Finding the Quintessential in Where Lost Things Go
The pop attitude and seeming digital quality from mixed air brush and traditional brushwork, giving life and vigor to the arbitrary images representing real and imagined objects, are what makes Pablo Biglang-awa’s Where Lost Things Go a captivating sanctuary for insights found.
A common appearance of his home permeates all his 13 pieces, in different sizes, layers, contrast and saturation. The fragments or solid blocks of his studio present a visual base, as it is the literal structure that houses his artistic process, to anchor the varied tastes and textures of his compositional choices.
Ark as a central piece encapsulates the overarching concept of the show, as another work (a collection of materials used) that highlights remnants as material memory, supports the biggest piece.
The works on paper also highlight tangible traces, by disintegrating depth through color, consistency and alignment. They strongly build a referential value by connecting image and emotion evoked, as they also explore that which is mental by selecting pictures from a fictional time. Vector-like images and colored lines that resemble computer glitches are present in all works. This graphic layering interrogates the certainty of imagery, by questioning surface both denotative and connotative.
The exciting, youthful and vibrant works naturally elicit inspiration; however, one witnesses the sun shining only after the deepest parts of the night. In moments of sorrow, melancholia and nostalgia, Show and Hide (graphite and acrylic) preserves these strong contrasts. Amidst the hopeful execution of freedom that visually shackles the confines of anything enclosed like a studio, a workshop, a home… a core message is felt within the two portraits – a rest in color, a softness in movement, a quietness of medium.
This collection as a continuity of past 2020 shows, Encased Narratives (Finale Upstairs Gallery) and The Return of the Tearjerker (West Gallery), mends the isolation and hostility brought about by the pandemic. From the limitation, we discover the limitless. Indeed, one may find the quintessential only existing within oneself as one loses all.
Janine Dimaranan
Dolores, Quezon
April 2023
