Kawayan de Guia (b. 1979) - Subtle Repercussions

Lot description

Subtle Repercussions signed and dated 2008 (right) mixed media (light box) • closed: height: 60” (152 cm) width: 42” (107 cm) length: 7” (18 cm) •opened: height: 60”(152 cm) width: 84 1/2” (215 cm) length: 3 1/2” (9 cm) WRITE UP Toying with the idea of curiosity cabinets,” remarked Kawayan de Guia in an interview about this work. “And it was with this body of work that I — instead of only painting objects (which were from my grandmother’s collection) decided to integrate real objects. He added, “I adopted the idea of the Ifugao ritual box also known as a “punamhan”, which I still continue to do to this day.” The work at hand is a cabinet, in three sections, almost man-high — white-washed on the exterior with drawings of cone-headed figures, the number ’13’ and the words ‘Devine, Decline, Devide, in Kawayan’s typical shorthand of puns. Inside, it’s pure theater — both metaphsycial and actual, with bamboo poles, saint’s heads, burlap and twine, a toy donkey, cartoons and 1930s adverts for toothpaste, and plastic flowers. The central work is painted over pages from a book, maps, and engravings of medieval figures. It is framed by a roughly-hewn ‘cantonera’ that also happens to be lit on the inside, literally like a light box. Kawayan notes that it is “one of three works of its kind in subject and form.” (Lisa G. Nakpil)