An ancient riddle that describes human life goes: “What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?” In our modern times, this has become a myth on its own. Most of our adulthood is being spent bounded on a four-legged chair, while our two feet fastened to the ground. Our childhood restlessness and inability to sit still is replaced by our adult listlessness and toiling for our twilight years. Artists and creatives are fortunate to be able to nurture their childlike imaginations – to exercise a sense of constant motion within the restrictions of the adult world, until the only global pandemic. Lec Cruz’s Sit Still serves as a reflexive reaction to the uncertainty brought about by the past two years; the physical and psychological challenges; and the resilience to adapt to the “new normal.”
In his series of graphite works on canvas paper “Let Go,” Cruz documents the anxiety and tension inside his studio. The continues scribbles and doodles that tries to fill up spaces with random movements imprints his moments of waking up with unfocused thoughts that words cannot sufficiently render. “Control I-IV” on the other hand, proposes a calmer and pensive moment signified by the continues motion in circular manner. “Stay Still Like a Tree” highlights the balance between the tree’s arrested development and the chair’s awkward tilted position. His looped video of a cast shadow under the sun records a snapshot of him trying to break the monotony within a confined space. Cruz’s painting of a cabin surrounded by water in the middle of a forest is a depiction of a safe space he imagines while listening to a guided meditative video. In it, the surreal cold exterior is intensified by its vivid colors. Aptly titled “Solace,” Cruz designated the cabin as an imaginary place of rest.
Lec Cruz’s exhibition is an exploration of art as a form of therapy, a meditative act that frees the mind from daily routines set by time and restrained by the confines of the physical space.
