|
AN
ongoing exhibit of photographer-artist Victor Sollorano
at the Ayala Museum ArtistSpace, Visions of Light
regales the viewer with a suite of black-and-white
photographs of the lotus flower. Subtitled “A
Contemporary Look at the Lotus Flower through Digital
Photography,” this exhibit, Sollorano’s 10th, including
previous shows in Bangkok, won for him the Director’s
Choice, a special annual exhibition at the ArtistSpace
Ayala Museum that particularly acknowledges the
contributions of selected artists to Philippine art and
culture. Previous recipients of the distinction were
National Artist Arturo Luz for 2005 and glass sculptor
Ramon Orlina for 2006.
This
exhibit involves two basic forces, the photographer,
Victor Sollorano, with his digital camera and medium,
Epson ultrachrome inks on Hahnemule cotton paper; and
his chosen subject, the lotus flower, the object of his
desire. Like a lover before his muse, the artist shoots
it from all angles, circling around it, taking it from
above and below, creating different scenarios for it:
the solitary flower or in company, from tentative bud to
full blossom, from first light to decay. Moreover, the
artist goes beyond the familiar to give his subject a
distinct though subtle styling, as a small impalpable
modification of the petals, a delicate twist of the
flower’s ends, all the while being acutely conscious of
the effects of light, as well as the tonal range from
glowing white to the deepest grays. As the artist says:
“If a lotus could speak, it would have said to me,
‘Come, explore my endless possibilities, for I can be a
thousand other forms without losing the essence of my
nature.’”
CURRENT LANGUAGE
The
lotus has been the subject of art all around the world
from time immemorial because of its unique beauty which
has been invested with symbolic meaning. The Buddhist
faith praises the flower as emerging with purity and
perfection from muddy, filthy swamps—a symbol of moral
integrity in the midst of gross corruption. It occurs
ubiquitously in all branches of Buddhism. In the Tantric
faith, the life force, passing through the body’s
colorful chakras, wheels of energy, bursts through the
thousand-petalled lotus at the top of the head to swim
in infinite freedom and nirvanic bliss. In Chinese art,
who can forget the numerous ink paintings of the lotus,
splashes of rose-orange color on reflecting ponds,
living forms in resonating space? In the West, the
impressionist painter Claude Monet painted long vistas
of water lilies (nenuphars as the French call it) from
morning to evening, spring to winter, as the light
changed their aspect in a perpetually renewing nature,
Beautiful and noble as all these are, Sollorano says, “I
want to create something new, give life to an image that
has always been part of numerous cultures for more than
2000 years, but never before explored in the way that I
do.” Indeed, the lotus has been the subject of paintings
all over the world, but no artist has scrutinized it so
closely and untiringly in the contemporary medium of
digital photography as Victor Sollorano has done.
The
photographer-artist opens his collection with an initial
encounter: against his background of consistent black,
the better to isolate the subject and focus on form
alone. He comes upon a single flower in simple
presentation with all its elements together—from a
strong stem open large white petals with rows of pistils
surrounding a compact circle of immature seeds that seem
to crackle with potential energy. Later, the flower
gains maturity as its petals stretch out and thrust into
space as though in yearning. Instinctively, it probably
bears a “bio-concept” of paradise or the desiderata in
its core, like a kind of tropism in which breathing
plants stretch out their fragile limbs toward the light
or the sun in heliocentric gropings. At the sane time,
the elements of the flower adjust to the subtle
recompositions, bringing to focus formerly unnoticed
aspects.
One
marvels how the powerful camera can capture the tender
stuff of the petals with their delicate patterns of
veins, folds and creases, undulating, spreading out and
finally converging to a tremulous twist at the tip.
Although similar to the finest fabric or the most
sensitive skin, they are, however, neither of them, but
a wondrous substance made from a green seed germinating
in the sunlight.
A
picture, entitled Memories #8, shows three lotuses in
conversation: on the left, a young fully opened lotus,
in the middle, a large bud, and on the right, another
open lotus, but seemingly older because of its darker
tones. What is remarkable is the fine and distinct
articulation of the flowers, like individuals conversing
in a language only they know, as they tilt their heads
to each other. There is a sense of order and sweet
decorum that they likewise share.
In
Outdoor Dreams, the large central lotus is laid out
against the sky, its petals opened almost flat like
sunbathers that soak in the sun with delight. In Current
Language, the flowers have formed a community of large
and small, old and young, in the closeness of bonding.
Their heads lighter and darker, they are, indeed, close
enough to whisper to each other and share secrets. Other
times, the photographer draws out the dynamic potential
of the work, as he contrasts sharp contours and soft
focus techniques, sometimes combined with streaks of
light to heighten the tension and intensity of the
image. The composition may be such that it favors
particular areas which are brought out in sharp focus
while peripheral forms are in a soft blur.
Way to
Go shows the fate of an aging lotus flower as it bends
down from its stem. Beset by time and weather, its
petals have turned awry and discolored, losing their
fabled whiteness. For the petals, now flaccid, are dark
and twisted at their ends and even the pistils seem to
be growing loose, as the form is about to disintegrate,
but in a final movement, however, which promises to be
one of winged flight.
Through
the entire collection of photographs, one cannot miss
the underlying erotic note which informs the approach of
the artist enamored by his subject, finding in the
eternal lotus a wide emotional range, from purity to
passion.
Note: Mr. Sollorano is a BusinessMirror senior editor. |
