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FROM his
hibernation in Mount Makiling, Junyee (Luis Yee Jr.) has
burst into the art scene with a new series of stunning
sculptural works that will be on exhibit from November 9
to December 2 at Galleria Duemila in Pasay City. An
artist who has been largely responsible for the
increasing popularity of installation works as a new art
form, he has worked in nature installations, filling
floor and ceiling space with crawling and climbing seed
pods like bugs and various living insects. He has
constructed trellises of bamboo and vines with hanging
fruit and beribonned gift packages, as well as hammocks
woven of stout and resilient vines which he had foraged
from the forested slopes of Mount Makiling, which has
provided him, for so long, with inspiration as well as
materials for his unique art. He has created
installations in fields and gardens, as well as within
museum and gallery spaces where they create a lively
ambiance as they project from the traditionally
wall-bound works.
This
time Junyee presents sculptural works in wood, burnished
and painted with colors and ink, all freestanding and in
the round, with front, sides and back worked in loving
detail. Of course, this is not the first time that the
artist has worked in three-dimensional form. He
previously did some years back a series of sculptures
under the title The Jester and the Queen, witty
extrapolations of two basic figures. Junyee once more
hones his skills in sculpture with larger-than-life
figures of Ifugao males in their pristine glory, without
the benefit of a G-string—all these under the title of
Siete Pecados. The title is intriguing enough, to be
sure. It would seem that the sins alluded to would stem
from the fact that the artist sees the Ifugao and the
other ethnic groups of the Cordilleras as having reached
a high point, an equinox as it were, where two opposite
elements clash: the hot and the cold, the colonizer and
the colonized, the indigenous and the modern, the
traditional and the contemporary, the old Southeast
Asian archipelagic world and the vast conglomerations of
the West, although now in decline. This results in
startling figures of hybridity, as the cultural critic
would have it, a clash—though fortunately not fatal but
accommodating—of cultures.
It is
most notable how Junyee has built up the indigenous
Cordillera form and physiognomy in an authentic style.
How close they are to the bulol in its different
postures! In his sculptures, the artist shows an
intuitive grasp of the particularities of form and
proportion in the expressive head, the broad firm
shoulders, the well-articulated armor-like torso and the
strong limbs. The outstanding skill of his wood carving
is seen in his handling of the chisel on the hair, the
lines and contours of the face, and the hands and feet.
Now the body surface is covered with lively tattoo
designs, symbolic and geometric. Particularly striking
are the snakes, an ancient Indian motif for power,
slithering up the arms and climbing down the hands where
they end in spirals. The various geometric designs
mostly come from Southeast Asian traditions. The
triangular tumpal motifs are endemic in the region in
pottery, jewelry, textiles and tattoos, as they are part
of an entire cosmological view of the universe.
The
central design at the center of the chest is a dynamic
symbol on a stepped dais with rays springing forth from
both sides signifying the power of the deity. In the
Asian traditional arts, the symbol of power is portrayed
in different forms as it is central to the concept of
God and the leaders of the community, such as the sage,
the seer and the prophet. Around this symbol which
occurs in two sculptures, the black tattoo lines follow
the contours of the torso up the shoulders and down the
arms where they highlight physical energy and vigor.
These designs hark back to the onset of colonization
when the early inhabitants were given the name of Los
Pintados. Among the most ancient tattoo designs are
found among the aboriginal peoples of New Zealand where
the whole body is covered with tattoos that follow and
enhance the contours of the body and where the cheeks
burst out into spiraling blooms. Like the Austronesians
of Southeast Asia, they were intrepid seafarers who
voyaged far beyond their island world to seek the sun in
other regions.
Now this
is where the cultures collide. In Hu U? the Ifugao male
presses a cell phone to his ear as he communicates with
a caller. The momentary act of listening is captured by
the wide, open eyes which seem to focus on something,
not on the world outside, but inside in the vast space
between one’s ears. There is an inescapable contrast
between the primordial human being and the latest
technological tool of communication where the voice
traverses miles beyond the normal hearing range. In two
amazing works, the body tattoos are only supplements to
detailed paintings on the torso and back of the figures.
In Kulang sa Drum, the male figure carries a radio
jauntily on a shoulder and listens entranced to the
music. His torso is ablaze with colors from urban pop
mainly from contact with Baguio youth culture. In lavish
detail, the painting surface which is treated and dyed
wood to simulate skin bursts forth into a motley of
figures, objects and signs: an antiquated record player,
the peace sign, the dollar sign on a sparkling chain,
playing cards, graffiti, numbers, and a gaggle of folksy
gangsters and pirates strenuously puffing cigarettes
against a background of brick wall (a prison?). Is the
body, as the mind, now entirely occupied by foreign
elements? While the painting virtually pulsates with
life and color, one cannot help but sense the
jaw-dropping discrepancy that ensues from the
juxtaposition of Filipino indigenous with American
gangsta rap in full color in this highly ironic work by
the artist. Another work has the vintage picture of
Uncle Sam in stripes and top hat pointing a finger and
recruiting for war—this garnishing the back of an Ifugao
male where it is, perhaps, viewed only as a striking
artifact without the meanings that still resonate to the
present.
In
atonement, a modern bulol squats before a stone that
both connects to the deity and binds him to the earth,
and raises his eyes upward to Kabunian. In the midst of
his chest is a zone of a different texture, gritty and
embedded with small stones, which opens in a slice of
powerful orange glow, as though attuned with the
universal energies. His back, likewise, glows with a
supernatural battery emitting radio signals like cosmic
waves. In this particular work, the indigenous body is
once more revitalized with its essential powers. n |
