Noel Elicana: Firestarter

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Finished Duty

Opting to thrive as a practicing artist in Iloilo, eluding far off the imperial art center on purpose, is not about sheer luck or burgeoning talent. Blood, sweat, and tears are offered on a daily grind. As one physically labors alone the long hours, he must stay focused and be dedicated to perfecting one’s raw craft for the rest of his life. There has never been a secret formula for a struggling artist to test in; one has to make his own space and translate it to his own visual language.

For award winning artist Noel Magallanes Elicana--to be poor and homegrown--the art world may not have yet existed for his creativity until this day. And even before he accomplishes anything, he already looks back and acknowledges those who were there for him in the past. As Elicana flexes his artistic sensibilities, he extends his hand in gratitude to all his benefactors—those whose hand fed his mouth to satisfy his hunger to survive, replied to his queries and nurtured his creativity on the edge, continued to pat his back and held a light for him when it was at its darkest—paving the way of his imaginative path.

His first exhibit, Tayhop, professes this authenticity, discipline and grit before he pursues his uphill battle in the Philippine art scene.

Tayhop is that turning point in the vernacular—the act of blowing through a tube--when starting a flame on the ember in the tinder bundle until fire catches. Elicana belongs to the current crop of Ilonggo contemporary artists advancing their Hiligaynon lineage yet expounding on their own visual style. Tayhop is his indigenous analogy relative to all the inspiration, guidance, disciplines, as well as the struggles that he went through making him stronger, more confident and expressive as he is today. Tayhop highlights the importance on giving value to the people who paved the way for him stemming up from all of his misfortunes, drudgery and sham he encountered. And the exhibition pays homage to the people who created a dent to his life and eventual art making as he pays it forward. It showcases his tribute to his guardians, his beliefs, as well as aspirations. It tackles Elicana’s meaningful life changing events and childhood memories that gave his current motivations as an artist today.

When Day and Night are One

Being the only boy in the brood of three, Elicana was her mother’s favorite despite being the cry baby and an in born shy-type. He was barely five years old when she passed on due to difficult pregnancy and a lingering heart ailment. He and his siblings were adopted in Iloilo leaving his father to work in Manila. From then on Elicana skipped playing in the streets and matured early. He was even forced to gather wood in the forest during weekends to sell for their sustenance. He stared poverty on its face that he became numbed with hunger and got used to having only life’s barest necessities. Elicana and his sisters experienced a topsy-turvy progression of being adopted by various familial relations in Iloilo, some more painful than the others while his father worked in a knitting factory in Manila. 

Drawing positively inward, becoming more personal than social as his visual language progressed. The paintings of Elicana has been churning out what constitute as attaining positive wrought with values, exploring metaphors in artistic freedom, organic favoring lush iconographies, abiding religious faith in his struggle overcoming tragedy through self-sacrifice.

Engraved Yesterday's Silence

Against rust and mold-like hues resembling trauma with a hint of hope, Engraved Yesterday’s Silence is Elicana’s canvas of his “first childhood memories.” The white dress was what his mother wore while lying in her coffin while the smaller one recognizes his sister who only lived for a measly ten minutes. There was never a day Elicana did not long for them. It is barely a semblance as he saw the purity of white as a sign of hope one day they would be together once again. The knife represents how strict his father became after they lost his wife and their mother. One traumatic time, at an instance, in drunken fit of disappointment and rage, Elicana’s father pointed a knife at them. The three white eggs are Elicana and his siblings reminding him that you cannot hold them too tight or too loose as any which way it will break them. The good son that he is, Elicana may not have gotten over the scene yet he continues to love and respect him until this day when he is old and sick with tuberculosis.

A Father's Journey

His father has been recurring image for Elicana. A Father’s Journey is attributed to him who has been Elicana’s source of strength in his words “from seed to growing tree.” Elicana has depicted him as a fierce, over-protective, ever-ready paternal figure like a dog who is always there for his brood. Yet he is the most loving creature as evident by the flowers overwhelming him--as if Elicana praises him to the highest degree to no end.

Elicana’s prowess comes in his painstaking details. Notice how he added white flowing lines as texture in all of his paintings. Similar to the bark of a tree, the harder the tree, the more textured it is. A gentle reminiscent of his familiarity with the forest gathered woods that survived him and his siblings. He did not join other kids and play in the streets rather he was holding a bolo and cutting branches from trees. That is why Elicana values every canvas he fills up to perfection reflecting this early work ethic.

Altar of Blessings is attributed to the seven guardians who took care of Elicana and his siblings in their formative years—his father, Uncle Ruby, Auntie Didet (Manila), Papa Dreg, Mama Celia (Jaro, Iloilo), Tatay Rudy and Nanay Mercy (in Oton, Iloilo during summer). His background depends upon the level of his affections with each of them, it is also Elicana demonstrating how he could be as illustrative as an hyperrealist he can be. This is the extent of his rendering of human anatomy. There may be no traces of facial renderings which Elicana veers away from stating the obvious on the contrary however he waxes sentimentality without featuring their facial representations.

Altar of Blessings

Elicana owes a big debt of gratitude to Papa Greg and Mama Celia, his uncle and aunt who took care of them as they were growing up in lieu of his father. When Day and Night are One and Finished Duty observed how they both sacrificed and often times taking two jobs just to fend for their brood. Oftentimes they barely sleep due to their work load. Depending on the season, Papa Greg is both a farmer and jeepney driver while Mama Celia who was a seamstress until she could no longer handle the sewing machine due to health reasons.

With this first offing, Elicana increasingly featured in a diverse range of realism and defying standard categorization of his works. He starts with raw brushstrokes emitting abstract expressionism before depicting his main image. Then he compliment it with supporting cast or meaningful amenities around it. Each painting is an experimentation and hybridization even blurring boundaries which is purely Elicana’s. His sphere of expression has become a breeding battleground that viewers can relate or re-appropriate to having similar experiences and one’s felt incident. Elicana is an innate storyteller and in his connived narratives there are no fixed answers or preachy sermons but only stories well-told and truth well-painted. In the end, his style is his substance.

Faith and Holy

Fire has always been symbolic to Elicana and a constant in his works. Even the title of the show is related to fire which has many representations to him. It could be his passion, or it could also mean in high spirits as eternal power in Faith and Holy. Elicana is a spiritual being, glorifying the Almighty God who he gives credit behind the wind to produce fire. Another staple in an Elicana painting is his fixation with keyholes as source of unlocking truth and imagination. For Elicana it is only faith that is the key to the mystery of living.

Found in the centerpiece of the exhibit is Enlighten which is about a big tree casting a silhouette of another tree that grew within overbearing with lush branches loaded with ethereal memories. As Elicana honored his parents, all the more he honors his forebears as well--who never got tired of imparting his valuable lesson after lesson as they aged in wisdom. This is evident in the flowers that grew from the branches. There are thorns everywhere as there are many challenges. The bones are reminders of our parents’ sacrifices. In a surrealistic urge, Elicana implants various molar teeth around as he got used to life’s struggles experiencing their gnashing dilemmas in between us. Mortal beings are represented by the flames and the burning clock at the center specifies our lives are ruled by God’s own time and not the rhythm of our world.   

Enlighten

Tayhop weaves Elicana’s concerns not merely as a conscious interlude of colors, illustrations and other media but as something that is originally perceived in his fertile imagination. His manifestations confront validation as his own inherent artistic intents and permutations stressing the value of spontaneity, appropriation and relevance. Establishing tension, solitude or equilibrium, his spatial yet lyrical pieces may be subtle or harsh yet both convey the sense of delight in his free reign of imagery and visual style. Elicana is proof that we do not need inspiration to create grand masterpieces. Your own struggles can be the content to complete your own body of work. And from the limitations imposed by that discipline breeds new ideas. In so doing Elicana uplifts himself so others can inspired and be uplifted as well. Tayhop is a kind of revenge against all these mundane circumstances surrounding our fates. And Elicana’s boldness comes from the realization that he too want to influence others. What is life about after all if you cannot do something of influence, like gathering fire to spread some more.