter of his
beautiful mind and soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdqWjljUp6WOuskMMnfK3mR4zhr7yoJuKAcj78P4V5ulzGzcvNW4ATkLu4Ss27-Ha85miegIjWuoZbWYUo-Rk8IIEVEv4_la4N_QsWQn6YBnLlkuBdeEo-YD5hwSyg5-n1J3EU/s1600/2.+Portrait+of+a+Musician+(Noli+Aurillo),+photo+by+Catrina+Lee+Gothong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdqWjljUp6WOuskMMnfK3mR4zhr7yoJuKAcj78P4V5ulzGzcvNW4ATkLu4Ss27-Ha85miegIjWuoZbWYUo-Rk8IIEVEv4_la4N_QsWQn6YBnLlkuBdeEo-YD5hwSyg5-n1J3EU/s400/2.+Portrait+of+a+Musician+(Noli+Aurillo),+photo+by+Catrina+Lee+Gothong.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Photos by Catrina Lee Gothong
</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>All Roads Lead
Home</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perchance, one of
his magnificent opuses is an autobiographical composition titled “All Roads
Lead Home.” It is an amalgam of classical and jazz instrumental music.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here, Noli Aurillo
conjures up a nostalgic journey of home and all the memories that surround it.
The melancholic sound of acoustic guitar, in the beginning, slowly ascends like
a full moon rising from the Eastern horizon and then, it gently perches on the
surface of a serene lake. The smooth transition from somber tempo toward a
jazzy beats in the middle creates a contrasting texture of mood and feeling,
tepid and feisty, as though he was toying the gradual build up of his
listeners’ emotion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is something
in the song, deeper than its temporal representation, that whoever listens to
its melody can dredge up his or her sentimental past. In fact, around the time
when the song came out, a man who had just lost his wife named Mariel had found
temporary refuge in the music. “All Roads Lead Home,” he wrote on his
YouTube post, “is a fine example of Noli Aurillo’s musical genius and deep
humanity… The beautiful tune has given me something to be hopeful about.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The melodramatic
structure of the composition mimics one of Aristotelian’s principles in
Poetics. There is a gradual ascent of tension in the beginning, conflict in the
middle, and resolution in the end. Imagine listening to Beethoven’s Sonata
No.14 or Bach’s Partita No.6 or Enio Morricone’s musical score “Once Upon a
Time in America.” The musical quality of “All Roads Lead Home” is parallel to
the texture and substance of these seemingly immortal symphonies, albeit Noli
Aurillo’s oeuvre is told from the perspective of his own time and circumstance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The emotive flow of
the song can be strongly felt through the multifaceted layer of tonal values
that it induces in the human emotion. This is also evident in other tracks of
his 2006 album “Noli Aurilio’s Meanderings: The Prelude.” The songs “Rebirth,”
“Your Friend” and “Ripple” have similar melodic theme and tonal values with
“All Roads Lead Home” sans jazz rhythms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Music is not just
playing notes in melody; it is about translating emotions through notes, rhythms
and harmony. The reason why music appeals to the human emotion rather than
cognitive, because it is located within the limbic system of the human brain
where the neural activities of art and emotions are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dulz Cuna, a
professor of Humanities in UP Visayas Tacloban, aptly describes Aurillo’s music
as “going into another dimension where abstraction, development, evolution and
transcendence occur in a time capsule. I soak my soul in my own meanderings
into Noli’s world and open up to a panorama of feelings and impulses that only
Noli could ambient like magic.” (Introductory note to Aurillo’s 2006 album
“MEANDERINGS: The Prelude”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Music, therefore,
is all about passion and emotion, elevating the human soul toward the
metaphysical and mystical encounter of the Truth. The phenomenological
experience of music can unite one’s being with other beings or the universe,
for that matter, in peace and harmony. Passion and human emotion are salient
elements that shape and give birth to the soul of any form of aesthetics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Highlights of
Noli Aurillo’s Career as Acoustic Guitarist and Musician</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In a 1988 American
movie titled “Saigon Commandos” directed by Clark Henderson, Noli Aurillo
arranged the musical scoring with Samuel Asuncion. More than a decade later, he
won the 2002 Awit Awards as best arranger with his rendition of “Dalawang
Decada Ng Asin (Overture)” under Vicor Records.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">During the 2nd
International Silent Film Festival in 2008 held at the Shangri-la mall in
Mandaluyong City, Noli Aurillo played live music with Talan, Wendel Garcia and
Kakoy Legazpi to a German film “The Oyster Princess.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 2006, Noli
Aurillo launched his first album titled “Noli Aurilio’s Meanderings: The
Prelude.” It was held during this writer’s one-man show at The Podium in Mandaluyong
City on September 19, 2006. In the same year, he arranged one of the songs in
Mishka Adams’ “God Bless the Child” and in Myra David Ruaro’s “Skarlet:
The Powder Room Stories,” both are jazz albums by two of the best female
Filipino artists in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The following year,
the remaining pieces of his album were sold out at KC Concepcion’s 2007 Artist
Fair Filipinas in Eastwood City from which Noli Aurillo was also one of the
performers. Among those who bought the album were Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, Sen.
Alan Peter Cayetano and KC Concepcion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In early 2008, Noli
Aurillo was included in an album “MGA Gitarista,” a collection of instrumental
tracks by leading Filipino rock guitarists in the country, featuring Jun
Lopito, RJ Jacinto, Francis Reyes of The Dawn, Mike Elgar of Rivermaya, Mong
Alcaraz of Sandwich and Chicosci, Hale’s Roll Martinez, Rocksteddy’s Juven
Pelingon, Slapshocks’ Lean Ansing , Pupil’s Yan Yuzon, Jeff de Castro of
Kitchie Nadal, Ian Umali of POT, Jack Rufo of Neocolors and Barbie Almalbis.
The album is a compendium of musical styles and genres from blues-rock to heavy
metal, from jazz improvisation to classic “Pinoy rock.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Currently, Noli
Aurillo has three regular gigs at Skarlet Jazz Kitchen in Timog, Quzon City, Tago
Jazz Bar in Quezon City, and Bar@1951 in Adriatico, Manila.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">To sum, as a
naturally gifted guitarist and musician, Noli Aurillo is both an impressionist
and expressionist artist. The eccentricity of his musical genius subverts all
genres. He is “All-in-One,” in a manner of speaking, a musician’s musician. He
can play from rock to blues, from jazz to classical, from folk to pop music. He
is simply an unparalleled legendary Filipino guitarist, a man whose propensity
for music surpasses his own prodigious brilliance, as if no one could beat Noli
Aurillo except Noli Aurillo himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a person, he is
a paradox of contradiction, living both a bohemian and a pragmatic lifestyle.
He seizes the moment with such passion and, at the same time, reflects upon it
as a lived and created moment. He can be shallow in one instance and profound
in another; he can be gentle or jarring, extremely emotional or highly
cerebral. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the end of Noli
Aurillo’s music, as it always does, ‘all roads lead home’ to all of those who
listen to the magical sound of his melody, literally and figuratively!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-75452828402627795272011-12-22T14:23:00.000+08:002013-03-13T02:42:28.058+08:00Daughters of Eve and its Aesthetic Incongruity in Philippine Cinema<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8-1z7e7LsrjFxaLvTcFpjxQxkJTuB_IG0JORstwRn6osi-LXz6aR70_R6-CFQCu96LtRYp1x5h6g9t5WnwsS7Prv_OyQLQXpxbwA0pHdDRJYpVmWKbsej7cr1IutOCfBTScx/s1600/Ma.+Isabel+Lopez+and+Sarsi+Emmanuel+%2528DVD+cover%252C+Mondo+Macabro%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8-1z7e7LsrjFxaLvTcFpjxQxkJTuB_IG0JORstwRn6osi-LXz6aR70_R6-CFQCu96LtRYp1x5h6g9t5WnwsS7Prv_OyQLQXpxbwA0pHdDRJYpVmWKbsej7cr1IutOCfBTScx/s400/Ma.+Isabel+Lopez+and+Sarsi+Emmanuel+%2528DVD+cover%252C+Mondo+Macabro%2529.JPG" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2007 DVD cover of Silip by Mondo Macabro</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Published in Manila Bulletin (Art and Culture), June 9,
2008</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b style="color: #b45f06;">“Deep in my heart
I'm concealing things that I'm longing to say. Scared to confess what I'm
feeling - frightened you'll slip away.”</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>~</b> From the movie Evita</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><b>MAN
IS INTRINSICALLY</b> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">In
a post post-modern world of consumerism, technology and mass culture, invented
realities can be either cheap or expensive, depending in one’s capability to
purchase or acquire them. The promise of youth and beauty, the promise
of instant fame and wealth, and the promise for a just society by religious,
political and rebel leaders is noting but a commercialized and politicized "hope" to mollify man's repulsive condition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 dreadful and humiliating. But, occasionally, man must
come to terms and embrace the frightening realities of his existence as
precondition of his freedom to live.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #783f04;">THE AESTHETIC SIMULATION
OF REALITY IN FILMS</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3h19Wpp3DVoTt4I6BInYBnI9hEG_QTMgNKFdUYj6ZABH4v6VjLmKFM4Ff_oyoOUyLX4j482-NFCa-uVoTr72saMMXsPZp4o2XSDpzyBNYROqR0Mhr0oJg_GkfY60hNULscWs/s1600/Director+Elwood+Perez+received+the+FAMAS+Award+for+Best+Director+in+1989.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3h19Wpp3DVoTt4I6BInYBnI9hEG_QTMgNKFdUYj6ZABH4v6VjLmKFM4Ff_oyoOUyLX4j482-NFCa-uVoTr72saMMXsPZp4o2XSDpzyBNYROqR0Mhr0oJg_GkfY60hNULscWs/s320/Director+Elwood+Perez+received+the+FAMAS+Award+for+Best+Director+in+1989.jpg" width="314" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elwood Perez, the FAMAS Award for Best Director in 1989</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">An
award-winning Filipino filmmaker, Elwood Perez, created both delusional and repugnant realities in his 1986 movie “<b>Daughters of Eve</b>,” originally titled
“<b>Silip</b>,” a film laden with grotesque cinematic images.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Never
had such realities been portrayed in a nauseating, savage, and hauntingly
realistic manner, dissecting the human psyche and primordial issues on lust and
desire, needs and repression, hatred and violence, religious belief and
superstition, life and death.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The
film simulated a dark and anarchic world, reminiscent of Shakespearean
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”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Distinct
from his conventional movies that centered on convoluted plots like “<b>Ang
Totoong Buhay ni Pacita M</b>,” (1991) “<b>Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit</b>,” (1989) and
“<b>Disgrasyada</b>,” (1979) to name a few, “Daughters of Eve” is a character-driven
film with complex ensemble of anti-heroes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Perez,
as an eccentric filmmaker, created, from the auteur’s point of view, monsters
out of his characters, brought them together in a grisly-designed stage of
stark reality and, like a Greek god, indulged himself at their scuffles against the
atrocities of their fragmented world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: small;">GLIMPSES OF “DAUGHTERS OF
EVE”</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">The Slaughter of Animal on
Sand Dune:</span></b><span style="line-height: 150%;"> The film opens with Simon (Mark Joseph) mercilessly hammering
the head of carabao (water buffalo). The children, ranging from seven to fourteen
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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRxkdD6yMAH_dxY3lPxky3IWXcPIILOoe4B2yCbZWcXDKsS8VhQZIG1whLBUL-S1oPCNTEXlBX-xij-QREgvahNcp9MUrZpv1XppJFQKyiZQUHnS2Tjd98N2EXV42Y8YOICDMz/s1600/Mark+Joseph+and+Myra+Manibog%252C+Silip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRxkdD6yMAH_dxY3lPxky3IWXcPIILOoe4B2yCbZWcXDKsS8VhQZIG1whLBUL-S1oPCNTEXlBX-xij-QREgvahNcp9MUrZpv1XppJFQKyiZQUHnS2Tjd98N2EXV42Y8YOICDMz/s320/Mark+Joseph+and+Myra+Manibog%252C+Silip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still photo of Silip, Mark Joseph and Maria Isabel Lopez</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Gratuitous and Salacious
Sex Scenes:</span></b><span style="line-height: 150%;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Religiosity and Occultism:</span></b><span style="line-height: 150%;">
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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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; she 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">The Murder of Simon: </span></b><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 by 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DfUlG5XBVGAVFANpPm0FkWr32SrM2ZcRucyuIMQQyDzr57BKntLI30IY7uOyxDVjwkKexq46n3pzm72HkupB0ONVM3iT7riiSU79_gXI_4Llom9yVNEhlTy8hZsL-YPRBe9B/s1600/Ma.+Isabel+Lopez+and+Sarsi+Emmanuel%252C+Silip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DfUlG5XBVGAVFANpPm0FkWr32SrM2ZcRucyuIMQQyDzr57BKntLI30IY7uOyxDVjwkKexq46n3pzm72HkupB0ONVM3iT7riiSU79_gXI_4Llom9yVNEhlTy8hZsL-YPRBe9B/s320/Ma.+Isabel+Lopez+and+Sarsi+Emmanuel%252C+Silip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still photo of Silip, Ma. Isabel Lopez and Sarsi Emmanuel</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;">Gang Rape and the Burning
of Two Women:</span></b><span style="line-height: 150%;"> 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, as they desperately search for their
whereabouts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Finally,
they catch Tonya and Selda and tie them naked inside a nipa hut. In the
meantime, while the villagers are still deciding what punishment that they will
inflict on the two women, some men sneak into the hut and begin to rape the
naked Tonya and Selda.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 vanish amid the
blazing inferno.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #783f04;">THE FILM’S BRIEF HISTORY
AND ITS SOCIO-POLITICAL MILIEU</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVcRxt4JqLY6n7ZzCqf_Ync4WSZvgKft7E2_7TC_v-CqazdglKDsE77g_sOOO8ZaZeD0HWygUGguQnjpVurYeaToqYs56qImXVRTvaHZNjIaqh4Bssc1iJ55a3Spb7hhRFx0hN/s1600/Peping+%252CSilip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVcRxt4JqLY6n7ZzCqf_Ync4WSZvgKft7E2_7TC_v-CqazdglKDsE77g_sOOO8ZaZeD0HWygUGguQnjpVurYeaToqYs56qImXVRTvaHZNjIaqh4Bssc1iJ55a3Spb7hhRFx0hN/s320/Peping+%252CSilip+%2528Daughters+of+Eve%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still photo of Silip (Daughters of Eve)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Created
in 1985, during the advent of anarchy against the oppressive political system,
“Daughters of Eve” is the remaining film of ECP or Experimental Cinema of the
Philippines in the 1980s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Later
that year, however, the film created 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 Mondo
Macabro.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 worldwide interest and attention with mixed critical reviews 22 years
later.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 ahead of its time, needless to mention the religio-cultural
sensitivity and conservative consciousness of the Filipino people.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #783f04;">A PEREZIAN FILM</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigD33UtjqTOlnjW-WfvmxYpikfuJS9rImj2Gwa6Q6XneudMnDnsOnp8mDspYCdNGBLIfJ4Wnd0R55cS7-fnX4MVxqGW8RgOkM4QitQ7ejcsAS5fjFzqzIH0PQ-WpO01FdehiJR/s1600/ELWOOD+FOR+TICKET.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigD33UtjqTOlnjW-WfvmxYpikfuJS9rImj2Gwa6Q6XneudMnDnsOnp8mDspYCdNGBLIfJ4Wnd0R55cS7-fnX4MVxqGW8RgOkM4QitQ7ejcsAS5fjFzqzIH0PQ-WpO01FdehiJR/s400/ELWOOD+FOR+TICKET.JPG" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Filmmaker Elwood Perez</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The film and its characters, with ambiguous
beginning and ending, is the antithesis 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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 flashbacks whatsoever, as though the filmmaker deliberately
let the characters form the cinematic narrative based on the their actions and
dialogues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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. There is no indication of season
or year or epoch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 plots. Whether the characters resolve the conflict or not the
film is already a completed work of art from the auteur’s point of view. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">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 instinct within the repugnant human
condition. It uses a natural backdrop (carabao or water buffalo, sand dunes, the
sea and blue sky) as a setting to superimpose the gravity of feelings,
emotions, and cinematic images.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The
resultant mise-en-scène is uniquely Perezian: morbid, dark and haunting,
capturing the essence and timelessness of the film, literally or figuratively.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="color: #666666;">©
Danny Castillones Sillada</span> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Filmmaker <b>Elwood Perez</b>, the author (<b>Danny Castillones Sillada</b>), </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">American
lawyer <b>Paula Brillson</b>, and surgeon <b>Dr. Tito Garcia</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(during the author's
2005 one-man art exhibit at The Podium, Philippines)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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*<i>How
to cite this article:</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sillada,
Danny Castillones. “Daughters of Eve and its Aesthetic Incongruity in
Philippine Cinema.” <i>Manila Bulletin</i> (Art and Culture) 9 June 2008: F 1-2. Print.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-41367769834321113452011-12-21T15:26:00.005+08:002013-02-16T01:31:00.601+08:00The Conceived, Lived and Shared "Lush Life" of Alfred "Krip" Yuson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrqZ8CY76Yz-RRf0z7ISsjMl1zjzkSDaDQJOLp_QhH_WegHRkt7uaqQzq4aHgTaqYz7SBTOLWVUAhCMGeXKzDw_mJnHSkuNQKXmj1jAS1uecM5O0WtGMMcV5abgiZ45_mczuv/s1600/1.+Lush+Life%252C+a+collection+of+2001-2010+essays+by+Krip+Yuson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkrqZ8CY76Yz-RRf0z7ISsjMl1zjzkSDaDQJOLp_QhH_WegHRkt7uaqQzq4aHgTaqYz7SBTOLWVUAhCMGeXKzDw_mJnHSkuNQKXmj1jAS1uecM5O0WtGMMcV5abgiZ45_mczuv/s400/1.+Lush+Life%252C+a+collection+of+2001-2010+essays+by+Krip+Yuson.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Lush Life, a collection of 2001-2010 essays by Krip Yuson</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Published in <a href="http://mb.com.ph/node/341212/the-conceived-lived-and-">Manila Bulletin</a>, November 14, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;"> “Manhood is not the question, but memory – the continuum of experiences enriching the years of loyalty, partnership, camaraderie.”</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">~ Krip Yuson, from the book “Lush Life”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>SOME LESSER KNOWN</b> or unknown artists, literary writers, poets, philosophers and musicians may not be given due recognition while they are still alive. When they die, some of them will suddenly be remembered, their body of works recognized and their private lives either mythologized or romanticized. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But whether famous or not</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to hang out and talk to them in person or get an autograph from their eager hands or by just watching them from a distance</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">one could feel that sublime feeling of gratefulness to have been born in their time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One well-known iconic figure in Philippine contemporary literature that this writer occasionally encounters is Alfred “Krip” Yuson</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a poet, fictionist, and essayist par excellence. Despite his celebrity stature in both literary and art scenes, one would not feel constrained or intimidated by his self-effacing charisma. His propitious presence is reminiscent of a literary giant in Philippine history, the late National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Krip, as friends and colleagues fondly call him, never talks about his works or other writers’ in an egotistical manner. Instead, he always seizes the moment in any art or literary gatherings as a ‘celebration of encounter’ among his friends, colleagues and acquaintances. The encounter, of course, is incomplete without the hovering spirits of beer, whisky or wine. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Or to put it mildly, Krip’s presence, sober or inebriated, is impishly bubbly, whose wit and humor can slacken the garters of young ladies, in a manner of speaking. He is predisposed to laugh over his own antic and humor, his quarter moon smile contagious and his gag line intellectually orgasmic. To label him, though, as a comedian is an understatement. He is simply a man who lives ‘now’ and the ‘now’ converges the past and the future to give birth the present that he blissfully embraces to live. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">His recently launched book titled “Lush Life,” a sequel to his 2001 collection of essays “The Word on Paradise,” is concrete proof of that feisty existence. It is a celebration of a decade-long fully lived and shared life, trudging on different themes from fatherhood to friendship, from Tita Cory to Noynoy, from the champ Manny Pacquiao to the late poet Ophelia Dimalanata, from academic papers to paper boats, from Jejemon to an aging striptease dancer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One poignant essay, for instance, which is dashed with wry humor yet compassionate and lyrical, is “The Long Night of the Mama-san.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In this particular essay, Krip delicately treads on literary journalism with a compelling account of an aging striptease dancer turned Mama-san. Bereft of journalistic cliché and literary blandishment, the story elegantly unfolds as if the voice of the author was seducing the readers to fall in love with the seemingly dreary character of Connie, the Mama-san, contrary to the showbiz personalities and the gossips or rumors about them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He portrays the character of Mama-san with blatant realism, drawing out slowly her struggle as a striptease dancer at the age of 13 or 14, a G.R.O., and later a floor manager in a nightclub. Connie’s inconsistency of reasoning during the interview adds tension and texture to the author’s narrative. Then, the essay closes with an open-ended trenchant line: “Such is life, such are long nights, for a Mama-san.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In another essay “A Lifetime of a Jeepney Ride with Nick Joaquin,” Krip recounts how he and Nick Joaquin first met by accident on a jeepney in 1968; how he stammered, as a fledgling writer, to introduce himself to a literary legend; how they got out from the jeepney and ended up at Pelican Night Club for a beer; how Nick Joaquin mistakenly heard his name as “Creep” or creepy, for that matter; how they conversed and laughed over a countless bottles of beer; how he submitted his early short story to the Philippines Free Press edited at that time by Nick Joaquin; how he subsequently won the first prize in the same year on the same magazine; how the accidental meeting on a jeepney turned into a 35-year of friendship; how he mourned deeply over the loss of his friend, idol and beer buddy in 2004. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Friendship, loyalty and camaraderie for Krip are a measure of manhood. These themes recurrently gleam throughout the pages of his book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Published under the UST Publishing House, “Lush Life” is a compendium of 75 essays written from the perspective of a chronicler or a diarist of history and culture, of change and transition, of birthing and dying. But “Lush Life” is not just a chronicle of personal experience or observation of people, event, culture or history. It is primarily a tale of human relationship, friendship, loyalty, compassion, transformation, reconciliation and spirituality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Within a narrative structure, Krip can bring the past and the future as if they were in the present, sophisticatedly woven with linguistic expression unique to his own literary acumen. At times, the stylistic form is predictable yet it is always balanced by the unpredictability of substance, latitude of voice, rhythms of mood and language, ironic humor and the lushness of his idioms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Beyond the form and structure, Krip exudes the character of an existentialist literary writer who is firmly grounded on his own reality. The diversity of his opulent writings is an example of a tangible and fully lived existence. His personal narrative exemplifies human freedom, commitment, responsibility and individual perspective of the truth, resonating Søren Kierkegaard’s emphasis on concrete individual existence rather than idealism or quixotic ideology. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">His essays in “Lush Life” can attest to the grounding of his being, his own humanity and his uncomplicated yet profound understanding of the truth as a writer and as individual person. Or as Christina Pantoja Hidalgo aptly puts it, “It demonstrates how a life fully lived</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">its dizzying heights scaled, its dark depths plumbed</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">combined with a large soul, an ironic vision, an unfailingly playful sense of humor and the gift of bending the language to his every whim, are what lead to great writing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a poet, fictionist and essayist, his strong sense of history, traditional values and cultural idiosyncrasies are what give the body of his works an epistemic value and three-dimensional portrayal of the truth. Neither overtly romanticized nor sentimentalized. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At the core of Alfred “Krip” Yuson’s “Lush Life” is a conceived, lived and shared existence within a historical society</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">—</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">a précis version of his poetry and poetic life, paradoxically speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-16381620487469792372011-12-21T14:30:00.006+08:002013-02-16T00:57:15.222+08:00Ay EXPOsición de PiNAS (An International Art Exhibition)<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<b> EXPOsición de PiNAS</b> is an innovative and collaborative group art exhibition among emerging contemporary international artists at the heart of Durian City, that is, Davao, a culturally diverse and rapidly developing city in Southern Philippines. With participants coming from different countries, like America, Canada, New England, France, Italy, India, and the Philippines, the show is slated from December 16, 2011 to January 2012 at Bahaghari Gallery of the Museo Dabawenyo, Magallanes St., Davao City.<br />
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The main thrust of EXPOsición de PiNAS is to highlight innovative approaches of local and international artists, as well as circulates fine art exhibitions to large and small institutions. Covering a broad and dynamic range of art and cultural concepts, its aim is to expose the viewers to a diverse genres, artistic identities and art movements from all over the globe.<br />
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Organized and curated by homegrown travelling visual artist Victor “Bong” Espinosa, the exhibition is participated by 14 international artists namely: Jill Slaymaker (American), Daniel Boyer (American), Teressa Valla (American), Tia Renee Harper (American), Johhny E.S.G. Otilano (Filipino-American), Herve Alexandre (French), Gustav Glander (Spanish), Bert Monterona (Filipino-Canadian), Jone Binzonelli (Italian), Anna Casu (Italian), Deeksha Arya (Indian-American), Summit Sharma (Indian), “Bina” Jayanti Balchand (Indian-Filipino), and Victor “Bong” Espinosa (Filipino artist, organizer and curator from Davao).<br />
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A compelling combination of painting and photographic prints, the show gives the visitors an exciting overview of personal exchanges among artists of diverse backgrounds. This project hopes to demonstrate the strength of collective voices from neighboring global cities and cultures.<br />
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The Museo Dabawenyo is situated along Magallanes St. at the back of the Sangguniang Panglungsod Bldg., Davao City, Philippines. The Bahaghari Gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 9.00am to 12.00pm and from 1.00pm to 6.00pm. For more information, please contact Victor ‘Bong’ Espinosa, email:<a href="mailto:vespinosa78@gmail.com" target="_blank">vespinosa78@gmail.com</a>, mobile: <a href="tel:%2B63%2009162582807" target="_blank">+63 09162582807</a>.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-52461679840936644282011-12-21T12:50:00.017+08:002013-02-16T00:56:44.020+08:00Five Former Beauty Queens amidst the Convoluted World of Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%;">Published in </span><a href="http://mb.com.ph/articles/328979/five-former-beauty-queens-amidst-convoluted-world-art" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 150%;" target="_blank">Manila Bulletin</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%;">(Arts and Living), August 1, 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">"Believe it or not, I can actually draw.”</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">-- Jean Michel Basquiat, American artist</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">WHAT DO THE</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> five former beauty queens have to show in the art world that is already saturated with all kinds of ludicrous ‘isms,’ cyclical artistic themes, farcical and portentous art that feeds on ‘shock value,’ needless to mention the ejaculative aesthetic aggrandizement to viagrate the sale of the chosen few (known or unknown artists) in auction houses?<br />
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Is there anything new and exciting that they can offer or is it just another showbiz platitude to create a sensation, i.e., show off their ostensibly artistic prowess and sell their art?<br />
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On the contrary, their recently launched group exhibit titled “Art and Beauty” does not only create a stir (nay, a ‘tsunamic splash’), it also proves that beauty and brain can do more than just promote beauty products, walk down a catwalk at fashion shows, act in film, or appear on television, but also create sublime art par excellence. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The participating artists are Evangeline Pascual (Miss World 1973 1st Runner-up), Melanie Marquez (Bb. Pilipinas International 1979 and Miss International 1979), Maria Isabel Lopez (Bb. Pilipinas Universe 1982), Lani Lobangco (Bb. Pilipinas 1998 semi-finalist and Miss Photogenic), and Nina Ricci Alagao (Bb. Pilipinas Universe 2000).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Present during the opening last July 13, 2011 at Ricco-Renzo Galleries & Café in Makati were some celebrities, politicians, and showbiz personalities, like Mr. Chavit Singson, Mayor Jun Jun Binay, Ms. Gloria Diaz, Ms. Cory Quirino, Ms. Joyce Ann Burton, Ms. Elvie Pineda, Ms. Rachel Lobangco, Mr. Jao Mapa, the NCCA Chairman (Head, Sub-Commission on the Arts) Mr. Felipe M. de Leon, Jr., gallery owner Mr. Paulito Garcia, and author-art critic Mr. Cid Reyes, among others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Organized by multi-awarded Filipino movie actor Maria Isabel Lopez in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Character Building Foundation, Inc., the group show is a tour de force in artistic style, medium, and technique. Their respective art is unmistakably an opus of a professional painter and, perhaps, more sincere and honest than the work of a mediocre artist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Evangeline Pascual’s ‘Echoes of the Art’</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anyone who is following Evangeline Pascual, also known as “Vangie,” on her radio program in DWIZ 882AM is familiar with her “Echoes of the Heart” every Saturday afternoon. It is one of the longest running radio counseling programs in the country for almost two decades now. Unbeknownst to her fans and followers, their host-counselor finds time brandishing a paintbrush in front of her canvas to pour out the ‘echoes’ of her art.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Adept with the metaphysical principles of love, beauty, and ideas as a radio host and counselor, her art echoes the transcendental nature of forms and colors on canvas. Some of her abstract paintings are visceral depiction of the unknown yet, they are sensually tangible and imposing. Her dynamic strokes with craggy surface and vibrant colors reflect the exuberance of her personality. In essence, her art is a creative journey of self-expression that traverses between the ephemeral and spiritual.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A first runner-up of Miss World 1973 (she allegedly refused the crown of Miss World after the disavowed winning contestant, Miss USA, was disqualified from the title 38 years ago), Evangeline is woman of staunch principle, but a gregarious character, unassuming, and an iconic figure of strength, intellect, and beauty. After Miss World, she embraced her movie career as actor and later, as broadcaster, social worker, and an active member of religious group Oasis of Love Catholic Charismatic Community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The Encaustic Oeuvre of Melanie Marquez</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOpZv3IkNY1PsuCVtb3sWVh7VEVZsUdhc2Df-_RWk_tfbNO-UUu9skvgyr64jjoHo9Bbt5P3YzF6iT3EIicNkna69Iq5jTfKjLESw-2RJANwRsqm6nljhfOxLwspvKjnza2Z2/s1600/Melanie%2527s+Mystique+2+by+Melanie+Marquez+%2528Molten+wax+with+net%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOpZv3IkNY1PsuCVtb3sWVh7VEVZsUdhc2Df-_RWk_tfbNO-UUu9skvgyr64jjoHo9Bbt5P3YzF6iT3EIicNkna69Iq5jTfKjLESw-2RJANwRsqm6nljhfOxLwspvKjnza2Z2/s320/Melanie%2527s+Mystique+2+by+Melanie+Marquez+%2528Molten+wax+with+net%2529.JPG" width="251" /></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Encaustic art may be fun to create on the surface of a board or canvas by heating wax and toning the pigments of color, but it is a difficult process to master. However, Melanie Marquez has chosen a medium that she could effortlessly execute with élan and eloquence. Her nude women, for instance, exude with opulent form and translucent color, mimicking the sensual female skin. Putting an emphasis on the figure’s head and body sans hands and feet, her naked women exemplify elegance with mystical allure, apt for her chosen title ‘Melanie’s Mystique.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unlike the uncomplicated forms of her creation, Melanie is a complex celebrity figure. She has been known for being outspoken of her thoughts and feelings. But who is Melanie without being audacious as a former beauty titlist and a supermodel of international stature?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">At a very young age of 15, Melanie has already been exposed to the showbiz and fashion industry locally and internationally. After winning the Bb. Pilipinas International and Miss International in 1979 respectively, she has garnered several beauty titles, citations and awards both local and abroad. To date, she is the most featured Asian celebrity in magazine covers in America, Europe, and Asia spanning more than two decades of her multi-faceted career as a beauty titlist and fashion model, movie actor, talk show host, movie producer, and product endorser.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 2006, Melanie obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Cum Laude) from the International Academy of Management and Economics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The Dyadic Art of Maria Isabel Lopez</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3saFEecR1YVNUpxtZmApFRkeR8YaC9eu4ogedG40iv48xPRK-RhGKi9NliK8vvFg90ClxTLb28hRLMNWj7LQJ9gSz_b6va-EDjnQwk_7eGy9pNWqyTCLyWK-R_LYahDCghJr7/s1600/On+the+Rocks+by+Maria+Isabel+Lopez+%2528Natural+Stones%252C+Coral%252C+Shell%252C+River+Rocks%252C+Sand+Mortar+on+Canvas%252C+24x10%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3saFEecR1YVNUpxtZmApFRkeR8YaC9eu4ogedG40iv48xPRK-RhGKi9NliK8vvFg90ClxTLb28hRLMNWj7LQJ9gSz_b6va-EDjnQwk_7eGy9pNWqyTCLyWK-R_LYahDCghJr7/s400/On+the+Rocks+by+Maria+Isabel+Lopez+%2528Natural+Stones%252C+Coral%252C+Shell%252C+River+Rocks%252C+Sand+Mortar+on+Canvas%252C+24x10%2529.JPG" width="161" /></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Maria Isabel Lopez uses natural stones, corals, seashells, sand mortar, and acrylic paint to create highly textured and realistic composition. In her landscape titled “On the Rocks,” she ingeniously employs her trademark medium to create an illusion of rocks, river, and mountains with organic color and texture. From a distance, the artwork evokes realistic countryside scenery, but at a closer look, it also offers a different visual experience with intricate titivation of natural stones, corals, seashells, and sand mortar. The result is a mosaic art within a painting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Equally impressive are her nude figures from which she explores the depths of forms either by rendering textured paint or by embedding natural colored stones. Unlike some of her raunchier roles in movies, her nude paintings are reticently demure, exploring the sensuality of female body in an unobtrusive manner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As movie actor, painter, and fashioner designer, Maria Isabel is as generous as her oeuvre: from a complex role in films to the elaborate detail of her paintings and fashion designs. She is the epitome of a Filipino actor who has no qualms assuming any role, so long as it liberates her creative passion and gives justice to the character that she plays in a movie. In like manner, she has no foreboding hesitation to cavort and experiment sundry mediums on canvas to suit her artistic taste and style.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, she was proclaimed the Bb. Pilipinas Universe in 1982. Since then, her acting career took off, receiving several awards in the showbiz industry both local and abroad. Her 2009 movie “Kinatay,” from which she also derived her “Kinatay” series paintings, won the Best Director award for Brillante Mendoza in 2009 Cannes Film Festival. She is the founder and event organizer for The Film Artist Group and a former fashion designer for Rustan’s and SM Department stores. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Lani Lobangco and the Femineity of Her Aesthetics</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBdS5kgxQ9BoZgLxdwe2aLfWDheBVqVn1mLaxBowTOyAcATYg5bDRjkdbzynBllY5-42DOd8IW8AGzWxNseiNn6fupwSwcivjn6VMOJNND81h1zflA2Yasny4h0W74se63F6zP/s1600/Bras+Bas+by+Lani+Lobangco+%2528oil+on+canvas%252C+30x24%2529%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBdS5kgxQ9BoZgLxdwe2aLfWDheBVqVn1mLaxBowTOyAcATYg5bDRjkdbzynBllY5-42DOd8IW8AGzWxNseiNn6fupwSwcivjn6VMOJNND81h1zflA2Yasny4h0W74se63F6zP/s320/Bras+Bas+by+Lani+Lobangco+%2528oil+on+canvas%252C+30x24%2529%2529.JPG" width="246" /></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One of the Filipino artists who could masterfully portray feminine movement and dance postures with such passion and sensitivity is Lani Lobangco. She has a perceptive and unique way of drawing out the poignancy of body movement with strong contrast of tonal values and color. Well-defined forms, smooth brushstrokes, and lucid colors characterize the feminine touch of an artist, perchance a manifestation of Lani’s genteel personality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To appreciate her works further, it is imperative that one must be familiar with the basic ballet dance movements. In “Bras Bas,” for example, Lani portrays the positioning of both arms where the fingers are almost touching each other, forming an oval shape at hips level. The visual narrative conveys a sense of oneness and harmony.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In another painting titled “Sous-Sus,” known as releve or rise in the tight positioning of feet either in pointe or in demi pointe, Lani focuses her depiction below the ballerina’s legs down to the tip of her raised feet. Hence, one can feel the tension and the struggle of the dancer to maintain the balance in a tight fifth position. In real life, the painting can be a metaphor of human struggle to maintain the balance between career and family.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A painter, movie actor, and a 1998 Bb. Pilipinas semi-finalist and Miss Photogenic, Lani is a graduate of Fine Arts (Advertising major) at the University of Santo Tomas, 1987. Later, she took up Interior Design at Philippine School of Interior Design in the year 1999 -2000. She is currently the president of a family-owned business, E.P. ELLE Corp., founded by her mother Ms. Elvie Pineda.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The Social Realism of Nina Ricci Alagao </span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYH4uwJGo86yoUsFcikyk24ZZC31lgxRWm3Oqyd18A6GIsKdVFAAfI_LhI3rcxTSQIOdSmRnqk57vVNPLzHtXgCc0r9uA3y0xxsVSTxnnU2RlPCFM3uuOaRNK2x_aVZa-anMFu/s1600/Ondoy+by+Nina+Ricci+Algao+%2528Detail%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYH4uwJGo86yoUsFcikyk24ZZC31lgxRWm3Oqyd18A6GIsKdVFAAfI_LhI3rcxTSQIOdSmRnqk57vVNPLzHtXgCc0r9uA3y0xxsVSTxnnU2RlPCFM3uuOaRNK2x_aVZa-anMFu/s320/Ondoy+by+Nina+Ricci+Algao+%2528Detail%2529.JPG" width="278" /></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is an atmosphere of empirical and intangible sadness in the art of Nina Ricci Alagao. It is trudging on the emotional, psychological, and mental state of man and the blatant condition of decay and decadence in his society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">One such iconic painting is a portrayal of a desperate man in the midst of his defiled belongings titled “Ondoy” (based on the tragic Typhoon Ondoy in 2009). Wet and covered with mud throughout his body, the man’s head is bent in an almost sedate manner; his face is burdened with indescribable anguish and despair. The detailed depiction of protruding radius bone and veins in his lower left arm down to his hand heightens the feeling of helplessness. And one can almost touch the dried tears on his cheeks or hear the incessant gasps of hopelessness in his lungs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A sensitive and activist artist, in the loose of the word, Nina has the uncanny articulacy of portraying the intensity of human emotion. Whether her subject is happy or sad, she has a way of capturing her viewers with the hyper-realistic rendition of her figures, dramatic interplay of contrasts, and distinctive choice of colors on canvas. However, these elements could not have been eloquently translated without the artist’s fluency to percolate her feeling and passion through her art.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Nina’s proclivity in aesthetics started in her teenage life when she became a scholar at the Philippine High School for the Arts in Los Baños, Laguna, majoring in Visual Arts. After high school, she studied further and finished her degree in Fine Arts (major in visual communications) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 2000, Nina won the Bb. Pilipinas Universe, representing the country in the same year at the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Currently active in the art scene, she wanted to use her art as a vehicle to help the least fortunate by raising funds through her exhibitions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">To sum, it is humbling and fascinating to immerse in the artworks of the former beauty queens, knowing that the mind and body that created them have embodied the quintessence of physical and intellectual beauty. Their art is still unfazed and unsullied by aesthetic angst and duplicity, which is common within the subculture of artists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">‘Art is a confession,’ said French novelist and philosopher Albert Camus. And confession, that is: These former beauty titlists confess the perspicuity of their vision as women, echoing the inner dreams and desires of their soul as inherently creative and nurturing being.</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-83519332518954525452011-04-05T20:23:00.006+08:002014-06-21T11:30:53.431+08:00Jon Jaylo’s “A Song for Alice” at Sotheby’s Auction, with my description for Sotheby's Catalogue<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Song for Alice, oil on Canvas by Jon Jaylo</td></tr>
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<i>Below is my brief review of Jon Jaylo’s painting </i><i><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">“A Song for Alice,” which was published in the <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159665168">Sotheby's Catalogue</a>.</span></b></i><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>JON JAYLO’S “A SONG FOR ALICE”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Jon Jaylo's “A Song for Alice” is an allusion to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in wonderland, sans Alice, which is substituted by a young mustached boy wearing a 19th century top hat, gleefully singing toward the audience or to Alice, for that matter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nestled on the boy's hat are the four human figures with animal heads: a frog with trumpet, a rabbit with clarinet, a red–headed bird with saxophone, and a cat with guitar: an ensemble of unlikely musicians accompanying the boy's musical feat. The backdrop is laden with theatrical elements – the nocturnal scene, the rolled scarlet curtains, the silhouettes of foliage, the dartboard circles, the golden landscapes with still flowing stream, the horizontal railing, and the checkered floor – creating an illusion of space beyond the canvas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Looking at the painting with its evocative title "A Song for Alice," one cannot help but entertain the thought behind that 1865 controversial and classic novel, which the literary critics dubiously linked to the shadowy persona of Lewis Carroll as a literary writer and mathematician. The author was described to have proclivity in the company and friendship with children rather than the complicated adult relationship.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who is Alice in Lewis Carroll's life, the real eleven-year old girl Alice Liddell from which he derived the title of his fairy tale story? The same question can also be asked: Who is Alice in Jon Jaylo's life and what role does she play in this particular painting?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although the pictorial narrative of histrionic characters does not suggest any obtrusive reference to the adventure of Alice in Wonderland, the boy in the painting represents 'Alice' with a naiveté presence whose dazzling eyes is full of innocence, wonder, and imagination. Evidently, through the boy's 'expressive' countenance, one can take a glimpse on the artist's penchant for childhood fantasy and dreamlike portrayal of images not only in this particular painting, but also in his previous works.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jaylo's oeuvre, in general, recurrently depicts a magical world, which is bereft of complications, where logic and reason is almost absent, where the distinction between the real world and fantasy is obscured by mystical reality. It is a world that the artist lost in his boyhood but found later in his aesthetics, detached from the convolutions of human existence, where he can be a child again without anguish or sorrow. Call it an 'Alice's World Syndrome,' a created reality from the child's perspective that characterizes innocence, enchantment, adventure, and wonder.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the end, the artist is asking the same question: Who is Alice in our individual lives?</div>
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© Danny Castillones Sillada</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-48586784077677534682010-12-19T15:21:00.001+08:002013-02-16T00:58:39.294+08:00The Existential Appeal of 'Soloism' in Aesthetics (The Eccentric Art of Francisco Pellicer Viri) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpKSuMbUSdhv5nUEULMBr0RKeih-FX29_3na7pTi_Ei_d-tdHs7Y3V-tl6xqGqiz3J_OJxDP2W8mVSvc933wFUy4oOSUywQ4-u8WTzpHDbqfPhI3SBq9iYNxqa3hBz9m6J5tv/s1600/Francisco+Pellicer+Viri+and+his+works.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpKSuMbUSdhv5nUEULMBr0RKeih-FX29_3na7pTi_Ei_d-tdHs7Y3V-tl6xqGqiz3J_OJxDP2W8mVSvc933wFUy4oOSUywQ4-u8WTzpHDbqfPhI3SBq9iYNxqa3hBz9m6J5tv/s400/Francisco+Pellicer+Viri+and+his+works.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Book Antiqua;"><span style="color: #666666;">Francisco Pellicer Viri and his works, photo by Danny C. Sillada</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/291036/the-existential-appeal-soloism-aesthetics"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Manila Bulletin (Arts & Living)</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, December 6, 2010</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“Language has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone. And it has also created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">– Paul Tillich</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>IN THE LAST</strong> three lines of his poem, The Solitary Reaper, William Wordsworth extols the melancholic song of a woman harvesting in the fields of Scotland. The speaker in the poem goes through a transferential loneliness that the solitary reaper sang in her heart when he says: “And, as I mounted up the hill, / The music in my heart I bore, / Long after it was heard no more.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">An artist, in general, is solitary, not because he wants to escape or avoid the bustling routine of familial or societal life, but to find his own solitude where he can be at home with himself and his art. Paradoxically, it is only in solitude that an artist can see the world with unparalleled vision, exploring his boundless freedom to create.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One such artist who immerses himself with recurrent themes of loneliness, solitude, and estrangement is Francisco Pellicer Viri. He epitomizes the organic and intangible state of solitude on his canvas and paper. Unbroken line traverses amid the overlapping mass of planes and colors, self-contained and undefined figure emerging, aloof and distant yet outreaching, like an abandoned child on the street, hungering for human affection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But Viri’s works are beyond empirical representations, they are transcendental portrayals of an existential journey born out of a throbbing solitary existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is for this reason that his art can be categorized within the vein of ‘soloism.’ In the language of aesthetics, Soloist Art or solo-art, as coined by this writer, is an artistic principle that perceives life as a solitary struggle, a constant creative struggle to make life sensible amid the irrational realities of human existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As an artistic idiom, ‘soloism’ can be expressed in other modes of creative activities, like poetry, music, or performance art. Most often, it manifests the drab reflections of man’s harsh conditions in the society.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Some elements of “soloism” can be found in the works of painters Francis Bacon, Egon Schiele, and Edward Munch; confessional poets John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell; existentialist philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus, among others. Soloist art is akin to existentialism except that, as an aesthetic principle, it actualizes human freedom and purpose in life through creative activity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“It is a linear philosophy which is trying to express an underlying need for a sense of order due to the psychotic disturbances found in everyday life,” Viri describes his art with succinct candor, bereft of sentimentalism. “My images are essentially a personal figurative abstraction which, in the recent years, evolves into one ‘unbroken line’ of figure.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He is one of the few artists who can articulate his mind with cogent opinion and perspicacious acumen. However, amid all his forms and colors is a lonely creator trying to make sense from incongruous circumstances that constantly hound his lonely existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A bachelor in his 50s, no family, parents, or siblings to anchor his dreams, thoughts, and feelings, he lives an eccentric, solitary life, which is ubiquitous in his works. In fact, there is a very thin line that borders between his life and his aesthetics. His life and his art seem to exist in symbiotic manner, giving a teleological reason for each other’s existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">His iconoclastic frame of thinking is reflective of his educational background and assimilated cultures during his travels and stints abroad. Similarly, although he does not identify his creative style and technique to any artistic movements, it is obvious that his works are avant-garde assertions against the conventional.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy8ImvI6mFJ0Y5MYYzhCUkU-3HeCcVtJWYktVBssm4d8gd5O9nxkLx1iyaW478fzWrW0qgy3v9O6D7Mqu1KU26esji3J_7deeNMG-rg5MFW6FaPBfNuMdP1Bd82wRsSp34ZBiA/s1600/Untitled+by+Francisco+Pellicer+Viri.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; height: 328px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 257px;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy8ImvI6mFJ0Y5MYYzhCUkU-3HeCcVtJWYktVBssm4d8gd5O9nxkLx1iyaW478fzWrW0qgy3v9O6D7Mqu1KU26esji3J_7deeNMG-rg5MFW6FaPBfNuMdP1Bd82wRsSp34ZBiA/s320/Untitled+by+Francisco+Pellicer+Viri.JPG" width="233" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He studied in Rhode Island School of Design, known as the number one fine arts college in the United States, and finished his BFA degree in Illustration in 1979. From then on, Viri would travel to several countries to exhibit his works, but he would always come back to his motherland in the Philippines. From 1990s to the present, he has already launched several one-man shows and participated occasional group shows in Metro Manila galleries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The turning point of his artistic career came when his brother died, leaving him alone and devastated. “My brother died on September 8, 2007,” Viri recounts with a trace of gnawing sadness in his eyes. “I watched him having five successive heart attacks in the span of three days until he died in the hospital.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The loss of his brother is parallel to the loss of Theo to his elder sibling Vincent van Gogh, except that Viri lost a supportive brother, like Theo, who stood by his side throughout his artistic career. Viri could have uttered the same poignant words written by Theo to his mother after the tragic death of Vincent: “It is a grief that will weigh on me for a long time and will certainly not leave my thoughts as long as I live…” (August 1, 1890, Paris; R.G. Harrison)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What is life without tragedy, what is art without solitude or madness!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One can remember the tormenting loneliness of an American poet Sylvia Plath or the remaining years of a famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The latter suffered from chronic melancholia before he died in Weimar on August 25, 1900, while Plath succumbed to self-destruction during one of the coldest winters in Europe on February 10, 1963.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">On a positive note, Emily Dickinson, out of her lonely, secluded life, had written the most important collections of poetry in the history of world literature. Romanian philosopher E.M. Cioran wrote the most compelling philosophical treatises and reflections in Paris, while living in poverty away from his homeland. The German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven created some of his greatest masterpieces; he was deaf and he died a pauper without even hearing the heavenly sound of his music.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Despair, solitude, tragedy, or poverty can break the artist, but it can also redeem and propel his aesthetic freedom to create a magnificent opus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Viri’s solitary life was heightened after his brother’s death, but he never gave up. His art is not only a vehicle to find meaning in the midst of chronic solitude and tragic past, e.g., the death of his beloved brother and parents respectively; it becomes his life and his life becomes his art, trying to make sense from a seemingly absurd existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Great works of art are not created from the allure of comfy environment, but from the creator’s debilitating solitude, in a manner of speaking, traversing through a perilous journey between darkness and light in order to give birth to his creation. It is during this harrowing process that an artist can be so fragile, like a delicate crystal; yet, he can also be formidable, transforming himself and his art into a metaphysical encounter with Truth, Good, and Beauty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Art, to reecho Viri’s unassuming statement, “is to express an underlying need for a sense of order due to the psychotic disturbances found in everyday life.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-65518054265064138552010-08-27T17:11:00.006+08:002013-02-16T00:59:41.751+08:00Art, Music & School from Industrial Scraps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Jonahmar Salvosa's steel sculpture, Illac Diaz's bottled wall, and Lirio Salvador's sandata</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Published in </span><a href="http://mb.pressmart.com/manilabulletin/PUBLICATIONS/MANILABULLETIN/MB/2010/08/20/INDEX.SHTML" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Manila Bulletin, Style Weekend</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, August 20, 2010</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.” – Ross Perot</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>MOST ARTISTS, WHO</strong> have used industrial scraps in their arts, create not only to liberate their artistic vision and commitment, but also to make a powerful statement in addressing the inordinate desire of our progressive society to build structures and accumulate more industrial products in our respective homes and working places.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Filipino artists, like Jonahmar Salvosa and Lirio Salvador, transform electronic and industrial scraps into an objet trouvé in their oeuvres. They fashion beauty out of scraps, so to say. In like manner, social entrepreneur Illac Diaz, in one of his social architecture projects, uses plastic bottles and organic materials to create schools for children and low-cost homes for the homeless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">These Filipino artists and social entrepreneur create beauty from abandoned materials and give hope from a hopeless condition. In their own humble manner, they build something from industrial scraps that will benefit our environment and society.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Jonahmar Salvosa: The Beauty of His Steel Scraps</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">An environmentalist and a Zen enthusiast, painter-sculptor Jonahmar Salvosa challenges the conventional norm of art making without being obtrusively messianic in his creations. He uses steel scraps, particularly the round steel bars, from their seemingly futile shapes and transforms them into a functional and decorative art pieces: from chairs to tables and from organic forms to human figures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In the process, Salvosa produces grace and elegance from steel fragments, letting their forms and shapes come out with minimal human intervention. Consequently, the bends, curls, and tangles of round steel bars create seductive and harmonic noise, in figurative sense, which are not only pleasing to the viewer’s eyes but also beneficial to the environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As the artist says, “The process is liberating, satisfying my hunger to transform the abandoned state of metal into a functional and decorative objects, thus decreasing the industrial wastes in my community.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Lirio Salvador: The Mesmeric Sound of His ‘Sandata’</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Known for his "Sandata" musical instruments, like the bass and lead guitars, Lirio Salvador, the founder of ethno-industrial band called Elemento, redefines avant-garde music with eclectic sounds emanating from assembled electronic and metal scraps. As a sculptor and musician, he fashions ordinary and discarded materials into a sublime objet d'art, which is both functional and interactive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Found objects such as stainless pipes, bicycle gears, electronic gadgets, transistor radio, mini-amps, and aluminum kitchenware, among other materials, are recycled and given with new meaning as assemblage of sculptural piece and, at the same time, interactive musical instrument. Stunningly, his homemade keyboard machine, aside from lead and bass guitars, is mimetic of industrial environment, transforming its discordant and abrasive noise into an orchestral sound of ambient and mesmeric harmony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Lirio Salvador’s Elemento is not the typical group of musicians. Its members did not undergo the routine of rehearsal that most musical band does; some members are not permanent either or mainstay in the band. Whenever the leader, is present, the members converge and create ephemeral music that reflects their inner thoughts and feelings. The cohesive form and texture of Elemento’s music is born out of unrehearsed and spontaneous flow of sound coming from its respective instruments deconstructing the conventional structure of music composition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">From what used to be a meaningless metal scraps and discarded electronic gadgets, Lirio Salvador and his Elemento generate a poetic encounter in music that emits sounds of hope and harmony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Illac Diaz: The Elegance of His Bottled School</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Known as a social activist and entrepreneur and founder of My Shelter Foundation in 2005, Illac Diaz’s passion to create for the economically-challenged communities, particularly the schools for children in remote areas in the country, seems inexhaustible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After his successful projects in Surigao Del Norte by creating Earthen Schools and his recent “Bottle School Run” last June 13, 2010, he embark on rebuilding the damaged schools in Maharlika Village, Taguig City, which are literally made of soda bottles mixed with some organic materials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">From empty plastic bottles rose an eco-friendly and architecturally revolutionary classrooms. The patternic design and texture of soda bottles that are integrated on the walls create an avant-garde look – a public art installation of sort. Whether the pattern is consciously or unconsciously infused in the blueprint, the architectural edifice has already achieved both its aesthetic appeal and functionality as classroom for children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The genesis of his advocacy and social commitment started from his first project the Pier One, an organization that caters affordable transient house for seamen who are either looking for opportunities to work abroad or waiting for another overseas voyage. It was followed by the Peanut Revolution, building pedal-powered machines for women in shelling off the raw peanuts. Then the First Step Coral, creating an artificial coral reef system in shallow waters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>TO SUM, EVERY</strong> individual, as co-steward of this planet, has a social and environmental responsibility to recycle or transform industrial scraps in a manner in which they can function again in our respective homes and communities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For every scrap, metal or plastic bottle, is comparable to a wild plant that grows in our backyard, waiting to be transformed and nurtured by our creative hands until it becomes useful again, with value and meaning, in our day to day existence.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;">Illac Diaz, Lirio Salvador, and Jonahmar Salvosa (photos by Danny Sillada)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-61897468347987718792010-08-01T15:27:00.014+08:002013-02-16T01:00:16.385+08:00Poetry & Live Art Performances at Cesare Syjuco’s ‘Ancestry of Stone’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“I don't think artists can avoid being political. Artists are the proverbial canaries in the coalmine. When we stop singing, it's a sure sign of repressive times ahead.”</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>It has already</strong> been a tradition for a multi-disciplinary artist to invite poets, performance artists, and musicians to perform at the opening of his or her show. The convergence of different artistic mediums at the opening of Cesare Syjuco’s exhibit, for instance, produces interactive dialogues between the artists and the audience. And for the audience, it has always been a treat to witness such unique gathering of artists from different disciplines to reveal their aesthetic discourses through poetry, music, and live art performances. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Among those who performed at Cesare’s “Ancestry of Stone” last July 24, 2010 at Galleria Duemila in Pasay City were Gimeno H. Abad, Alfred “Krip” Yuson, Rayvi Sunico, Vim Nadera, and Maxine Syjuco for poetry; Cesare Syjuco, Mitch Garcia, Ian Madrigal, and this writer for live art performance; Lirio Salvador, J.P. Hernandez, and the members of Elemento for music.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5SSKLTispDxwW455POJC3ENbpp0KXxK_-18ffoetHGvXuiEkcLbmzZIMgq7bbB9K_tg2fgkbilDObRmx8PiLTdr3TtP8fLX-70EvIyhL8Rl7BkJifrwwgu7xKoukgfumMC7P/s1600/Gimeno++H.+Abad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5SSKLTispDxwW455POJC3ENbpp0KXxK_-18ffoetHGvXuiEkcLbmzZIMgq7bbB9K_tg2fgkbilDObRmx8PiLTdr3TtP8fLX-70EvIyhL8Rl7BkJifrwwgu7xKoukgfumMC7P/s200/Gimeno++H.+Abad.JPG" width="166" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Gimeno Abad always performs his poems from memory, thus speaking his poetry from his soul. The lightness of his persona and the sound of his placid voice emanate a buoyant atmosphere, cradling his audience with the rhythm of his verses. Alfred Yuson, on the other hand, seems blasé yet bubbly the way he engages his listeners with his spoken words. He always delivers his poems with wit and humor, titillating the mind and heart of the audience as though he was seducing a woman. Rayvi Sunico, a bilingual poet, speaks his poetry with such passion, drawing his audience closer to the texture of his linguistic expression.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Clad in tuxedo impersonating an opera singer, if not Pavarotti, Vim Nadera rouses the audience into laughter when he sang the name of Cesare Syjuco to the tune of “Besame Mucho”. Wearing a white mask and hand gloves, this writer also performed a poignant piece titled “Suicidal Tears”, an existential cry of anguish and despair, as expressed through bodily movements and bloody tears that came out from the mask’s eyeholes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Lirio Salvador, the founder of ethno-industrial band called Elemento, redefines avant-garde music with eclectic sound that comes from assembled electronic and metal scraps. His orchestral music, with J.P Hernandez playing the percussion, creates an ambient backdrop for other artists to perform their pieces, like the sensual and mesmeric Maxine Syjuco with her short poem about the rain. Then, later, it was segued by Mitch Garcia, showing off her written statements on sheets of paper before the audience. One of her conspicuous avowals says: “Atheism is a non-profit organization.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Cesare Syjuco’s performance is indubitably satiric and whimsical, luring his audience to listen attentively to the playful sound of his plastic gun with his emotive soliloquy: “She loves me, she loves me not…”(The man himself seemed to be overwhelmed and gratified over the success of his show). Noticeably, among the audiences were from showbiz, like Ronnie Lazaro and Joel Torre, and visual artists, like Tony Twigg with his wife, Gus Albor, Eghai Roxas, Red Mansueto, Roberto M. A. Robles, Raffy Ignacio, Boy Achacruz, and UP Professor and art critic Reuben Ramas Cañete, to name a few.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Hosted by gorgeous Trix Syjuco, co-host of Illuminati opposite Alfred Yuson at GNN Destiny Network (Channel 21), the superbly curated “Ancestry of Stone” and the entire performances were aesthetically orgasmic, culminating with exotic food, beer, and wine. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimzC4iwpGsBo4fXbvkQVLcn7lYqmhbpGpJXcN3msNd7j4s2SOS-wVufR3Jz5w2UzHfNk0b5-Ri2oPJBneU9LTX1838gUg6zPhLtEuXyqYdnGw73QeEnGRRS68KEKcyvNelTOP/s1600/God+Speaks+to+Cesare,+by+Cesare+Syjuco.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimzC4iwpGsBo4fXbvkQVLcn7lYqmhbpGpJXcN3msNd7j4s2SOS-wVufR3Jz5w2UzHfNk0b5-Ri2oPJBneU9LTX1838gUg6zPhLtEuXyqYdnGw73QeEnGRRS68KEKcyvNelTOP/s200/God+Speaks+to+Cesare,+by+Cesare+Syjuco.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After the guests left one by one before midnight, this writer with Jean Marie Syjuco (painter and performance artist), Silvana Diaz (gallery owner), Lanie Aquino (cousin of PNoy), Gus Vivar (publisher), Mary Ann Sillada (Director of Neatnix Philippines), and Ilac Diaz (Pinoy social entrepreneur, activist, and model) relished once again the oeuvre of Cesare with a warm conversation on arts and culture, social issues, politics, and, of course, religion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It was, after all, a night of aesthetic revelation that reopens our eyes to many facets of political and social realities, and a beginning to renew our hope and trust to our new political leader. And as one of Cesare Syjuco’s artworks says, “God Speaks to Cesare,” we (visual artists, writers, poets, and indie filmmakers and musicians) are hoping the same thing that God will already break His long silence and, this time, HE WILL SPEAK TO NOYNOY to bring peace, harmony, and prosperity in our country!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lanie Aquino, Gus Vivar, Ann Sillada, Danny Sillada (me), Jean Marie Syjuco and Silvana Diaz</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-37916271280328762362009-12-02T09:35:00.008+08:002013-02-16T01:01:12.827+08:00An Emerging Art District, Cubao Expo & My Breathing Space<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Published in</em></span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/227413/an-emerging-art-district-cubao-expo-my-breathing-space" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em> Manila Bulletin</em></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“After hard work, the biggest determinant is being in the right place at the right time.”</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>– Michael Bloomberg</em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>What if there’s </strong>a place, peaceful and quiet; a place where harried souls can find tranquility with aesthetic ambiance, exquisite cuisine, art, indie films, music, stylish apparel, and collectible items.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What if there’s such a laid-back place amid the hustle-and-bustle of the metropolis, where one can bring a friend, sip a cup of tea or coffee, browse inspirational books, buy rare items, talk to strangers, or simply unwind from household chores and office works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Somewhere, at the heart of Cubao in Quezon City, there’s a quaint place, an emerging art district, flanked by modern buildings and shopping malls of Araneta Center called “Cubao Expo”. The place retains its 1970s look with two-storey building divided by a “U” shaped street like an open arms, welcoming its visitors and shoppers with placid embrace.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">‘Cubao Expo’ as an emerging Art District</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Well-known among the literati, painters, photographers, collectors, showbiz people, and indie musicians and filmmakers, the “Cubao Expo”, formerly known as “Marikina Expo” along Gen. Romulo St. in Cubao, Quezon City, was built and developed in 1972 by Mercado Realty during the martial law era, housing the finest Marikina shoes in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">However, more than two decades later, the 250 shoe manufacturers in Marikina slowly walked on a descending tramp, until the “Marikina Expo” closed down in 1997 at the height of Asian crisis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Then came the year 2000, with its new administrator and manager Mr. Bujim Aquino, it opens its door again, but this time to visionary entrepreneurs whose merchandise trudges on rare and uniquely designed products. Soon, art galleries, restaurants, indie film mini-theatre, and resto bar, to name a few, flourish on either side of the street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And Cubao Expo, as it has been known today, walks again with renewed joie de vivre sans the shoes, nay, still with a handful of Marikina shoes, averring their presence on some glass windows. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As an emerging art district, it is an alternative place not only for people in the art world, but also for shoppers, collectors, tourists, hipsters, and art enthusiasts, who want to experience the bohemian character of its environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Cubao Expo is also an alternative meeting place for corporate executives, lovers, and politicians with its exquisite cuisine and idyllic atmosphere. Among those restaurants and resto bars with cheaper food, wine, coffee and beverages are Alan’s Grill, Bellini’s, Mogwai, and I Love You Store. Genre Bar, an alternative place for indie musicians and music lovers, can be found at the second floor of Alan’s Grill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Art galleries like White Box, Heritage, Black Soup and Pablo are holding regular exhibit on paintings, drawings and photography from established and emerging artists. Mogwai Cinematheque, on the other hand, with its café and restaurant has a mini-theatre in the second floor, showing short and full-length films from Filipino indie filmmakers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Chic and distinctive apparel, bags, jewelries and accessories are pullulating at the glass windows of Reading Room, I Love You Store, and Oohwables. For those who are looking for rare design and antique furniture, vintage books, vinyl records, and other collectible items, they can find them at Heritage, Old’s Cool, Karma and Vintage Pop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And those who are collecting anime items like posters, CD or DVD movies, toys, comics, and other anime collectibles, the Shinsen Anime is a place for kids, teenagers and young adults. While at Kolektib, one can visit actor and comedian Gabe Mercado holding regular workshop and acting classes in his sanctuary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Cubao Expo is not just the convergence of creative and visionary entrepreneurs. It is a homey and convivial place, creating a subculture among store owners, reviving the vanishing Filipino culture and values of “bayanihan” and “pakikisama”. </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Books of Life by Gener Valerio</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHW7MZQ3mW4lIi40UWHryUlaOWM15Tqt3Hd6nIW5q2iMX3VIpDyVfEsIfX99sA_ptszAN3ucg9LdKbe0WuoTLrlVaCQofxJphq4MC3HOex_83DO4pjahiUJ6rqnYk56XGfSe5c/s1600-h/My+Breathing++Space+by+Gener+Valerio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHW7MZQ3mW4lIi40UWHryUlaOWM15Tqt3Hd6nIW5q2iMX3VIpDyVfEsIfX99sA_ptszAN3ucg9LdKbe0WuoTLrlVaCQofxJphq4MC3HOex_83DO4pjahiUJ6rqnYk56XGfSe5c/s320/My+Breathing++Space+by+Gener+Valerio.jpg" yr="true" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In the same place at Cubao Expo, there emerges a unique store called “My Breathing Space”, named after the title of a non-fiction book by author and entrepreneur Gener Valerio. The place houses unique decorative and functional items, inspirational books, artworks, and fresh flowers. It also serves coffee and tea to the customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The store owner, Gener Valerio, quipped that the place is simply his “breathing space”, where he can invite his friends, sell his merchandise, and offer his inspirational books “My Breathing Space” and “KuroKuroko”, which he called ‘books of life’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The two books are compendium of personal stories and essays, almost Chekhovian in style except that they are vignettes of memoirs. Confessional, as they may seem yet, the books are about the lessons learned from life, with vivid and poignant recollection of experiences, people, and places – trudging on the existential pendulum between bitterness and acceptance, pains and joys, indifference and compassion, defeats and victories, and so forth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">At the end of each informal or less structured essay, one of the salient characteristics of memoirs, the author always seeks to reconcile and proposes sublime lessons that he learned from life, similar to the formulaic “endings” of fairytale stories albeit, taken from personal, real-life stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Gener Valerio’s books are simply amazing to read, provocative, down to earth, witty, and humorous.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Likewise, his haven, “My Breathing Space” at Cubao Expo, is a transcendent place to unwind and unravel from a hectic life with its vibrant interior, photographs, and artworks on the walls.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Above Photo: "Sidewalk of Cubao Expo" by Gener Valerio</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-24931112648370776392009-08-26T08:13:00.018+08:002013-02-16T01:02:14.660+08:00What Are Poets For in a Post Po-Mo Society?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglt0UpM4QlJj0HkKAmKkUCe5_DQ3kGIFCIwuH7JCBduLg8DPsFq4bEc7XGLI-RXQxK721ErpwwxDWxquZ_jUyfd5fAhuxI-R-fGXgNrrn2J0EX_An-IWk8ExcRixWIL85L_FjW/s1600-h/Cover+of+Crowns+and+Oranges,+Works+by+Young+Philippine+Poets.JPG"><span style="font-family: lucida grande;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374060106833567522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglt0UpM4QlJj0HkKAmKkUCe5_DQ3kGIFCIwuH7JCBduLg8DPsFq4bEc7XGLI-RXQxK721ErpwwxDWxquZ_jUyfd5fAhuxI-R-fGXgNrrn2J0EX_An-IWk8ExcRixWIL85L_FjW/s320/Cover+of+Crowns+and+Oranges,+Works+by+Young+Philippine+Poets.JPG" style="float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 210px;" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/219360/what-are-poets-a-post-pomo-society"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Manila Bulletin</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"Lumapos kaw. Ya tapos. Di kaw mauno."</em><br />
(You will succeed. You will finish. Nothing bad will happen to you.)<br />
– Mandaya Panawagtawag Ritual</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>In a far-flung </strong>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.<br />
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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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>POETS AS THINKERS AND GUARDIANS OF TRUTH</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.”<br />
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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.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>CROWNS AND ORANGES: WORKS BY YOUNG PHILIPPINE POETS</strong></span><br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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”.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.”<br />
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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.”<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sillada, Danny Castillones. “What Are Poets For in a Post Po-Mo Society?” <a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/219360/what-are-poets-a-post-pomo-society">Manila Bulletin</a> 7 September 2009: E 1-3. Print.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-88041562150138056792009-07-10T09:57:00.022+08:002013-02-16T01:35:54.128+08:00The Abueva and the New Sisa Murals at the National Center for Mental Health<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBF1l_WqCSM7uE6ebE1TyEWfRE1dKOQWB5PV_peuLo8qGD79eIY6DB8QpDTiYU2jX1Tx6wc64QaWe45wUrjD_Oija5L_7L6-8ntmeboogSfVejWA93frKBc4urAxm_vQYUi46/s1600-h/National+Artist+Napoleon+Abueva.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356650655948278642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBF1l_WqCSM7uE6ebE1TyEWfRE1dKOQWB5PV_peuLo8qGD79eIY6DB8QpDTiYU2jX1Tx6wc64QaWe45wUrjD_Oija5L_7L6-8ntmeboogSfVejWA93frKBc4urAxm_vQYUi46/s400/National+Artist+Napoleon+Abueva.JPG" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 343px;" /></a></div>
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<strong style="font-size: 78%;">Napoleon Abueva, National Artist for Sculpture</strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Manila Bulletin</strong></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em><b>“We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!”</b></em></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">~ George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)</span></span><br />
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<br /><span style="color: #ff6666;"><strong><em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">E</span></em></strong></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">ven 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.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">THE ABUEVA MURAL</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2DBNreRgF96yeQj8N8dZncLjGe_FUrceHq_UD-Gku9QQIIrjPFQfIlhdsUnZ2KC9-NXBG-LtorTeYxhb0h8kXeQpUGiJQBW5yOsUCiH5TePU2J2lzU2wPSmpemczvM11-5Ha/s1600-h/35-year+old+NCMH+Mural+by+National+Artist+Napoleon+Abueva.JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356647006177975170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2DBNreRgF96yeQj8N8dZncLjGe_FUrceHq_UD-Gku9QQIIrjPFQfIlhdsUnZ2KC9-NXBG-LtorTeYxhb0h8kXeQpUGiJQBW5yOsUCiH5TePU2J2lzU2wPSmpemczvM11-5Ha/s320/35-year+old+NCMH+Mural+by+National+Artist+Napoleon+Abueva.JPG" style="float: left; height: 229px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVouQHVX7nMFGLed1tfGCyOZl21etwtT7k352-q6UnkojHZm5ydhm-rdnQP1UyUU2bQ9xVQM55VgNsQwzbzeWN-Qgjqc2JPyz92YlXpGlztOYyVU0SPbYVJY6ofTu7C7Sr3b4/s1600-h/Re-dedication+of+Abueva+Mural+at+NCMH.JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356648448146303154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVouQHVX7nMFGLed1tfGCyOZl21etwtT7k352-q6UnkojHZm5ydhm-rdnQP1UyUU2bQ9xVQM55VgNsQwzbzeWN-Qgjqc2JPyz92YlXpGlztOYyVU0SPbYVJY6ofTu7C7Sr3b4/s320/Re-dedication+of+Abueva+Mural+at+NCMH.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 229px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">THE NEW SISA MURAL</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy69oQG9m4zYOXEbREhKZUOvOk2eFE9UDmC5rwcpkTMvZtSl3xLlUTVYV2Ngbkqi-mePdHQAAxIFR6n8m_3jJQhHPL6miu97ocbbmrAENZZPE8LJTUnhkqLTWRCnd70vfXsLQK/s1600-h/The+New+Sisa+Mural+at+the+National+Center+for+Mental+Health.JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356646060010071490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy69oQG9m4zYOXEbREhKZUOvOk2eFE9UDmC5rwcpkTMvZtSl3xLlUTVYV2Ngbkqi-mePdHQAAxIFR6n8m_3jJQhHPL6miu97ocbbmrAENZZPE8LJTUnhkqLTWRCnd70vfXsLQK/s320/The+New+Sisa+Mural+at+the+National+Center+for+Mental+Health.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 237px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbtL5RTGYNk_CzqdFVc8Kvz2K_hB7U9QV6JXRhfl6-If5vPWja0-A9jQct_aDEOZJQP1PUW4-_Q3VlBWIeBLPuAGpKoKeedqYYsRqZ7zPpCFNZ1yjXZbDkEIkZb4l4Ye_33PSp/s1600-h/The+new+mural+with+NCMH+officers+and+staff.JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356647387753710130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbtL5RTGYNk_CzqdFVc8Kvz2K_hB7U9QV6JXRhfl6-If5vPWja0-A9jQct_aDEOZJQP1PUW4-_Q3VlBWIeBLPuAGpKoKeedqYYsRqZ7zPpCFNZ1yjXZbDkEIkZb4l4Ye_33PSp/s320/The+new+mural+with+NCMH+officers+and+staff.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 229px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; text-align: start;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span><span style="text-align: start;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>*Above artwophotos:</strong> (1) National Artist Napoleon Abueva, (2) 35-year old NCMH Mural by National Artist Napoleon Abueva, (3) Re-dedication of Abueva Mural at NCMH, (4) The New Sisa Mural at the National Center for Mental Health, (5) The new mural with NCMH officers and staff</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-41294102439082754402009-07-08T19:18:00.031+08:002013-02-16T01:04:48.316+08:00Something about Sarah & Her Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZS2DISd9ZKX59qSw2pkfJASeNYfUV8PNwtVCj1xvJQwcccvDuq6mBBjcvWdVnvWZZFRBwAkahnqFXjQa8hOBiyjYlnzx5Pdpy1OY4KYeTkSzgbX85fDt8CyI-AE7PPr8Rbqr/s1600/Copy+of+Sarah%252C+photo+courtesy+of+the+artist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJZS2DISd9ZKX59qSw2pkfJASeNYfUV8PNwtVCj1xvJQwcccvDuq6mBBjcvWdVnvWZZFRBwAkahnqFXjQa8hOBiyjYlnzx5Pdpy1OY4KYeTkSzgbX85fDt8CyI-AE7PPr8Rbqr/s400/Copy+of+Sarah%252C+photo+courtesy+of+the+artist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Published in <a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/220371/something-about-sarah-her-art">Manila Bulletin</a></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">– From the movie “Amores Perros”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>“IF THERE'S ANYTHING</strong> 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.”<br />
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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.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>“I and THOU” ENCOUNTER</strong></span><br />
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</span><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaavXyojxZflAhoqBtlwBev5-woad7RlV4y6qqV26WNSYKB7XrW8WSZRrnbGeNT42yLg000JoNx5sQupv5jfBR0Yq_TyMcSSfAgYuHjKhGtGYhf685LMYveCBHGj-oQsP5ksh/s1600/I+Have+the+Moon+by+Sarah+Gaugler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="370" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356047825229229554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRaavXyojxZflAhoqBtlwBev5-woad7RlV4y6qqV26WNSYKB7XrW8WSZRrnbGeNT42yLg000JoNx5sQupv5jfBR0Yq_TyMcSSfAgYuHjKhGtGYhf685LMYveCBHGj-oQsP5ksh/s400/I+Have+the+Moon+by+Sarah+Gaugler.jpg" style="height: 296px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">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.</span><br />
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<strong>A GLIMPSE ON SARAH’S WORLD</strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“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...”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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…”</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">However, 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!</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Don’t worry about it! Smile! Breathe! Count your blessings!”</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">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.”</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.”</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You’re not alone! Many people love you! Draw! Paint! Don’t worry about it! Smile! Breathe! Count your blessings!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>REAL-LIFE HEROINE</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong></strong></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vmRGIA_QZuVX3t3hyK9RTLFUIltL0AyOCaDGKZN3pApAWzZMxQrA2jh08A3D-hbseQUhA0sggHbAI3vVOv-i4VdBt0zioa51z-J0dSToViIk7nBPqkT4ds7UBn039Tbe9q6a/s1600/SOMETHING+ABOUT+SARAH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356051744181572546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vmRGIA_QZuVX3t3hyK9RTLFUIltL0AyOCaDGKZN3pApAWzZMxQrA2jh08A3D-hbseQUhA0sggHbAI3vVOv-i4VdBt0zioa51z-J0dSToViIk7nBPqkT4ds7UBn039Tbe9q6a/s320/SOMETHING+ABOUT+SARAH.jpg" style="height: 320px; margin-top: 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJa6UBFOtrZnj4vC5j2heXEtIuedD3scYkkCunSWa69YsOfuRzXUujrgwUIeFeccTo0TJRaee6Ye-GLnw7lQBH4kzL41eSSNoeppJVjqJy5Ok6tceJK2FAKVMvvBHVZP6-hEI/s1600-h/Strawberry+Fields+by+Sarah+Gaugler.jpg"></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">*Above artworks by Sarah D. Gaugler</span></strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; text-align: start;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span><span style="text-align: start;"></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-1097760023805117942009-05-09T00:40:00.015+08:002013-02-16T01:10:13.942+08:00WILLIAM YU and His Art of Divine Worship<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuS4cLiJWzakYWeTm4oMiQvSCHAWWPVv_b5a5ekrnfm-sctjB9dMQTBHBCFfFuqv9JLTodZQc5jTOPQDk_d13K9SsH0jPZEp2GYozKZCvwULcobO1ci_RC2YRyb7kBgGVBbyqF/s1600-h/William+Yu+in+his+studio+in+Alabang.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333705228763815346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuS4cLiJWzakYWeTm4oMiQvSCHAWWPVv_b5a5ekrnfm-sctjB9dMQTBHBCFfFuqv9JLTodZQc5jTOPQDk_d13K9SsH0jPZEp2GYozKZCvwULcobO1ci_RC2YRyb7kBgGVBbyqF/s320/William+Yu+in+his+studio+in+Alabang.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/204768/william-yu-and-his-art-divine-worship" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Manila Bulletin</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><strong><em>“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."</em></strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">- Michelangelo (1475-1564)</span></span><span style="color: #666600;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;"><em><strong>H</strong></em></span>is 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>“HALLELISM” AS AN </strong><strong>ART OF DIVINE WORSHIP</strong></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8GoeiRaDPuJJYhh7HOFDyLCWmUi62uGeo6m3b6cOcsGdujP_W7je9jNqcURJuD1t5q1mG5dhmiRozAZG-fXolR8IxiIOr3vtBSc_RD8aHxSsEQjNGGKNZUQADB9Uzr-iOyi5/s1600-h/Dscf0074.jpg"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333701224588202514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8GoeiRaDPuJJYhh7HOFDyLCWmUi62uGeo6m3b6cOcsGdujP_W7je9jNqcURJuD1t5q1mG5dhmiRozAZG-fXolR8IxiIOr3vtBSc_RD8aHxSsEQjNGGKNZUQADB9Uzr-iOyi5/s320/Dscf0074.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.<br />
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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.<br />
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“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.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“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.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKdbiVsxi0hiFzeAZwJULqFNAa4uMIRvqQnQY073vbOPeH1k0W6gywQ3l39Ym8yf-3i3VeTwmA0ctcpb4l3JJ1o4BnI05WPpccz32ywy6zgNozMCAzN0TWCEJ5AxluWDtnmJs/s1600-h/Dscf0055.jpg"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333701217182646434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKdbiVsxi0hiFzeAZwJULqFNAa4uMIRvqQnQY073vbOPeH1k0W6gywQ3l39Ym8yf-3i3VeTwmA0ctcpb4l3JJ1o4BnI05WPpccz32ywy6zgNozMCAzN0TWCEJ5AxluWDtnmJs/s320/Dscf0055.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“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).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.”</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">FROM SECULAR TO SPIRITUAL</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElGHutaJbV1QxRdcDygBgORvR-FnylxprYx39RG9TKFKMMx1aSFP5C1zlVBunNX8TwzLjhcVp8zjIJ3edAIuYsxWYpXUfO3ByzIYBJ-3UTcMWtOe_BQmHTIQ063toukvrx3Rg/s1600-h/Dscf0063.jpg"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333700343249696738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElGHutaJbV1QxRdcDygBgORvR-FnylxprYx39RG9TKFKMMx1aSFP5C1zlVBunNX8TwzLjhcVp8zjIJ3edAIuYsxWYpXUfO3ByzIYBJ-3UTcMWtOe_BQmHTIQ063toukvrx3Rg/s320/Dscf0063.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In essence, his art transcends the conventional attitude of art making; it is a metaphysical and spiritual quest for the Divine Truth.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">THE VIRTUE OF FAITH AND HUMILITY</span></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHusiMrw7c2iyOvzVnqyrn983-hgYtmTkExCttc1nTsCPC_TydTWxaOW7P0Y39hFG1CJQ-xSWjOCLe7y4oDFwmWyFB22XWTDG4LGAyrBMLnJ2bE8BQRiiFuDRQValsBag0XOsM/s1600-h/William+Yu,+holding+a+pallete,+with+his+friends+and+collectors+in+the+US..JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333701235973385650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHusiMrw7c2iyOvzVnqyrn983-hgYtmTkExCttc1nTsCPC_TydTWxaOW7P0Y39hFG1CJQ-xSWjOCLe7y4oDFwmWyFB22XWTDG4LGAyrBMLnJ2bE8BQRiiFuDRQValsBag0XOsM/s320/William+Yu,+holding+a+pallete,+with+his+friends+and+collectors+in+the+US..JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 278px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; text-align: start;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span><span style="text-align: start;"></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-51433790905130189262009-04-22T15:55:00.017+08:002013-02-16T01:13:19.877+08:00The Pathological Migration of Truth in a Post Po-Mo Society (Culture & Philosophy)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPW6ynnet4v90SyCqrsSHzlKcJ1VZaHKeUy0yLQqM1QogErKYHRZ93wZOXPFCwetKeX7WoH7SrHu2p-iYcq09hg9gSkEdzcV6nBbPRKJKq0cXb7scBj1tDXDoTCC0sWQ1X9sL/s1600-h/The+Pathological+Migration+of+Truth+in+Aesthetics+(works+on+paper).JPG"><span style="color: black;"></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666600;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 78%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyhNzSTaEf6mkmna8WFNAXU1_vt7H6aRiQ2UtSbGckri_uHSlvfk-7v-nMRmHN3sPCZuj_2t6qKgcyw7V8w7l1XqQa7zZR97XEPXvKcf3mTHcRXaE-Y_cOXY7kMljiFy0d4a87/s1600-h/The+Pathological+Migration+of+Truth+in+Aesthetics+(works+on+paper+by+Danny+Sillada).jpg"><strong><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327432142756918802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyhNzSTaEf6mkmna8WFNAXU1_vt7H6aRiQ2UtSbGckri_uHSlvfk-7v-nMRmHN3sPCZuj_2t6qKgcyw7V8w7l1XqQa7zZR97XEPXvKcf3mTHcRXaE-Y_cOXY7kMljiFy0d4a87/s320/The+Pathological+Migration+of+Truth+in+Aesthetics+(works+on+paper+by+Danny+Sillada).jpg" style="float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></strong></a></span></span><br />
Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture), August 25, 2008, pp. F 1-2.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><em><span style="color: #660000;">"</span></em></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #660000;"><strong><em>If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things."</em></strong></span></span></span> <br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">- Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #666600; font-weight: bold;">I</span><b>n a convoluted </b>world of mass media</em>, 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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Does Truth still matter or is it just subservient to the created world of mass media and popular culture?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conformity of Freedom and Created Needs</span></strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhidPi01sQ0lpLMjekmIDgDXmuVQA-G60_m1wwG8vr0RkKneo-KF3N-483h7S1Hb-FnR2igluuib6h4ybzG8Q6m5KM5rdpDQa0JWzv81jM3IJgay6xMog1BeewrcakLnhmiq-bB/s1600-h/The+Truth+Behind+the+Mask+(oil+on+canvas+by+Danny+Sillada).JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327424937144102450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhidPi01sQ0lpLMjekmIDgDXmuVQA-G60_m1wwG8vr0RkKneo-KF3N-483h7S1Hb-FnR2igluuib6h4ybzG8Q6m5KM5rdpDQa0JWzv81jM3IJgay6xMog1BeewrcakLnhmiq-bB/s320/The+Truth+Behind+the+Mask+(oil+on+canvas+by+Danny+Sillada).JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 289px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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”.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><strong><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Pathological Migration of Truth</span></span></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTIq0LZZ5kkr_355xV3LDIptQRGlZWhFWYTaovxWyRWKYHRuSTAx6FJsHm7ZJ2tRcxrExMvav7FjemF2U7rUFse0L0G6gB-1zSXfd66cs7v3J3FE6_EqKqrToR91LcM46FKZD/s1600-h/Truth+Without+Reason,+pen+%26+ink+by+Danny+Sillada+web.JPG"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327424713585161186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTIq0LZZ5kkr_355xV3LDIptQRGlZWhFWYTaovxWyRWKYHRuSTAx6FJsHm7ZJ2tRcxrExMvav7FjemF2U7rUFse0L0G6gB-1zSXfd66cs7v3J3FE6_EqKqrToR91LcM46FKZD/s320/Truth+Without+Reason,+pen+%26+ink+by+Danny+Sillada+web.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 259px;" /></span></a></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">The Defragmentation of Convoluted Truths</span></strong></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKMFo7OcO0-a3lW4mOedbnJIlL4HMvyULkhzEpyKOzQGSPCpauyVrqY9GmGalOsVoI0NE1lBuPzW6lF8VfljLHhxvfJ77L9vIsHmnhPmfwFwpRdH4VrSKrcMky4bRmNdh_HFp/s1600-h/Created+Truths+in+Art+(works+on+canvas+by+Danny+Sillada).jpg"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327425244708049426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiKMFo7OcO0-a3lW4mOedbnJIlL4HMvyULkhzEpyKOzQGSPCpauyVrqY9GmGalOsVoI0NE1lBuPzW6lF8VfljLHhxvfJ77L9vIsHmnhPmfwFwpRdH4VrSKrcMky4bRmNdh_HFp/s320/Created+Truths+in+Art+(works+on+canvas+by+Danny+Sillada).jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">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.</span></span><br />
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<strong style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Above Artworks:</strong><em style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(1) <strong>The Pathological Migration of Truth in Aesthetics</strong>, works on paper by Danny C. Sillada, (2) <strong>The Truth Behind the Mask</strong> (oil on canvas by Danny Sillada), (3) <strong>Truth Without Reason</strong>, pen & ink by Danny Sillada, (4) <strong>Created Truths in Art</strong> (works on canvas by Danny Sillada).</em><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>How to cite this essay:</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sillada, Danny Castillones. “The Pathological Migration of Truth in a Post Po-Mo Society”. <i>Manila Bulletin</i> (Arts and Culture) 25 August 2008; F 1-2. Print.</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-41190034146479582962008-10-02T21:16:00.019+08:002013-02-16T01:18:12.715+08:00Revelation of Secrets & the Aesthetics of ‘Syjuco Tres Marias’<div align="center">
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<em style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #996633;">"The things we keep secret are always bigger and more frightening in the darkness than they are in the light of day."</span></strong></em></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">– Elspeth Allcott</span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br /><em><span style="font-size: 85%;">Published in </span></em></span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/09/08/20080908134619.html"><strong><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;"><em>Manila Bulletin</em></span></strong></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><em>, Pages F1-2, Lifestyle Section, September 8, 2008</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><b>In the corpus </b>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><strong>MAXINE SYJUCO: “A SECRET LIFE”</strong></span><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">MICHELLINE SYJUCO: “THE PRIMAL FORMS”</span></strong><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUDE_SwfBLLkMVrHmU0TUDVtQ9KiAHzcSG18C5ys5pAqeCiyYjewoq7dSPtDyLMpx3DVuiIjVyAINj_YJAmFF8-C6Drf30Fyt-SnAdCv1g9Shwyv11ZqMfqVHP0ewmr5U_2G3W/s1600-h/Michelline+Syjuco+for+web.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268084596465342786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUDE_SwfBLLkMVrHmU0TUDVtQ9KiAHzcSG18C5ys5pAqeCiyYjewoq7dSPtDyLMpx3DVuiIjVyAINj_YJAmFF8-C6Drf30Fyt-SnAdCv1g9Shwyv11ZqMfqVHP0ewmr5U_2G3W/s400/Michelline+Syjuco+for+web.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBasPuilFdoKAnTsmmg689i2kNpo73PYN375YZgTiN8zxd9wQNHgf2uK2yFkqNqh8Gc3WHYFox7O8YTA3XFbL9M_tS_Ti2NX1wRYajW_K6BGRuzZVkPWLrLEb_Z3mqxzV9Hl9M/s1600-h/Michelline+Syjuco+(center)+and+her++sister,+Maxine,+modelling+her+Armadillion+collection.jpg"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"></span></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">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”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><strong>TRIX SYJUCO: “THE BLACK BRIDE”</strong></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwuMgfW6qXrxN-dpFFNGjcL9Dvxx7JMpQUzXnLR_8cS58CA1xiu1GhjBAtv-AZGI4lsSU7yrlEBLRHYJ82gLfalesvisfiqwmwLdqsc5rTJMB1vhqhnmcGYBrZkjsKn_y_UYf/s1600-h/Trix+Syjuco%27s+Black+Bride+for+web.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268084905710552450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwuMgfW6qXrxN-dpFFNGjcL9Dvxx7JMpQUzXnLR_8cS58CA1xiu1GhjBAtv-AZGI4lsSU7yrlEBLRHYJ82gLfalesvisfiqwmwLdqsc5rTJMB1vhqhnmcGYBrZkjsKn_y_UYf/s400/Trix+Syjuco%27s+Black+Bride+for+web.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHgWhU-HHFp_9q-Zy8-vIxw98g_u9QO_Nmk0hLz7q-KCBf_nTS9eXOJTCnJNXejaxtOQDhrHMfAVufbYYuVEBbz2FGaI8cw0KQ2a5eyw9_NREkLdjsnQ5wpARCS8zGGR3SoQuH/s1600-h/Trix+Syjuco%27s+Black+Bride,+++with+Danny+Sillada+(Photo+by+Richard+Canuto).jpg"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"></span></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></span><br />
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Danny Castillones Sillada<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-64923526602338906582008-07-03T08:59:00.030+08:002013-02-16T01:23:39.961+08:00Aesthetics of Collocation & the Women of Bencab<div align="center">
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<em><strong><span style="color: #6666cc;">“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”</span></strong></em></div>
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~ Albert Camus</div>
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<span style="font-size: 85%;">Published at Manila Bulletin<br />Lifestyle Section (Arts & Culture)<br />Page F 1-2, June 30, 2008</span><br />
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<b>“Mass Culture,” as </b>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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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“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.<br />
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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”.<br />
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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.<br />
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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”.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><strong>MEDIA-COLLOCATION AS AN AESTHETIC DEVICE</strong></span><br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268080220923567442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizrg0_rss0YJtkxmZciepxuFUTm1yvAEQDGfmYb24FX-u2gf6xYh_sq69gPai_YCLTg5q5gFIQd3RcPxXzJTECS-StoO0gB4RzcIzd7NDTF7wQixQ_wEo3CNUq0-WJwesk-8k/s400/Campbell+Soup+I+Portfolio,+1968,+by+Andy+Warhol.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 104px;" />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”.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268080461141689426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYTXMaoHeDj85TDYDwQ_l9LPjIcxRc4i-NJFCxEDMN0eXReZD7N2WS6Y4zj5eZQtkXMAW53udvqbt9Z3IgHg8xit_r5Qblj1-6zb1D9Hk67NBOVxLlJ-RSZpta2jFkgABqBav/s400/Figure+with+Umbrella,+2005,+by+Francisco+Viri.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 240px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" />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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: #990000;">BENCAB’S WOMEN AND HIS MEDIA-COLLOCATION</span></strong><br />
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268080959842437330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BHrM7oo7Z3a9_z0ATDG8mmi1GI5jp-gG53_eWJnYBJyf_59y0Mbhp7OyQQ6dIi6YMOpYys2SjJF0kdQXMrvnPbb0hkUT3sJ8quIOA4JPjxkX21MIB-QpB0F4x_got2fcvJxl/s400/Nude+Variations+and+Bencab+(photo+by+Erwin+Obcemea).jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 286px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" />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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218593247189686130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwAiwMole9Uh4vQSy1K_auR2tGmbFLVQoh7mtCkWBr7frfri5FCEzIKtcQYN3TeHBqtTuT3VflsurhXyi8V10Hm6hEtUGWRGwyhdJDJYSd-hl-_H-Q2mp8ugsm3Ou0gAbKZXuj/s320/Related+Images+01+by+BenCab.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" />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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268081212633280018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkC1IuWsN-Snk63a1XZMZZil9dzUsscW4pfhigE0iq4zc3ZsGpuipKWFBRYukKZFXyV2gRLINZ_mzp-NOJAywSQKMDwOC-4jr6MY2K6qYzctoAjXnpad9syxOJHP47obe2eo8/s400/Related+Images+02+by+BenCab.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 297px;" />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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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© Danny Castillones Sillada<br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><b>Above Arworks:</b> (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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-67872566330951357532008-05-20T11:53:00.011+08:002013-02-16T01:28:40.824+08:00Lives and Loves of Artists & their Nude Models<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9NvKvijHpCk7dXlcRKTCgmga8ie4zuvblQlaELMvBWNlcIkSlTzJaXirc3rI3Msgr3ItGjBo_NUl3WA_IQ3K-6xGqJisVMWTtqJ-H0X0d3qWdRWhvlqPjErdTp0v84aOL9bF/s1600-h/The+Luncheon+on+the+Grass++(1862+-+1863)+by+%C3%89douard+Manet.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268110281241061890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9NvKvijHpCk7dXlcRKTCgmga8ie4zuvblQlaELMvBWNlcIkSlTzJaXirc3rI3Msgr3ItGjBo_NUl3WA_IQ3K-6xGqJisVMWTtqJ-H0X0d3qWdRWhvlqPjErdTp0v84aOL9bF/s400/The+Luncheon+on+the+Grass++(1862+-+1863)+by+%C3%89douard+Manet.jpg" style="float: left; height: 316px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #6666cc; font-size: 85%;"><strong>The Luncheon on the Grass (1862 - 1863) by Édouard Manet (left photo).</strong></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/archive_pages.php?url=http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/05/19/20080519125051.html"><span style="color: #6633ff; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Manila Bulletin</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, Lifestyle Section (Art), Page F 1-2, May 19, 2008</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><b>The most controversial </b>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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE LIVES AND LOVES OF ARTISTS AND MODELS</span></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWDoxDYNw7SH-ztCpQk6UcaQ_qgBBang6yUa0pNFXOC5fQmJDQGf79AmrGrkBND5ACOdljwpavjI950RuipYmxgGpeBvaJ1hYLqbowvXaTITQ61yucM5YTe_nyRwITcJSN2Kt/s1600-h/The+Empty+Frame+(2006)+by+Fidel+Sarmiento+.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268110802590427634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWDoxDYNw7SH-ztCpQk6UcaQ_qgBBang6yUa0pNFXOC5fQmJDQGf79AmrGrkBND5ACOdljwpavjI950RuipYmxgGpeBvaJ1hYLqbowvXaTITQ61yucM5YTe_nyRwITcJSN2Kt/s400/The+Empty+Frame+(2006)+by+Fidel+Sarmiento+.jpg" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 291px;" /></a>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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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</span></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUDE ART IN THE PHILIPPINES</span></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ1TRchZzqy3uNGXExFMbuX4nYzWTnFE4UFteP3xJmo70TBr14QILKGGJxUAHu0d4rARs063pCJZHuQFECGl5n9gIKMjgo2P62XXcg1MW4BPqYK4_Rb6tk-GqxHLi7VJKseQuL/s1600-h/Blush+(2004)+by+Andi+Cubi+.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268120739792497874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ1TRchZzqy3uNGXExFMbuX4nYzWTnFE4UFteP3xJmo70TBr14QILKGGJxUAHu0d4rARs063pCJZHuQFECGl5n9gIKMjgo2P62XXcg1MW4BPqYK4_Rb6tk-GqxHLi7VJKseQuL/s400/Blush+(2004)+by+Andi+Cubi+.jpg" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 291px;" /></a>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.<br />
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<strong>D.C. SILLADA:</strong> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">What is the main concept of your book on Nude Art in the Philippines?<br />
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong>MANNY DULDULAO:</strong><br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<strong>D.C. SILLADA:</strong> What is the attitude and concept of Nude Art amid our conservative culture from 1930s through 1970s and 1980s onwards?<br />
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong>MANNY DULDULAO:</strong><br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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.<br />
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<strong>D.C. SILLADA:</strong> The Filipina nude models: how they respond to exposing their naked bodies in front of the artists, considering our conservative culture toward nudity?<br />
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong>MANNY DULDULAO:</strong><br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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...”<br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJz5d-HUNKq1-5n3GURzfSMmgtVc9E7D0Pn6cY8izYIm703tlwmxYn4hYxnlJWEJQAks1S2eny__C-ku_LeZc2h5qdQlzlGFpg07AnbMtdOnfIuGjoLmAWad6DGN7WdYBhe0X/s1600-h/Ripened+Womb+(1999)+by+Danny+C.+Sillada+.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268111059738986498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJz5d-HUNKq1-5n3GURzfSMmgtVc9E7D0Pn6cY8izYIm703tlwmxYn4hYxnlJWEJQAks1S2eny__C-ku_LeZc2h5qdQlzlGFpg07AnbMtdOnfIuGjoLmAWad6DGN7WdYBhe0X/s400/Ripened+Womb+(1999)+by+Danny+C.+Sillada+.jpg" style="float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 286px;" /></a>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.<br />
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<strong>D.C. SILLADA:</strong> What is your main thrust in the book in relation to the artists and their nude models?<br />
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</span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong>MANNY DULDULAO:</strong><br />
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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.</span><br />
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</span>© Danny Castillones Sillada<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 85%;"><b>Above Photos:</b> (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.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-1106362778164449332008-05-17T21:45:00.010+08:002013-02-16T01:24:49.294+08:00A Tribute to a Mindanaoan Painter (The Art of Max Adlao)<div align="center">
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<strong style="color: #cc6600; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 100%;">“I put my heart and my soul into my art, and have lost my mind in the process…”</strong></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;">Published at <a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/issues/2008/05/05/20080505123725.html">Manila Bullen</a>, Lifestyle Section (Art), May 5, 2008</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong>The summer wind is drifting through the lattice </strong>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">MAX ADLAO’S LAUGHING CHRIST</span></strong><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">6 X 10 feet Mural, 1996. Oil on Canvas by Danny Sillada & Max Adlao.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Permanently installed at the Roman Catholic Office, Arzobispado, Intramuros, Manila.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">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.<br /><br />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…”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span><br /><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Detail of Risen Christ by Danny Sillada, 1996.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Behind this portrait is a laughing Christ of Max Adlao</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">MAX ADLAO’S ARTISTIC JOURNEY</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-wAtdgC0NYd5G58t77uMBQT-xHACNKGX5d2Uz57VnBjg1an7b2AlGWLXYwACDfyKOcunrX5C2flZxEPU3HmddkJQd9eD3eUtZKFS4Uv3UrDW0ZpJNV-XXgRnoWn2rkU6QiGIM/s1600-h/unfinished+forr+web.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268130759532673858" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-wAtdgC0NYd5G58t77uMBQT-xHACNKGX5d2Uz57VnBjg1an7b2AlGWLXYwACDfyKOcunrX5C2flZxEPU3HmddkJQd9eD3eUtZKFS4Uv3UrDW0ZpJNV-XXgRnoWn2rkU6QiGIM/s400/unfinished+forr+web.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 286px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">FILIPINO ART ON THE STREETS OF GERMAN SOIL</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxcyK2IHxDpQQfWEf5y_OBGt4EED2wxtFPZto98e5PJKJaHxg2qajKVUXKAUOICHWGwbJ8jRYigZK-E9yQuBocHgykHsfQRZ_Zamvq6T_4ttlokRsEQfXnG6W0Aq0aDsuHbU1r/s1600-h/Max%25202.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268130753424654674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxcyK2IHxDpQQfWEf5y_OBGt4EED2wxtFPZto98e5PJKJaHxg2qajKVUXKAUOICHWGwbJ8jRYigZK-E9yQuBocHgykHsfQRZ_Zamvq6T_4ttlokRsEQfXnG6W0Aq0aDsuHbU1r/s400/Max%25202.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 286px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;">FINDING THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE</span><br /></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7VSRe64W29E6lKrYZmT2oABQrFPXXcmT3CmwHkeA8cZeevGmDy7JWFTRn9jUKVZe4Z-hDkX5HcCgIlayFcj9kovcshehbdopX0hQHDNseeyiowMDeNpbdhiGRdpNNDRuBzvdJ/s1600-h/Max%25201_1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268130742603020882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7VSRe64W29E6lKrYZmT2oABQrFPXXcmT3CmwHkeA8cZeevGmDy7JWFTRn9jUKVZe4Z-hDkX5HcCgIlayFcj9kovcshehbdopX0hQHDNseeyiowMDeNpbdhiGRdpNNDRuBzvdJ/s400/Max%25201_1.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 286px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1kQRdBOV9KnbYk-QEebBmJnJYr_xFrqyOjrHJZJpVw6nAHOYKDLtVZ-dECiSOjlHyI8L8mQr2AlW4MIeRa0PUwcPKHY0LGAuT-paVJBIe72SE31EQtZ5Ok7w-vbT9EtOHrsP/s1600-h/Father+%26+Son,+1996,++Oil+on+Canvas+by+Max+Adlao.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268128859414743842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1kQRdBOV9KnbYk-QEebBmJnJYr_xFrqyOjrHJZJpVw6nAHOYKDLtVZ-dECiSOjlHyI8L8mQr2AlW4MIeRa0PUwcPKHY0LGAuT-paVJBIe72SE31EQtZ5Ok7w-vbT9EtOHrsP/s400/Father+%26+Son,+1996,++Oil+on+Canvas+by+Max+Adlao.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 320px;" /></a>MY KIND OF ARTIST</span></strong>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.<br /><br />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.<br />© Danny C. Sillada</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">I would lay down sketches on the entire canvas and divide</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">among us the portions where we would feel at ease to paint.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><strong><br /></strong></span><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/121/1990/1024/maxie.jpg"><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;"><img border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/img/121/1990/320/maxie.jpg" style="border-bottom: #660000 2px solid; border-left: #660000 2px solid; border-right: #660000 2px solid; border-top: #660000 2px solid; margin: 2px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 85%;"><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Photo by Danny Sillada (c) 2005. Posted by </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://www.hello.com/" target="ext">Hello</a></span> <br />
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© Danny Castillones Sillada</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-44077347100465414792008-05-12T22:37:00.002+08:002013-02-16T01:27:20.977+08:00The Poetic Revelation in Language and Culture: The Vision of Sonny Villafania<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglIcsl3qd0FiuPu-HO1brBi8PpkRX1WNLzOiYcgXew_LD4A2cIDuw4goexyYSolXfzxlPoCkfmuzrtAQBI1CFVXo1G34YnOEHjku3JYS0XIg4IPZVvqoxX8jiH2E6bLJ0SaZp1/s1600-h/MALAGILION,+a+new+book+by+Sonny+Villafania.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268152421446876978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglIcsl3qd0FiuPu-HO1brBi8PpkRX1WNLzOiYcgXew_LD4A2cIDuw4goexyYSolXfzxlPoCkfmuzrtAQBI1CFVXo1G34YnOEHjku3JYS0XIg4IPZVvqoxX8jiH2E6bLJ0SaZp1/s400/MALAGILION,+a+new+book+by+Sonny+Villafania.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 267px;" /></a><br />
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<em style="color: #6666cc; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 100%;"><strong>“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”</strong></em></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">-- Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">Manila Bulletin (Lifestyle section, pp. F1-F2, May 12, 2008)</span><br /><br /><b>Poetry, according to </b>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE POETIC REVELATION OF SONNY VILLAFANIA</span></strong><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE ELEGANCE OF LANGUAGE AND ITS ACCESSIBILITY TO THE PEOPLE</span></strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCUEMGK_SYoDUew6_XF2Dwk2fTRUkUigaCShPVzuHXuwZDpeJik2QwZr15vNpF_TEAAvBVdrBqFJJh-jTavFjn7mOtY6V6hIG6z2CeU9LpaMjDHOyizFtD3ATSAd5YvK6scx7/s1600-h/malagilion_poster.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268152423692710130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCUEMGK_SYoDUew6_XF2Dwk2fTRUkUigaCShPVzuHXuwZDpeJik2QwZr15vNpF_TEAAvBVdrBqFJJh-jTavFjn7mOtY6V6hIG6z2CeU9LpaMjDHOyizFtD3ATSAd5YvK6scx7/s400/malagilion_poster.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 287px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br /><em>Panon takan aroen Pinabli?<br />Ipetek ko man ira’y sonata<br />Anlongen ko man ira’y sonito<br />Ag iraya onkana anganko<br />Ed puson agto amta’y ondengel<br />Ed saray Dangoan na panangaro</em><br />--------------<br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE BOOK IN THE CONTEXT OF PHILIPPINE LITERATURE</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000;">THE POET’S ADVOCAY</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8376onvvjUczMd4SjqG3MbQe5O8GzBqdCzIVWTA0RongkH3EgUWcHrskN2HQz4S3f4w7ihXEed7GgHWMPaPqqLN_ciewXw9Ps8ljZZhyphenhyphenMMnsVylF1t5ofHk1PxM_PH-NlYrd/s1600-h/malagilion_xl.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268152426003766818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG8376onvvjUczMd4SjqG3MbQe5O8GzBqdCzIVWTA0RongkH3EgUWcHrskN2HQz4S3f4w7ihXEed7GgHWMPaPqqLN_ciewXw9Ps8ljZZhyphenhyphenMMnsVylF1t5ofHk1PxM_PH-NlYrd/s400/malagilion_xl.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 300px;" /></a>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 <strong><a href="http://www.dalityapi.com/">Dalityapi</a></strong>, for example, is a venue for all international and regional writers, who write in their respective languages.<br /><br />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.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 16px;">© Danny Castillones Sillada</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><strong>Above photos:</strong> (1) Book Cover, (2) The Author, (3) Poster of the book.</span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-89339020729820624592008-04-24T11:51:00.016+08:002009-05-09T15:26:08.927+08:00Weapons of Mass Destruction in Cesare & Jean Marie Syjuco’s Aesthetics<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jaMTov_qltp4Y6aqR2jLqDkZ_cgvVe0YGdBKE2BV_FaZpeURR16gBpvOdpTT84gmgfN5m2f9jl8nIAU8AWzoPNhyphenhyphenoM22_gYN5lBvD8jtpx7efHSuXithT9ytIUej8SzxqnwZ/s1600-h/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+02.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 357px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268142617261988978" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jaMTov_qltp4Y6aqR2jLqDkZ_cgvVe0YGdBKE2BV_FaZpeURR16gBpvOdpTT84gmgfN5m2f9jl8nIAU8AWzoPNhyphenhyphenoM22_gYN5lBvD8jtpx7efHSuXithT9ytIUej8SzxqnwZ/s400/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+02.JPG" /></a><br /><div align="center"><div align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><strong>Weapons of Mass Destruction in</strong></span></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Cesare & Jean Marie Syjuco's Aesthetics</span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000000;">By Danny Castillones Sillada</span></strong></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"><strong><em><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></em></strong></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"><strong><em><span style="color:#cc6600;">“Por que también somos lo que hemos perdido...”<br />(Because we are also what we have lost…)<br /></span></em></strong>-Amores Perros, the movie</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"></span></div><br /><div align="center"><em><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Published from </span><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Manila Bulletin</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">, Page E-4, Monday, April 21, 2008</span></em></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"> </span><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"><strong>There is an air of intangible emptiness</strong> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">AN ART BORN OUT OF A WOMAN</span></strong><br /><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYs_XTAE-UmN5hhZoN4uqTouEU1ws2X-1X70HPr-_zHf6Ccgi9uqkN_8XFLP583fThEDVNCZmRNETKZyn4uya1Q61xNeAwbKHdMLXkV0L1svYcQwbAQ7RIJ0Upr4BUmOW8Uh8/s1600-h/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+03.JPG"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192657458100553714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYs_XTAE-UmN5hhZoN4uqTouEU1ws2X-1X70HPr-_zHf6Ccgi9uqkN_8XFLP583fThEDVNCZmRNETKZyn4uya1Q61xNeAwbKHdMLXkV0L1svYcQwbAQ7RIJ0Upr4BUmOW8Uh8/s200/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+03.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />But what if a woman creates, what could be the source of her inspiration?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“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”).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">THE FEMININE TOUCH IN AESTHETICS</span></strong><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMFZWE0ihHZy7EMnPKCOiVdVd8I0UoIxC-Pvrl5Jl7FEcolXofp_v4Ptb-1OKdzCI4jAXFmQCIYBgDNMS77QlQ-kAMdvKqyX4fmAjTbFOom9lrFsuzCWBApIJKo8MKBoH_P9F/s1600-h/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+05.JPG"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5192657857532512258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMFZWE0ihHZy7EMnPKCOiVdVd8I0UoIxC-Pvrl5Jl7FEcolXofp_v4Ptb-1OKdzCI4jAXFmQCIYBgDNMS77QlQ-kAMdvKqyX4fmAjTbFOom9lrFsuzCWBApIJKo8MKBoH_P9F/s200/Jean+Marie+Syjuco+Installation+05.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></span><span style="color:#666600;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="color:#666600;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">THE WIT AND HUMOR IN CESARE'S WORKS</span></strong><br /></span><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhSvmp5FPOBNhqM43NE9rgzSWAtDEugm23EpldPjwsDZf9lHFqdIXIXG3gicntibdpQKIErD63QYHyinADdGpbxvNtALSYux6xhPAs657p3FDAVA7Forzgo-NT0zilGEjm8Ks/s1600-h/7.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 286px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268142621989392146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRhSvmp5FPOBNhqM43NE9rgzSWAtDEugm23EpldPjwsDZf9lHFqdIXIXG3gicntibdpQKIErD63QYHyinADdGpbxvNtALSYux6xhPAs657p3FDAVA7Forzgo-NT0zilGEjm8Ks/s400/7.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOU19QmAgtcBcgEkdNWODgh1go-9gy2DA6v55AjR3QZgxDdnAFD9m0IhPAokDAjIyVmXdN-U3jO45nTxD1y8OTEGUvRl9FWmN6i2esupBCO1UzvesdbQeVAag0lbHH2tl261Dm/s1600-h/7.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;">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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />What would happen if a mouse quacks like a duck or a lion squeals like a pig or a grasshopper bleats like a sheep?<br /><br />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!”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />For God, as the artwork signifies, could be everywhere speaking to anyone in any form or manner.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">LANGUAGE AND AESTHETICS<br /></span></strong><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFkJT3OAlAE4wXdsBMhyphenhyphenoOBbmWQzPMsLlgXtlrgH5XIKipVSDupmq3eXfKLZS4FVkMEjTPp5BAeNApCp1R3BNaNSD_M69vKcwZtaGyb1sR71VmteFZR7vJsRgrYMLZe4ZLZyZ/s1600-h/cesaresyjuco.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 286px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268142627459381570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFkJT3OAlAE4wXdsBMhyphenhyphenoOBbmWQzPMsLlgXtlrgH5XIKipVSDupmq3eXfKLZS4FVkMEjTPp5BAeNApCp1R3BNaNSD_M69vKcwZtaGyb1sR71VmteFZR7vJsRgrYMLZe4ZLZyZ/s400/cesaresyjuco.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJzsdHhLltka4qnSYxR0wXs6oq_SNgdKH0Vzo6FaEBtyS9S39P82o7UzbN_OyB2zuPmUop6Vv5sIQikDNX5GsAyo1KRHO-eAsH3Zsi2qhQJ06417YQWE3XgPHAoNEB6Eavy6es/s1600-h/4.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;"></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?’<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAP6ataum81qz3VFvoLWNQK7PMbNDFe24QrgjSKRS2kGhwVgn8VxWbLBaDcH3YNR0gEEhPj5Pw_c32dWShh5BMA0ssXdE8yUueUTi1i6a-scHyHClhyd7kkP9kE5Rxg_sCcV5g/s1600-h/4.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 273px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268142636541377010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAP6ataum81qz3VFvoLWNQK7PMbNDFe24QrgjSKRS2kGhwVgn8VxWbLBaDcH3YNR0gEEhPj5Pw_c32dWShh5BMA0ssXdE8yUueUTi1i6a-scHyHClhyd7kkP9kE5Rxg_sCcV5g/s400/4.jpg" /></a>“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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>PROFILE OF THE COUPLE<br /></strong></span><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The amalgam of the two great artists produced multi-talented children ranging from musicians, poets, performance artists, fashion models, among others.<br /><br />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!” </span><br /></div></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;">© Danny C. Sillada</span><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><strong>Above Photos:</strong> (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</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></div></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-19995689795522832982008-03-27T12:36:00.010+08:002013-02-16T01:26:15.249+08:00FIGURING ABSTRACTION: The Shifting of Reality in Lindslee’s Art<div align="center">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIeV7tivOOprrgVG5OLg5dYTFD1aWoc5Um8n4_TgJ09_FOsUizaux2tlRiAzQcLFAYBvrCqg2zw5yHzaRHK_RpSHXiF0brY7LlxoYpScQ3-tSqYCyNR7Mtc7wKghut4LpGaFnr/s1600-h/Wake_up_Call.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268163660896945298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIeV7tivOOprrgVG5OLg5dYTFD1aWoc5Um8n4_TgJ09_FOsUizaux2tlRiAzQcLFAYBvrCqg2zw5yHzaRHK_RpSHXiF0brY7LlxoYpScQ3-tSqYCyNR7Mtc7wKghut4LpGaFnr/s400/Wake_up_Call.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 300px;" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #990000;"><em>“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.”</em></span></span></strong></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">-William Barrett, Irrational Man</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Published at Manila Bulletin, Lifestyle Section (Art & Culture)</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><b>In his insatiable </b>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 130%;">Figuring Abstraction: The Equivocal Meaning</span></strong><br /></span></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyR4tRsuVtC-Tce9SSvGta1ZBBuRjwio4dQ24D4VbsE-GbjtytITgDRHmdaPx-zkYAJMPUw6i7JYK2FmqMz9DI2a9PGwTXLzSYQIInrTTfzMTXyvUUJRyEOWJ8apyrFBjlEI2b/s1600-h/Vindicated.jpg"></a><span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMd8kPOBODCBl8kSMGLFMfUo01xz-wdBvSevWcHDeWHJ6iWhuSjBh-UgU6Nc6arJ0BVjaFI7_jvhWdLwub6evlM4rPIOPHO7IUCBs1eYE3yrDvonGFKL856oF2zQu9ncfocP71/s1600-h/9MillionBicycles4x5ft.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268164291206857090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMd8kPOBODCBl8kSMGLFMfUo01xz-wdBvSevWcHDeWHJ6iWhuSjBh-UgU6Nc6arJ0BVjaFI7_jvhWdLwub6evlM4rPIOPHO7IUCBs1eYE3yrDvonGFKL856oF2zQu9ncfocP71/s400/9MillionBicycles4x5ft.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 315px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>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).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 130%;">The Taxidermal Elements</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWvHYT9ymp55k7Ag-xUwiqQYVBm4JBQ2XPisdNLgn4IZKNfsaE_bw9QjZ1zyCgh88ZFT6-YStLlujALDBbJ5RKQa_EQn5Zv5NWiaUdfNger7Mb1uzqB8_YO7OxtorgsIZzGZ38/s1600-h/paranoid.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268163900113298626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWvHYT9ymp55k7Ag-xUwiqQYVBm4JBQ2XPisdNLgn4IZKNfsaE_bw9QjZ1zyCgh88ZFT6-YStLlujALDBbJ5RKQa_EQn5Zv5NWiaUdfNger7Mb1uzqB8_YO7OxtorgsIZzGZ38/s400/paranoid.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 400px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 265px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 130%;">The Aesthetic Symbol as a Revelation of Truth</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCWNb8lXGrg754Ui0Pb89dL5quTgnFpsVCLmvoCXTxUaMwosuaPjqPgMYK0NVx4dM9l9aBQawuU0Qzp8U_nlPkpC-ZtitZ79uZ2vWJw-SUEC61WM-CpHMPezmhwAoQs3PQuVr/s1600-h/DSC00003_copy.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268164165854190530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCWNb8lXGrg754Ui0Pb89dL5quTgnFpsVCLmvoCXTxUaMwosuaPjqPgMYK0NVx4dM9l9aBQawuU0Qzp8U_nlPkpC-ZtitZ79uZ2vWJw-SUEC61WM-CpHMPezmhwAoQs3PQuVr/s400/DSC00003_copy.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 396px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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.<br /><br />“Everything is meaningless”, says the artist, “because someday, like man’s life, my art will vanish and disappear in oblivion”.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 130%;">The Unity of Art and the Vision of Reality</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhij7FHd113o4_uMXM0dn6VqtMFY3J-iD5luVByCVldFZK3hTOPTMIftLRLWlqBnVvXi3otbF0kNLkuBNmAfjntNuhpneuq6aq2dVR4pVm093AmTYJaMVwFuWl95ydwuu8b96/s1600-h/Lost3Words4x4ft.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268164053990018050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqhij7FHd113o4_uMXM0dn6VqtMFY3J-iD5luVByCVldFZK3hTOPTMIftLRLWlqBnVvXi3otbF0kNLkuBNmAfjntNuhpneuq6aq2dVR4pVm093AmTYJaMVwFuWl95ydwuu8b96/s400/Lost3Words4x4ft.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 397px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a>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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;"><br />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.<br /><br />Creative freedom, like the infinite space of the universe, is boundless and eternal.<br /><br />© Danny Castillones Sillada</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 85%;">*ABOVE PHOTO: Photo of artworks coutesy of the artist; 2008 works.</span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8717318.post-14218240993908987422008-02-02T19:25:00.000+08:002008-12-10T20:38:57.067+08:00"Indecision" by a Filipino surrealist painter JON JAYLO<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ezO_2-OqOQBpy5GoGMeHoMfCQf3p9pnd3GXOXRy3pXFoXBaOn9mMfHpDGp4Zt7r6YxPvRMXhrrIvq30RSnpgH5Woi_VaWlDhtZFGM_Q7XP4qxAz_KXQ2C-VRUU5Piu9rnAiW/s1600-h/Indecision+by+Jon+Jaylo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5162343022636867714" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ezO_2-OqOQBpy5GoGMeHoMfCQf3p9pnd3GXOXRy3pXFoXBaOn9mMfHpDGp4Zt7r6YxPvRMXhrrIvq30RSnpgH5Woi_VaWlDhtZFGM_Q7XP4qxAz_KXQ2C-VRUU5Piu9rnAiW/s320/Indecision+by+Jon+Jaylo.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#660000;">A</span></strong> 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.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">© Danny C. Sillada<br />---------------<br /><br /><br /><strong>Artwork:</strong> "Indecision" by a Filipino surrealist painter Jon Jaylo.<br /><br /><strong>Artist's Site:</strong> <a href="http://back2basic.multiply.com/">http://back2basic.multiply.com/</a></span></span></span></div><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07479613153214548166noreply@blogger.com2