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HOW THE ARTIST'S EYES CREATE HIS / HER ART
Many years ago, when I was briefly back in California with my Mom as a refugee from Chile, I discovered the collage art of Santiago Bose.
It blew me away, literally.
Why? Because he took images from the Filipino subconscious and created collages that ---at least in my case--- brought to the conscious Filipino mind the mental contents that are highly emotionally charged for us, without our noticing them in our daily world. They were subliminal images bearing messages: of fear, terror, religiosity, morbid curiosity, libidinous impulses, prejudices, malicious humor... the forbidden, the dark, the ignoble, the shameful...the messianic... whatever, but I saw the images and I immediately felt myself resonating.
I thought he was a genius.
I still think he is, because he shows us who we are, somehow, using those images and WORDS that he put together in a jumble of meanings and non-meanings.
One of the collages that I found most frightening in the one entitled: Warning!
I found it sinister, scary. That man with the red eyes, black beard, yellow halo around his head, holding onto a large doberman (with a leash?).
The man was a Spaniard. Wearing the traditional tropical white cotton shirt and pants.
There is a native boy in the foreground, being attacked by a mastiff.
The Filipino children in the background dressed in the street clothes of urchins.
Clearly a photograph from the Spanish era, I thought. The Spaniard seemed to be keeping
the viewer(s) at bay, he almost seemed to be holding the children behind him hostage.
Stay back!
There is a figure hardly visible, underneath the dog's image, connected to the dog by a yellow line. There seems to be a freshly dug hole in the ground --- a grave?
When I discovered Bose's art and was immediately rivetted by it () I was actually projecting onto the collage my own subconscious feelings about the Spanish period of: fear, repulsion but at the same time, attraction, the cruel castila, the helpless native children.
That was in 2002. 21 years ago. Bose had already passed on by then. He lived in Baguio.
Suddenly, maybe three days ago, I was surfing Pinterest because they always send me more images of 19th century Philippines.
I came across the UNRETOUCHED PHOTOGRAPH of WARNING!
What a surprise.
It turns out that Santiago Bose played around with the image, to express HIS MENTAL CONTENTS. His fears, his repulsions, darkness...
Here is the original photograph:
The doberman is scarier than ever. But the Spaniard is not. In fact, his face is calm, no threat in his eyes. His body language is almost submissive. He does look Spanish.
And there's another man, who was cut out of the image: an American! He wears a hat and what looks like the blue uniform that American soldiers wore. He is looking at the photographer intently.
Who is he? Who is the Spaniard? Who is the owner of the dog? We can't know.
We can surmise, though, that Doberman Pinschers were not the usual breed of dog that the Spanish brought to the Philippines. Dobermans are a breed created through genetic engineering. The Americans probably brought them over, along with German Shepherds.(1)
Look at the crowd behind the dog minder. There are also grown men there, an old man. They are definitely poor, the ground is paved, they seem to be standing in an alleyway bordered by adobe houses. It looks like a city setting.
The baby in the foreground wears white shoes. They look modern store-bought. They could have been a gift. But they are not the normal footwear of the urban poor at the time of the picture, which, from the presence of the American, I calculate would have been around 1901. The beginning of American rule. When even a poor mother could get a nice pair of brand new American shoes for her baby.
So there you have it, folks. An artist finds a photograph, a very interesting photograph, and creates a work of art entitled "Warning!"
The title is heavily charged, with foreboding. The main characters: a Spaniard with red eyes and a huge Doberman Pinscher.
Why is the American staring at the Spaniard?
My guess: he was looking at the guy who was on top, but now, he's taking his place.
He's turning him into a scary character first.
The better to attract the natives to him, as the new, improved, sweeter version.
But now, looking at the photograph before Bose turned it into a surreal, sinister artifact, a reinterpretation of a moment taken from the past, does the Spaniard look like a monster?
Actually, he looks like he's in the process of being framed.
(1) Wikipedia
