BY JAY BAUTISTA |
Situated in Bulacan, Bulacan, Baranggay
San Francisco is what is popularly known as Tabon. It used to be vast expanses
of fields where farming sustained the people living there. For the longest
time, Tabon maintained its rural culture--which came alive only when a
religious procession is being observed or a local carnival is set up--to mark
its annual festivities. Away from his parents, Bunag grew up here when grandmother
took him under her loving care as he was about to attend pre-school. Spending
his entire formative years with his extended family and life-long friends, Bunag
was accustomed living simple way in a rustic manner.
Tabon
series are eighteen
scenarios--each capturing the meaningful moments Bunag got to spend around
people in his most sensitive self and what was most memorable to him. He reminisces
his time spent perched on a tree with his sister or on a swing while flying
kites with friends; his riding bicycles, playing basketball and swimming in the
pristine rivers of Tabon are faintly recorded.
For now, Bunag is finally home—as if he never left.
There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain
In
My Life
The Beatles
For his 5th solo exhibition,
Sa Tabon, Don Bryan Bunag returns
home once more. Picking up from where he left off in his first show, he becomes
more personal and dwells deeper by capturing bygone scenes that reprise
meaningful stages in his life.
Situated in Bulacan, Bulacan, Baranggay
San Francisco is what is popularly known as Tabon. It used to be vast expanses
of fields where farming sustained the people living there. For the longest
time, Tabon maintained its rural culture--which came alive only when a
religious procession is being observed or a local carnival is set up--to mark
its annual festivities. Away from his parents, Bunag grew up here when grandmother
took him under her loving care as he was about to attend pre-school. Spending
his entire formative years with his extended family and life-long friends, Bunag
was accustomed living simple way in a rustic manner.
Compared to his contemporaries in the
art scene--whose fascination revolves around the floral, the grotesque and the
macabre--Bunag does not want to be boxed in a format or be loud with his
brushstrokes. His visual style may be academic with processes influenced by Titian,
Rubens and Rembrandt, he prefers and is well- versed with fleeting moments and impermanence
of nostalgia evoking silence. The ambience of Tabon sets this tone for the
exhibit depicting memory with what was familiar and ethereal for this award winning
visual artist.
Tabon
series are eighteen
scenarios--each capturing the meaningful moments Bunag got to spend around
people in his most sensitive self and what was most memorable to him. He reminisces
his time spent perched on a tree with his sister or on a swing while flying
kites with friends; his riding bicycles, playing basketball and swimming in the
pristine rivers of Tabon are faintly recorded.
His intimate bonding activities with his
family such going to mass or being carried just to touch Jesus’s feet in a
chapel wrought by his mother’s abiding spirituality can also be witnessed. Even
how his grandfather brings him to school and taught him to play the drums are informally
documented. He once saw an old farm with a herd of lambs sparked on him the
dream of having the same space to take care of such genteel flock.
Typical to the young and melancholic
Bunag he was often seen laying on the ground looking at the heavens—sometimes
on a fence, in a bench or lying on the grass whiling away his time, observing
the images formed in the clouds. His own quiet time is also impressed upon here—staring
at a pond or looking up in the sky while imagining things--are mutely embedded.
These were his initial manifestations of the kind of art practice he is
espousing now.
Done in loose textures of
impressionism, there is evident stillness in Bunag’s subjects--with only a hint
of figuration involved—as if he leaves to his viewers to situate themselves in
them. Only the truly experienced artists like Bunag could impart a mood piece,
which is quite universal to the viewer, yet leave something distinct into them.
Each work is anecdotal, rich in meaning and symbolisms--an ode to time and how
it moves together with the heavens all at the same time. Placed side by side on
shelves, they are like one long reel of film marked by Bunag’s own passage of
realities. He has adopted filmmaker’s tools in these small paintings marked
with cinematic aesthetics.
Bunag left Tabon when his grandmother
died and he was a year short of graduation in 2012. When Bunag came back early
this year he could barely recognize the sense of place Tabon was. Prodding him
to question: Can one physically leave a place yet preserve how it once was in
one’s own memory?
The encroaching vines and tall grass
represent Bunag as he saw himself in the lush vegetation grown through time as depicted
Tabon 1 with him in mind—a kind of
portrait of Bunag as foliage. Bunag was waxing sentimental upon seeing how much
Tabon has changed since he last been to it. Tabon 3 is a mossy testament to that--an ode to the last remaining
lot beside the factory in Tabon. It speaks of the plight of Tabon it is
purposely misaligned to connote much change.
Tabon
2 remains the mysterious gate where old
people were saying a Chinese lived beyond the wall from the gate. He was warned
whoever trespasses will be killed. Until this day Bunag has not unravel if the
story is just a myth since he saw rust already eating the gate and untended
grass has embraced it--only shows no one has entered it after a long time.
After a well-thought-of process Bunag likely
starts with a sketch—sometimes hurriedly as his hand tries to keeps up with his
imagination. Then he channels them on tweed fabric. For two years now Bunag
favors how acrylic is reflected upon it. A signature Bunag is the monotony of a
single color--what was once sepia has now become more basic in charcoal gray. What
is more important to Bunag is the narrative of the story than any suggestive
hue.
Layering like old school classical
painting, Bunag usually prefers water-based paints having started out as a
watercolorist. He favors acrylic and graphite as under painting to glazing. Sometimes
finishing off with oil paint. His work typically has 7-9 layers depending on
the different tones of consistencies. Each layer has an effect--he wants it raw
and textured in strokes in the end.
 |
| Tabon 1 |
Bunag relied most of these Tabon images
to his memory since most of the locations he is familiar with no longer
exist--giving emphasis on unmediated sentimentality. It is only now that Bunag realized
he left Tabon but it did not leave him. He wanted to depict Tabon of yore in
the sincerest way and most mature rendering since he started painting. He
wanted a room full of memories and he has done that. More than the lost rice fields
and pristine rivers he wanted to capture Tabon as a feeling, as a mood like a
longing sigh or and accidental swoon, as if he feels for the viewer. At a young
age he is already an old soul by how he has gathered a plethora of memories to
paint them in a lifetime.
For now, Bunag is finally home—as if he never left.
