Arel Zambarrano: Construction Ongoing

 BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Calm in the Surface, Intense Underneath

A deep abiding faith on one’s creativity often comes in the most abstract of expressions and artists like Arel Zambarrano often turnaround something ordinary (this time from his workplace) even bordering on boredom they only know how—using imagination and available mixed media.

Aside from being an award winning visual artist, Zambarrano has always been a licensed architect. In his 4^th solo exhibition, Flexible Nerves Zambarrano narrates how he found inspiration among construction workers, basic industrial tools, and architecture materials transforming them into framed parables using them to explore important themes such as joys, anger, challenges and inconsistencies through espousing our emotions, acceptances and resolutions in life. Zambarrano firmly establishes his personal concepts and creative philosophies--his relentlessness and inventiveness in the visual arts--in these composed and solitary pieces, as he addresses social realism in our most basic human condition.

The Molting Stage Will Soon Be Over

The contemporaneity of Zambarrano’s visual approach as he essays his art is in the simplest way possible not in complex coded language but in clear semantics of life: because he believes each contemporary artist should tell us about current life and the world we share at the moment.

Calm in the Surface, Intense Underneath represents Zambarrano’s 34 grappling years of existence. Greeting the viewer as one enters the Ilomoca premises, each concrete sculptures was prefabricated from his own legs. This is how intensely personal Zambarrano intimates his art practice—art and life are enmeshed to one another. Using fiber-reinforced concrete, he installed them upside down projecting grace and temperance as an artist amidst many contextual professional pressures. He got the idea upon seeing ducks swimming, tranquil and soft while arduously paddling. They are serenely floating while settling their survival underneath the deep water.

Boy-Boy (1/4)

Zambarrano has always induced the element of wonder. His materiality dictates whatever mood he is in depending on what he perceives be it blades, knives, nails, level bar, used shovels and rubber bands. Zambarrano firmly believes artists were blessed with talents, as they are expected to be responsible human beings first in society than the confines of a gallery. As his daily preoccupation with insurmountable work attending the building of two island resorts, commercial establishments, and even creation of artist studios whiling away his time, Zambarrano has found creativity with his industrial surroundings. This time he favored to prefabricate everything before he even primes his canvases and overlaying them with another image using acrylic glasses. Exposing texture he attaches bullet slags, burning leatherette and even pouring crushed gravel on his site-specific installation. These resources reflect the ordinary, discarded, unused, and broken materials enabling every brushstroke as diverse like the different days where Zambarrano worked on his pieces.

Purya Usog

These pieces appear as visual symbols of unseen realities rendered in pictorial rhetoric through cultural signifiers that only Zambarrano can comprehend their symbolical meanings such as knives in Artificial Hindrance. Knives have always been a constant in Zambarrano’s past exhibits. It represents fear and uncertainty which is a given in reality. He reclaims what is lacking in its aesthetics and mayhem whether he renders realist strokes or veers into abstract transparency of forms and solidity of shapes define the quintessential Zambarrano. One cannot be overwhelmed by his art pieces, often employing rhythm and harmony in composition his dimensions draws a thin line in between softness of acrylic glass and harshness of paint rendition yet they are carefully controlled and vary at certain points from another not because they are nice to look at but because they are painstakingly conceived in rendering. Double meaning ensues as Zambarrano is fond of diversifying perspectives.   

His paintings are also sensuous variations of collective narratives, memories and dreams. The fascination in rough-like surface in his works is evident in time. It is metaphorical in depiction of this world we live in as paralleled by a slowly decaying, human body that is deteriorating and will turn back into nature’s dust--our ashes. Consider Purya Usog which is his ode to his daughter. Not everything is raw and melancholic yet it is fear   conveyed on his positive vibrations on his daughter as trials and challenges that make him more human. He and his wife as parents on acrylic glass purifying the image with bullet slag attached through to be able see its real essence in our already gruesome and violent world.

Clinched Ethereality

Zambarrano moves freely inside the painting as he probes his inner self and explore contours and variations of colors, paraphrasing the mortal world and beyond in less fanciful embellishment or distortion. His thoughts and feelings as an artist are astounded in each of the four canvases in Boy-Boy and nine canvases in the Magnanimous grip series. They feature the images of common people he has accustomed to--construction workers, pedicab drivers, labourers, farmers, porters, fishermen, etc. He expressively painted each figure allowing them to stand out against obscurity. It is being overlaid with transparent acrylic glass etched with outlines of juxtaposed ants intended to receive numbers of actual bullet slags on informal frame which in turn holds the dysfunctional level bar. With the reflection of Zambarrano, magnanimous grip series portrays courage beyond social injustice.

Ever the grateful, The Molting Stage Will Soon Be Over pays homage to an early influence, Allain Hablo. The celtic pattern overlay on acrylic glass is reminiscent of Hablo's previous masterpiece, I am Who I am. Hablo symbolizes those first and second generation of Ilonggo artists who stayed awake when it was still dark in the Visayan art scene. Hablo holds a stature in Iloilo--how one can be commercially successful without compromising one’s art. Hablo has been their pride in Visayan art as seen in the rawness and integrity of his being an artist at the onset of his career. He chose to stay in Iloilo because this where the “creative war,” without the benefit of convenience or the luxury of appreciating their art--to survive one must tell our own stories from our own experiences. Zambarrano does not want to lose his bearings and keep his feet rooted on the ground. He continues to stay in Iloilo as the conflict surges.

Post Inner Torment (using blades)

One can almost smell his coloration in Clinched Ethereality wherein rubber bands are actually landscapes dwelling intuitively into his subconscious mind. His composition of colors range from cool to earthy hues, these are vivid projections of his dreams and aspirations. Skulls have always figures in Zambarrano’s iconography, they value living like a memento mori despite prevalent poverty all around. This represents the beauty of impermanence.

Given the current art scene’s infatuation with hyperrealism, auction-bound, emo-ridden parlance, Flexible Nerves has an in-your-face realism coming at you. Against the hushed solitude of Ilomoca, Zambarrano’s pieces shout out loud and roughs up bad your composure. They may not be polite and pleasing to the eyes, he then proceeds to rearrange your sense of reality and positions to make you feel what it is to be truly human.

Arel Zambarrano: The Need for Needles

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

After a decade of art practice, ushering into a new chapter in his life Arel Zambarrano consistently continues from where he left off. For his third exhibition this 32-year old Ilonggo hones deeper into his craft and parlays his imaginative prowess by focusing on himself and in being most personal this time. The kind of act cleanses himself further as in his own words: “to overcome his inner demons.” 

Juggling many responsibilities Zambarrano does not have the luxury of time as he had before, as a new father, he now owes to his family their food and shelter and to his community being an architect yet he perceives belonging to a bigger society in humanity as an artist. For him art is not a way to make a living, rather it is a very human way of making life more bearable.

In Unlimited Optimism he renews this commitment and redefines himself more--what artistic path to take, his strengths and inner courage, dwelling more on self-discovery. His greatest ally has been his belief in himself that no one can help you except to be self-reliant to function more effectively and being true to your artistic philosophy.

At an early age when other kids were collectively playing along the seaside of Banate, one would find him drawing on the sand along the shores using a broom stick. The ethereal experience of his visual images being washed away by the waves excited him. At this early, though the living was rough and uncertain then, he wanted to create great structures of imagination and realized to be an artist someday.

Depicting needles on canvas has come a long way since 2007 when these represented all his hard-earned years as a self-supporting student of architecture in college. Needles will eventually connote his struggles, as well as triumphs in life. Being dirt poor didn’t hinder him, it is his belief that we all have needles in our lives, in many forms some too irritating to handle-be it hurdles, thorns, even in being too sensitive. Yet this too shall pass, hope remains for pain is the evidence of life.  

How Zambarrano unassailably survived from the pits is like an artistic pilgrimage to him. Allowing his gut and following his footsteps, his art has been autobiographical evoking himself in every painting with resemblance of himself in allegories by constant juxtaposing and careful composition he has constantly mastered. Zambarrano visually records his milestones and journeys through these protracted often surreal images.

Flexible Nerves series are ongoing witnesses to these revelations that occurred in his short and oftentimes topsy-turvy existence. His dragonflies are often constricted by red strings is a metaphor for change as they represent energy and enthusiasm eschewing pessimism and resentment. A venus fly trap is a reminder that everything comes at a particular time and space. Everything in life is enriching and rewarding. The eventuality of the pieces is an almost disruptive, caught-in-the-moment, uneasy depiction to bear. There is an alliterated meaning justifying every happening to his life. Beneath the thick oil paint in the back ground are his inner reflections. The shaft of the needle is a sturdy and blunted straight line encouraging the viewer to be brave under any circumstance. Done in pure oil paint, with no aid of sketch, like a versed prescient storyteller all these pieces have been painted like riddles in his mind before he set out to feature them on canvas. Every Zambarrano piece is rich in allegory as it is often laden with moral values and positive vibes. He has trained us to take long and hard to look and imbibe them.

In the Black Garden with Unlimited Optimism is a fitting centerpiece for its immensity and sheer attention to details. We are overwhelmed by the volume of needles each painted with a special thought in mind. Here art is more of a process. It is more of the evolving ephemerality that ignited him to accomplish this. One can unravel the long and arduous contemplation that underwent while physically rendering it on canvas.   

A committed spiritual man, Zambarrano may not be religious yet he was quite affected by the parable of the needle: it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. A bleeding heart evoked at the dead center with its tentacle-like veins being entangled. Somewhat abstract in its portrayal while painting it he felt his aspirations for mankind unfolding. A brutally beautiful scene emerges for us to behold.

Those long slender tips in needles may be subversive for the fear of being pricked, or an unlikely site used in acupuncture for healing or even surgery, yet needles remind him also not to focus on earthly possessions but rather in basic human goodness. As an artist practicing in Iloilo, Zambarrano’s need for needles transcends him, making him cope with the earthbound burdens while at the same time displaying faith, joy and wholeness soaring into the end of his own quagmire. The brilliance of Zambarrano however embodies positivity as he prepares for bigger things to come his way. For him, artists are still highly valuable and constructive individuals in nation-building. Art is a revolting way of coping from life’s constant beatings and persecution. He feels obligated to foster art as his vocation in future.

Unlimited Optimism innately explores the intersection of Zambarrano’s life and his inventive interpretation morphed into relevant art. He is fulfilling himself so that others may be encouraged in attaining their new goals through his paintings. It is a genius solution to an ever bugging problem. Used to this existential routine, he just needs to embody optimism for himself firstly before others--to pay forward kindness and espousing hard-earned repurposed lessons over the years for everyone to get on his side.

Pain and Paint: The Art of Arel D. Zambarrano

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

In Praise of All the Breadwinners

Arel D. Zambarrano (b.1985) unwittingly belongs to a growing amalgam of visual artists dwelling deeply into the personal and its inner struggles. Void of any social, historical or grand narratives his works nevertheless unleash the same artistic prowess displaying intrinsic acuity unraveling in multiple layering in perspectives that necessitates the contemporary in art. 

Rendered in deep macabre bordering in seriously surreal, Zambarrano’s first solo exhibition madly haunts. Timbu-ok retraces and scorches back his decade of struggle--as a long continuous visual diary. Every piece is part and parcel of the next piece forming the bigger picture that has marked his short-lived existence. As both an architect and an artist he creatively maximizes the available spaces at the Museo ng Iloilo to his advantage; how the pieces are maneuvered side by side making one appreciate every embedded emotion or the provocative thought captured through time. The gestalt effect is spellbinding: how adversity refreshes us and how we emerged from this painterly furnace defines (redefines) one’s built-in character. In Zambarrano’s case it is the constant rebirth of his artistry that make him a budding master. Every canvas was Zambarrano at his purest form as if the paints are still wet as the pain is still warm when he painted them. His brushstrokes are raw and moving, one can still hear the sound of brushstrokes brought to life.

The Need for Needles

Not for the faint hearted Zambarrano still revels the positive though veering on the somber and to the negative. Fixated with needles as an allegory to life itself, he often compares himself (us included) to the long threads passing through. Born in the coastal town of Banate, the fifth of six siblings, his family was dirt poor that even as he was being conceived in his mother’s womb she wanted to give her up. In fact he was even nourished from boiled rice water to alternate the scarcity of milk just to get by. Zambarrano took it all in without a tear or whine. What did not despair him only made him stronger as he yielded this mortality to his higher artistic purpose.

In The Black Rainbow

In slaying his demons Zambarrano uses these stark shiny pointed metals. By now you may inquire: how could someone so hopeless in life looks forward to living. After being a self-supporting student in college Zambarrano is now a licensed architect and an award winning artist. Using needles in ascending order to his ambitions Unlimited Optimism wants people to carry on whatever life impedes on them. As an artist he feels it is his responsibility to impart brightness in outlook and freshness in attitudes.

By nature people seek their potential, position and protection to survive as the fittest. In the Black Rainbow shows people cascading from this artificiality as we are defined by our titles, pay checks, flashy cars unmindful of that these are just ethereal things. Zambarrano has emptied himself in the form of a skeleton holding his now famous black shoes. The Advent of Stone Headed Wanderers solidifies his big bright vision even without material resources. When he shifted to architecture his eldest sister persuaded him not to pursue as he “does not have wings to fly.” However Zambarrano is as hard as he is committed to spread his imaginary wings to claim his dreams. One has to want their realization badly and be boldly determined in paving the way for them.

As a child he remembers drawing his heroes in the sand while other kids of his age carefree play. Unlike other artists who dabble in endless sketches, Zambarrano initially paints in his head. As raw and fertile as they are, he painstakingly tempers his ideas and concepts, translating them on canvas only when he is done thinking about it. The execution is fastest and the most gratifying process. Often done in glaringly red hues most of his paintings reflect his courage in predicaments and passion in fulfillment. They are captured in a moment of glorifying resolution some toned down but definitely nothing mushy in pastel colors. Such is the reprisal of the enigmatic Homecoming 2 reminiscent of his entry which was recognized in a national art competition four years ago. Zambarrano recalls a client who after 30 years has returned to their hometown for it is his belief that one must die to where one was born. Zambarrano’s brilliance is to situate you in a state where you feel both longing and equanimity diffused in one abstract momentum. Even without people one feels disturbed and usually the spell lasts longer than you left viewing it.

The five pieces in Unhindered Series collectively takes the fear out as life’s biggest illusion. He once was a commencement speaker in his college and he challenged his audience that one may be mortal yet he must take a risk or even jump off a cliff unhindered of the consequences to one’s body. To this day Zambarrano may be scarred but he has remained unscathed.

Shoe Biz

Typical of normal guy of style, these may be just ordinary black canvas shoes. The double a on the side is a giveaway–it was his sign (for art and architecture). The presence of beige straps crisscrossing gives you an inkling that they also stand for adventure. They might be even intended for car racing or cycling as the fit suggests. For Zambarrano practicality outweighs the design. For bargain 25 pesos the materiality costs even more than what the black shoes were intended for. For Zambarrano one has to brace one’s feet for the long haul whatever the ride maybe. As soon as the vendor took them out of the sack, he immediately wore them to the streets.

From an ukay-ukay in Jaro market the black shoes would eventually be immortalized in many of Zambarrano’s canvases. They are living evidence of travails of a typical striving artist. From the muddy alleys of Iloilo to the air-conditioned galleries in Hong Kong, how many artists are bold enough to repeatedly depict them various capacities readily defines Zambarrano’s significance. In fact even these black shoes physically gave up on him. The event was his telling sign that he was ripe enough to exhibit his stories around them.

From Banate he wanted to explore further and study college in the city. However those he thought would take care of him were the ones who even maltreated him. Prodigious Escape was that epiphany of seeing the light and regaining freedom from the cycle of oppression and lack of familial love. The symbolical use of the chain block in uplifting the heavy burden of his sorrow was effective in addressing his relief in being out of the troublesome pit he was wallowing into. 

Uncanny in depiction all is not lost for Zambarrano. Evident In the Garden of Hope ardent chess pieces, pawns may be of the lowest value however they are meant to be sacrificed for one to proceed further in the game. A nocturnal being Zambarrano always waited for dawn as the sunrises before he sleeps. And like the ants seen here brave and hardworking enough to face another day.

Even in the not-so-sunny there is beauty in tragedy. In the Beautiful Rain even the poor should remain dignified and live in excellence as encircled letter shows. Notice how needles morphed as the rain subsides. Zambarrano can be romantic as he was brutal in the most of his works.

Detail of Two Steps Behind

In the installation Two Steps Behind Zambarrano honors the famous black shoes for the last time. Resting on the famous black shoes are both his college diploma from Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) and his certificate as a licensed architect from the Professional Regulatory Commission attached to it. Providing the main altar in the exhibition is this testament to his hardship as he stuck more than 5000 needles around these elements. There are as many needles in one’s life; in fact they even come back as cycles. Using resin as his base Zambarrano wanted to pause and freeze this moment of elation. As an artist the defiant act was the most liberating this to do, a gentle reminder to stay grounded and humble and move on with his head up high. Providing a fitting backdrop to this tributes sculpture is The Evidence some 60 portraits of these black shoes on paper mounted on two sets of plywood.

Having practiced both as an architect and as a painter Zambarrano has developed a multi-disciplinary perspective to his art pieces in imparting cutting his messages across. In fact he even uses it to debunk its very essence.

Contemporary artist Alain Hablo specially did Zambarrano’s portrait for On the Ground (Highest Level). One of Iloilo’s proudest son in the visual arts, Hablo has been looked up to by Zambarrano and his generation of artists. He is much of an inspiration as an influence for Zambarrano. Overcoming his destitution epitomized by life-size pawns impressed upon his image like a reminder the successful you become the more humble one must be. 

Two Steps Behind and The Evidence

Meanwhile Timbu-ok tackles the same humility but in reverse: soar up high towards a higher ground but not the sky. Thirty kites denoting his existence are attached to red nylon strings which are firmly planted on the ground. Ilonggo word meaning soaring high, timbu-ok values humility above all; that despite life’s unexpected twists and bumpy turns one who eschews pride and keeps his feet on the ground is always exalted.

Choosing to stay in Iloilo Zambarrano’s art practice goes beyond the usual norm and against the tide situated in the imperial art centers. His art may not be festive as Dinagyang or commercial enough to be the celebrated in art fairs and bids in local auctions but being an Ilonggo artist has already contented him in his bigger canvas--art of his life. He is just warming up.

Ilonggos Bravos: The Triumvirate of Zambarrano, Cerbas, and Dela Cruz

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Having visited Iloilo City recently, the province is up and about with preparations for the APEC summit this coming November. Rich in natural and cultural heritage this sunny city of western visayas was chosen as one of the venues for some of APEC’s more important activities. Bustling or better yet, the main roads were smoking with the air filled in by the bevy mix of sand and cement from non-stop construction work. With infrastructure being built here and there, one would get an idea that progress has indeed arrived for the Ilonggos and there to stay.

With much pun intended comes Ang.gulo: Three-man Exhibition of Arel Zambarrano, Leoniel Cerbas, and Richard Dela Cruz at Artes Orientes whose perfect timing speak both of the state of disarray these artists are thriving and a sordid reminder that what we see in Iloilo is not exactly what’s there. In hindsight it could be more of Iloilo’s sampler of its contemporary visual arts than a blatant critique of its socio-political milieu. When its artists concern themselves with the impending reality than doing say portraits of celebrities with the Pope, or fantasy mother-and-childs or school of coy fish for demanding clients; when artists poke at what ills our already badly beaten country mired black-and-blue by corruption, and greed. Instead of rendering them in the usual in-your-face-realism these artists seeks to poignantly interpret them in an artistic genre of their making, culling from their own personal 
experiences.

Tricky Trail 2

Few artists can lay claim to be among the subjects they depict. Being a farmer's son, Dela Cruz knows how it is to till the land they have yet to own, toiling in dignity and by perseverance; how hard it is to labor and still not get enough from what you work for. The irony of it all those who plant rice are those without it. Tricky Trail 2 clearly portrays this sad plight not only of farmers but all those who carry the heavier burden of making the most in what so little. In an almost three dimensional manner, painstakingly rendered in a serene yet overwhelmingly detailed strokes in Dela Cruz’s working multitude. There is loudness in silence as one could hear the groan of the mass assembled in unison. The collective echoes of their empty stomach unwillingly trading half told truths over meager earning in their average daily grind.  

Babuwaya

The overpowering double whammy in Babuwaya lords it over a plethora of the exploited while being pitted on an unequal set up—those who put a lot of effort are less rewarded. In this situation everyone feeds the glutton in the politician who gets more out of his bloated budget. There is grandness in the manner of how Dela Cruz composes yet he keeps their dignity by freely arranging his elements like a overpopulated tableau on stilts.  

Artist's Shoes

In Artist’s Shoes Arel Zambarrano continues the lesser travelled artistic road immortalized in his P25 shoe bought in a nearby thrift shop. It has been a witness to his triumphs, tragedies and the inner conflicts of his existence. His brilliance is evident in the diptych Garden of Self Realization as handle of his symbols morphed into his battered footwear epitomizing how his art has struggled--unkempt, deformed and tattered. Merged with his signature needles, Zambarrano likes his painting muddy and less formal manner. How this visual style will evolve is something to look forward to.

Garden of Self Realization

Moving Forward comes at a time when everything these days is short, easy and bite-size. It is a reaction to the kind of relentless pursuit for things arbitrary yet artificial. Cerbas manages to control his haste by choosing his battles. In his alter ego represented by the fighting fish that guided him like a lodestar in a wide open field called uncertainty and confusion. Done in overlapping with transparent layering, he starts priming with wash similar how one does watercolor before finishing off with monotone acrylic. 

Moving Forward

As in any kind of unfair practice wealth has often been at the expense of the unmindful many that have been abused enough to blind injustice done by the false brightness of polish deceiving and disguising everything under an increasing profit. Sa Ilalim ng Kinang Cerbas reminisces many drawings depicting an authoritarian regime trampling on its people. Done in resin, behind the shiny shoes is a revolting throng fighting its collective right to emancipation. 

Sa Ilalim ng Kinag

Far from the art center that is Manila, Ang.gulo shows how distance provides a clearer and tighter perspective to Zambarrano, Cerbas and dela Cruz who have earlier in their student days have already honored Iloilo in the Philippine art map by winning major art competitions. They are the young new realists who put their art to good use and not just decorations to hang on the walls. Immersed in deep thought they make us realize how Filipinos have been victims of their own slavery. They enable us to imagine further too how art can make us aware what is needed in our society, of how it can make us overcome our plight.

When life hands more than half of the population in dire poverty, when everything around you is politically orchestrated, for these three artists the last thing you do is wallow in your quagmire. In disturbing the peace by fighting for change in one’s consciousness one artwork at a time. Or in their case, make that three.