In their first simultaneous solo exhibitions at this new alternative art space Kiss the Cook Gourmet, Norman Chow, Merci Javier Dulawan, Babeth Lolarga and Baboo Mondoñedo work on a theme that inspires them to be playful and reflective at the same time.
While watercolor in the hands of Mondoñedo and Dulawan effectively conveys the theme’s subtlety and frailty, Chow and Lolarga use the vivid, vibrant colors of their media to express themselves.
The watercolors, the acrylic works and the illustrations in dry media of pastels and color pencils were produced during a prolonged season of drought. The dry spell was outside, there in the visible world. In the visual artists’ interior lives, the flow of imaginings was strong.
They worked on varied surfaces in different locations (Baguio, Metro Manila, the Visayas), guided by images of water, with its implied power to renew life or produce a good harvest, and of the earth’s closest neighbor, with its own capacity to pull the tides and affect human emotions and states of mind.
Their own research enabled them to visualize images of moon and water. For example, the lizard, symbol of regeneration and almost a cliché in ethnic-inspired works, is said to appear in lowland provinces in the rare colors of pink and white. When it does, it is a harbinger of rain.
Some chose to interpret aphorisms in English and Filipino from “Baying at the Moon” to “Blue Moon” to “Suntok sa Buwan.” By celestial coincidence, a crescent moon was visible in parts of Southeast Asia one evening in mid-May this year. The planet Venus seemed to be held in the cup of the moon’s palm. This rare sight, in folklore, also signals good fortune.
Four persons face the vastness of the oceans and the heavens and humbly resize and reduce this on paper, canvas and board—a fortuitous beginning for all.
"Moonlight and Water" is the inaugural exhibit at the expanded Kiss the Cook Gourmet, a restaurant, delicatessen and gallery in one. The show, curated by Liwa Araos, opens on June 12 and runs till July 9. Kiss the Cook Gourmet, located at 65 Maginhawa street, UP Village, Quezon City, opens daily at 11 a.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment