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.

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.