Nostalgia or "the desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home, or to one’s family and friends" binds the three visual arts exhibit currently showing in Bacolod. These are Wayne Lacson Forte’s “Ano May ReklamoKa?” which opened February 2 at the Negros Museum; DioknoPasilan’s “Locale” which opened February 6 at Orange Gallery and EdbonSevilleno’s “Glimpses of Negros” which softly opens on February 10 at MuseoNegrense de La Salle to accommodate special requests from friends who would like to gift their loved ones with an art work for Valentine where are works will be pegged down for as low as 10,000 a piece. Over cocktails on February 12 guests will likewise be treated to an interaction with Sevilleno who will demonstrate what makes him a watercolorist of the first order.
Considering the millions of Filipinos abroad it seems inevitable that nostalgia would inform the works of these three visual artists despite their differences in personalities, backgrounds, and mediums and styles.
US-based Forte uses oil in scenes of a bygone era color dealing with , among others, our history of colonization; Riyadh –based Sevilleno employs watercolors in capturing idyllic scenes of country-life in Negros before urbanization sets in and celebrates the eternal sameness of the ordinary in portraits of street people and sacadas, one aptly entitled, Ti, amo man Gihapon, as well as genre paintings that capture Norman Rockwell-like street scenes of Bacolod epitomized by one painting of chess playing in downtown plaza and the furious betting that accompanies it.
Most poignant is Palawan and Australia-based Pasilan’s homecoming exhibitthat brings together past projects from Australia, Palawan and Bicol which captures, among others, a way of life that is long gone, namely boat-building in his native Santo Nino, which has since become a casualty of over-logging. This is symbolized by a new work done in collaboration with carpenters and craftsmen in the community where he grew up. Called “ The Santo Nino Project” this consists of a hardwood remnant of a long-vanished fishing boat which the resident craftsmen have turned into a sculpture ever since their wooden-hulled boats have given way to second hand vessels from other Asian countries. This travel metaphor is repeated on the walls of the gallery with little boats carrying eyes of the artist’s subjects sailing into the horizon.
Not unlike Sevilleno, Pasilan likewise shows like Rembrandt (who did self portraits in his old age many times over) a fascinationfor faces of old people illustrated in his “KinalawangnaLarawan” –iron dust portraits on archival paper as well as his ID photos of senior citizens in Bicol and Palawan.
The Filipino as wandering Jew is a recurrent theme that runs not only in our literature but in visual arts as well. One reason is our world famous resiliency. As Pasilan puts it in his artist statement for” Locale”: “Some people find significance in a place. Others make a place significant. As an artist, both hold true for me. I am a wanderer who puts down roots wherever my journeys take me. Thus, in external exile I am always home.”
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