kubLai Millan vis a vis Ernst Gombrich :)

the SEED…

One of Kublai’s sculptures in Kanluran is the SEED. I don’t know exactly why they call it that way. Anyway, what matter’s is how this sculpture illustrated the ideas of Ernst Gombrich.

When I surfed the internet for other sculptures made by Kublai, I found out that he has established something that is “tatak Kublai.” His sculptures have this trace of Mindanao culture in them. It is evident from how he made the large durian sculpture at the Davao airport and the giant, partly open clam shell with a family of eagles looking out at the viewer through the opening which is situated at Ponce Suites still in Davao.

Like his other sculptures, he made the SEED as something larger than life or life-size. I think this is what Gombrich meant when he was speaking about the artist’s style. It might be that Kublai wanted his sculptures to be life-sized so that they would look more energetic or appealing to the viewers. Kublai had already established his own style in making his sculptures.

The SEED apparently is not a faithful record of a person or of a place. This is what Gombrich meant when he said that “an artwork is not a faithful record of the truth but is a faithful record of the construction of the subject matter.” Kublai’s construction of the SEED reflects his purpose to give a more energetic, appealing and elegant view for the viewers. Style still rules even if the artist wants to reproduce nature truthfully.

After finishing Fine Arts, Kublai decided to devote his time in Mindanao where he grew up. He wanted to bring back to life the culture that has molded his soul. As what Gombrich said, “there is no seeing which is purely innocent & unaffected by the artist’s personal history, interests & visual vocabulary. ” Kublai’s selective preferences may be one of the reasons why he makes his sculptures “larger than life” with a touch of Mindanao culture.

One of the limits stated by Gombrich is that the “artist will be attracted by motifs which can be rendered in his idiom.” Kublai’s SEED is somehow taken from the certain aspects in the scene around him – a scene portraying Mindanao as a place rich with natural resources.

Lastly, “where there’s a way is there also a will.” Kublai’s purpose of making a certain “spark” for the people of Mindanao and to inspire young artists to love their craft is a clear manifestation that he enriches the ways and means his culture offers him. He sees a lot in his culture that’s why he continues to nurture what he can do to preserve it for the younger generations.

spiraLs…

The image won’t come out so I just pasted the URL here.

http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-344

This painting is entitled SPIRALS by Cat Sidh and the medium used was oil in canvas. The painting caught my attention because of the variety of lines it has. There are curves and spirals. I can barely see straight lines; everything in it seems to be so dynamic. The lines are leading to different directions. When I first took a look at it, I couldn’t quite know what to think about it. I couldn’t understand it but I like the way it was rendered. The dominant color is light red.

Plato’s idea that art takes us away from reality is true in some cases. I think it is in the sense that what we see in a painting is not actually the reality but the imitation of reality. However, a painting can also drive us towards reality when we relate our personal experiences through it.

In this abstract painting, it makes me think of a journey – my journey in particular. The lines and curves depict roads for me and make me feel like I have been travelling through them. The different colors in the painting suggest the different experiences that I have been through and I will still be going through in my life’s journey. The different directions of the lines make me feel that I can be in different places too.

Somehow, through art, reality is distorted.  I think it is impossible to have an exact copy of something because the way a painter paints also depends on his perception of the things he paint.

Like what I said, art can either take us away from reality or drive us towards reality through our experience.

subLime & beautiful…

I was used to thinking that something great & splendid or grand & transcendental is something totally positive. Burke’s Sublime & Beautiful taught me another idea. I have looked deeply on the different forms of sublimity through his article. When an object astonishes us, we are brought to a point where our minds are focused to that particular object alone and no other things can make our attention depart from that object. Astonishment, then, is the result of sublimity in its highest degree.

The idea that sublimity equaled some degree of horror seems strange to me at first. Now, I have found myself nodding in agreement with this idea. Sublimity is not just on things that we consider as positively breathtaking. The sublime can also be seen on objects of terror regardless of its size. Similarly, obscurity also equals sublimity. Humans are usually terrified of the unknown. Objects, then, are considered sublime when they appear dreadful to people in a sense that they do not exactly know or understand what those objects are.

It is truly fascinating to know that even the vastness of the ocean, the privation, strength & power of several objects and the fact that there are certain things that are infinite define sublimity. Just as stated earlier, sublime is just a mere word that I encounter in some days of my life. Interestingly, there is something really deeper than that.

a gLimpse of aesthetics…

COMA110- The course began with a sort-of essay quiz that asked to define BEAUTY. The moment the question was asked, tons & tons of definitions of beauty popped out my mind. That was when I realized that it is way too hard to give an exact definition of beauty. Well, I think you do not need to complicate its meaning. For me, beauty is not skin-deep. It is not seen on the surface alone but on what is beneath that surface. Nevertheless, aesthetics teaches me more than that.

I had encountered the word aesthetics several times but I really did not know what it is all about. Just lately, I have come to know that it deals with the study of how we put value on things or objects. It has a great deal to do with the philosophical examination of our perception by means of senses. True enough, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” We, human beings are the ones who put meaning on what we see. We define objects based on how we view them. Particularly, aesthetics is concerned with our experiences of art & natural beauty. When we put pleasure in an object or become interested in that certain object, we are said to have an aesthetic attitude & our experience is called an aesthetic experience.

One of the best things that I have learned so far about aesthetics is in the form of a question- is beauty inherent in the object or just in the eyes of a person? If beauty then is just in the eyes of a person, we can actually learn it. But how? I guess that is something I still need to find out as we go on with this course.

Since I am usually fascinated with interesting questions, I’d like to leave this thought too. I have learned in my further readings that one of the central questions aesthetics asks & seeks to answer, either directly or indirectly is “why art itself is valuable?” It was stated that art is valuable because art is beautiful. Why, then, is beauty valuable? I do not quite know why it is. Maybe that is also something I need to learn about.