.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Ronald Ventura is known in the contemporary art scene for his ability to express his thoughts on the chaotic situation of our contemporary world through his artworks. The emergence of Ventura's distinctive style within the visual landscape has informed a new way of approaching contemporary culture and has led him to become one of the most sought after artists in Southeast Asia. His paintings are informed and influenced by local customs and present life in the Philippines. Cumulus is one of his greatest masterworks considering the large scale of the work that speaks of a certain ambition in Ventura’s storytelling.
The word cumulus refers to a cloud that is puffy or cotton-like, and is the closest approximation to the perfectly shaped white clouds framed against a bright blue sky that feature prominently in our childhood imaginations. Contrary to this, Ventura’s cumulus is a dark and foreboding landform – weighed down with an amalgamation of symbols and motifs against a thunderous background of monochrome whites, blacks and greys. By subverting our expectations, Ventura brings to the fore a darker side of the Philippines that goes against an idyllic external perspective of the blue skies and sandy beaches of the Philippine islands.
Ventura draws his inspiration from a range of influences including Western religious iconography and pop culture. Extrapolating on the long colonial history of the Philippines under the Spanish, Americans, and Japanese, his usage of disparate symbols serve as metaphors for the different cultures that have come through the Philippines. The effigies of archangel St Michael, a portrait of Mother Mary and a figure of a penitent repenting his sins with a lash recalls Spanish colonization in the 16th century that led to the widespread conversion of the people to Catholicism. The skeletal military band in the centre of the painting along with the insidiously smiling cartoonish clown in the right corner of the land mass brings to mind the Mickey Mouse-style of American icons. The lasting impact of the Japanese is depicted via an oriental dragon near the legs of the woman. Ventura depicts these symbols with an irreverence for their importance as icons of their respective cultures, instead showing them as sinister and crumbling reminders of the invasive and pervasive means through which the Philippines has been irrevocably changed.
An intricate geometric maze is overlaid across the length of the land mass, highlighting the labyrinthine cycle of colonization and independence that the country has been through. Ventura suggests that the end-result is a country weighed down by its history, and with an inability to extricate itself from the myriad of events that are now part of its foundations. A resting woman with her smooth skin and her face obscured by her dark hair lies atop the seething land mass – she appears to be asleep in the midst of this veritable nightmare, unable or unwilling to awake. Her vulnerability is made apparent by virtue of her nakedness as she is exposed to the raging chaos beneath her. The landform is bookended by two human skulls on either end, and Ventura draws our attention to the status of decay and decomposition that are inherent in the foundations of the country.
Ventura has always been particularly fascinated with the concept of islands: individual land forms where their inhabitants flourish, mingle and perhaps even war against each other, but are nonetheless irrevocably tied down by the limitations of the geographical boundaries. Cumulus is a predecessor to future paintings like Eye Land (Christie’s May 2016) and Eye land Divide (Christie’s November 2013), and the theme is expressed here not only in the depiction of the floating and isolated land mass, but also in the accompanying eight light boxes that complete the work.
The light boxes serve as a physical manifestation of the surrounding smaller islands of the Philippines in relation to the main island (the large canvas). The scenes within the light boxes present a view into the degradation endemic across all the islands of the Philippines. Ventura strips away visions of tropical paradise to reveal the basic foundations of rock and bone overcome by pollution, over-development, and exotic tourism. A critical commentary on the social impact of foreign investment, the scenes also highlight the decline of the natural environment in the Philippines.
Ventura’s paints a grim image of the realities that lie beneath the seemingly picturesque Philippines, and of the irreversible impact of external influences that have become the foundations of present society. His brilliant grasp of compelling motifs and his ability to synthesize them within a single composition are a testament to his artistic technique and vision. Cumulus reveals layers of narrative upon closer inspection as Ventura takes us on a trip in search of the true nature and deep history of the Philippines.
The word cumulus refers to a cloud that is puffy or cotton-like, and is the closest approximation to the perfectly shaped white clouds framed against a bright blue sky that feature prominently in our childhood imaginations. Contrary to this, Ventura’s cumulus is a dark and foreboding landform – weighed down with an amalgamation of symbols and motifs against a thunderous background of monochrome whites, blacks and greys. By subverting our expectations, Ventura brings to the fore a darker side of the Philippines that goes against an idyllic external perspective of the blue skies and sandy beaches of the Philippine islands.
Ventura draws his inspiration from a range of influences including Western religious iconography and pop culture. Extrapolating on the long colonial history of the Philippines under the Spanish, Americans, and Japanese, his usage of disparate symbols serve as metaphors for the different cultures that have come through the Philippines. The effigies of archangel St Michael, a portrait of Mother Mary and a figure of a penitent repenting his sins with a lash recalls Spanish colonization in the 16th century that led to the widespread conversion of the people to Catholicism. The skeletal military band in the centre of the painting along with the insidiously smiling cartoonish clown in the right corner of the land mass brings to mind the Mickey Mouse-style of American icons. The lasting impact of the Japanese is depicted via an oriental dragon near the legs of the woman. Ventura depicts these symbols with an irreverence for their importance as icons of their respective cultures, instead showing them as sinister and crumbling reminders of the invasive and pervasive means through which the Philippines has been irrevocably changed.
An intricate geometric maze is overlaid across the length of the land mass, highlighting the labyrinthine cycle of colonization and independence that the country has been through. Ventura suggests that the end-result is a country weighed down by its history, and with an inability to extricate itself from the myriad of events that are now part of its foundations. A resting woman with her smooth skin and her face obscured by her dark hair lies atop the seething land mass – she appears to be asleep in the midst of this veritable nightmare, unable or unwilling to awake. Her vulnerability is made apparent by virtue of her nakedness as she is exposed to the raging chaos beneath her. The landform is bookended by two human skulls on either end, and Ventura draws our attention to the status of decay and decomposition that are inherent in the foundations of the country.
Ventura has always been particularly fascinated with the concept of islands: individual land forms where their inhabitants flourish, mingle and perhaps even war against each other, but are nonetheless irrevocably tied down by the limitations of the geographical boundaries. Cumulus is a predecessor to future paintings like Eye Land (Christie’s May 2016) and Eye land Divide (Christie’s November 2013), and the theme is expressed here not only in the depiction of the floating and isolated land mass, but also in the accompanying eight light boxes that complete the work.
The light boxes serve as a physical manifestation of the surrounding smaller islands of the Philippines in relation to the main island (the large canvas). The scenes within the light boxes present a view into the degradation endemic across all the islands of the Philippines. Ventura strips away visions of tropical paradise to reveal the basic foundations of rock and bone overcome by pollution, over-development, and exotic tourism. A critical commentary on the social impact of foreign investment, the scenes also highlight the decline of the natural environment in the Philippines.
Ventura’s paints a grim image of the realities that lie beneath the seemingly picturesque Philippines, and of the irreversible impact of external influences that have become the foundations of present society. His brilliant grasp of compelling motifs and his ability to synthesize them within a single composition are a testament to his artistic technique and vision. Cumulus reveals layers of narrative upon closer inspection as Ventura takes us on a trip in search of the true nature and deep history of the Philippines.