Homecoming, 2011 acrylic on canvas 96 x 132 in In his first show after winning the Signature Art Prize, Filipino

artist Rodel Tapaya looks again at the big picture. For the ensemble in Homecoming, he takes some characters in his mythic world and superimposes them onto the sponge-like and vacuous creature that is the wormhole of the Bulol (the idol representation of a dead ancestor). He has sapped his subject of conflict or story. It forms a scene in the sky worldof gods and mortals arranged in almost similar composition to that of Renaissance paintingswith intimation of the world we live in that rejects the very myths that permeate the civilization, hence, the apparition of the mortal world at the bottom right. Cathedrals of flora and fauna, portals of vine and mystic lagoons flowing on amorphous-looking islands elevate the work in a strangely theatrical direction but, by and large, the artist seems fixated on a subtle introductionthe painting is only a frontispiece to the suit presented in this exhibition that ushers you into a tropical Olympus: Lumawig, the Prometheus of Philippine mythology descends from the sky world, Melu in an apparition as a red ghost sheds skin to create human beings, Bathala as a king on a high horse journeys on a rainbow, and the elders Laon and Manaul are sailing on a boat of cloud. The works are less contrived than conjured or spawned into life. They bring with them Philippine pre-colonial history which echoes in our current lives; a melody of grand narratives and primordial imaginings.

Emergence from the Bamboo, 2011 acrylic on canvas 60 X 48 in King Manaul is depicted here as an owl and the legendary bird sent by Bathala who cracks open the bamboo from where the first man and woman came. According to different accounts, the bird flew around until it heard some tapping somewhere in the forest. The bird landed and found out that it was coming from a huge bamboo. It started pecking on it until it split, wherefrom a man emerged. He was called Malakas, which means strong, and he told the bird, "My mate is in the other piece of wood." They got her out and she was called Maganda which means beautiful. The two rode on the bird's back and flew away to find some place to live. They flew around the world until finally, the bird saw land and let the two giants set foot and live on it. When Malakas and Maganda stepped on the land their weight crushed it into pieces forming the 7,107 islands of the Philippines. Abounding in radiant and unsettling juxtapositions, Rodel Tapayas paintings, as they depict time-warps and magic are in themselves wormholes into worlds of astonishing supernatural power. By appropriating two previously unrelated legends, he makes room for mythical collisions, provoking the viewer to rethink a parallel universe that is at once allegorical, familiar, and dynamic.

Mother and Child, 2011 acrylic on canvas 72 x 40 in The abundantly florid background in Tapayas signature paintings project a curious kind of nature, so it follows that, when he depicts formerly discordant narratives, the subjects thickens hand in hand with the originating plot. In Mother and Child, the subject hangs on a leaf with a straight expression, with a diffused halo of light and hair of roots that attach to the earth; the beige background is tempered by streaks of burnt umber forming a labyrinthine backdrop for the montage that it almost becomes impossible to discern the subjects mood. But the focus is held by the sun and moon united in a single face. The narrative is pleasingly consistent: In Rodel Tapayas paintings he has often depicted the universe as a tree that takes in and nourishes all creatures of the universe. The sun and moon are part of this tree of life (an allusion to familial connections represented by the cosmos). It tells of the moon as mother in search of her son who fell onto the earth and who was not found until a giant cat brought him back to his father, the sun. Following a violent fight caused by this tragedy, the sun and moon parted and have since shed their light on the world at different times. Now, it is said that the moon illuminates the night to guide her child back to the sky where he came from.

Fairy Healer, 2011 acrylic on canvas 72 x 40 in Virgin forests are the mythical cradle of the deities and all creatures that reside there have been sacred to native Filipinos for thousands of years. Assembled from study collages, Fairy Healer is constructed from historically derivative folklore, when forest maidens practiced the first form of religion and the occult practices of divine healing. In the painting, the arms of the fairy growing from a shrub become threads that stitch the gunshot wound of a deer. Nearly unnoticeable in the background, hunters search for their prey animal which unknown to them are actually maidens of the forests in disguise. The deer stands steady, as the fairy operates on her. The fairy healer is mounted stoutly on the earth as if to ground her enlightened movements. She too has antlers and is able to touch the deer directly. The animal is serene, with a human face. Their bodies share and swap their parts in the process of healing.

Redeeming the Fire, 2011 acrylic on canvas 96 x 132 in Aswang and Gugurang have previously appeared in Rodel Tapayas painting Aswang Steals Fire from Gugurang (2007), which earned him a jury nomination to the Philippine Art Awards. His fascination with these two characters strife, chronicled extensively in Bicolano folklore (northwest Philippines) coupled with a deep, almost obsessive veneration for centuries old traditions is one of the most absorbing facets of Rodel Tapaya which he seeks to transfer to

contemporary Filipino culture. Aswang and Gugurang are said to be brothers who as gods controlled the welfare of their people. Over the last ten years or so, Tapaya has crafted strange, often complex paintings, which pay homage to the social-realist tradition and research done by Filipino scholars while visually attempting to keep them modern and inventive. A talented hand, he harkens to traditional images but also litters his work with surreal insertions of technology and machinery. The works deviate from simple, amusing, exotic ideas such as densely layered imagined landscapes (with an almost never-ending level of detail and color coordination). And it may interests the viewer that such characters were never celebrated as images or idols in actual folk tradition and that the artist has automatically stripped them from the deific by merely translating them into images. Furthering this idea of recounting the fantastic into the quotidian, the artist inserts commentary in the language of folklore. Aswang and Gugurang who have symbolically and literally fought with fire, have gone through many depictions in many of Tapayas works including collage and sketches, but this is the most complex attempt yet, merging previous characters from his earlier more mundane series and pinning sub stories from a never-ending pool in his cosmic imagination. For instance, the chicken head-soliders on the lower right, are the depictions of the once fabled mighty warrior birds who rebelled against Gugurang. As punishment given to these fallen angels, they are now merely raised for poultry and deprived of their free will, unable to soar higher than the height of a tree. Poignantly, the chicken-head soldiers assume a present-day personality: dressed in fatigues and carrying Rocket Propelled Grenades. There is reference about the power struggle of Gugurang and Aswang in order to comment on the usurpation of power through military coup detat common in troubled governments of Southeast Asia. In addition to this, Gugurang is poised with a glorious white beard, hair that is archetypal of the sage and the complexion of the wise Aeta tribal chief while Aswang is evil and animalistic, holding on to a globe split in flames. There is a blurring of representational boundaries here that offers a generous range of imagination that illuminate the personal, symbolic, and formal complexities of Rodel Tapayas world which creatively relates to our past and present simultaneously.

Descent of Kabunian, 2011 acrylic on canvas 60 x 48 in

This painting portrays what is probably the closest human incarnation of Kabunian (a Northern Philippine chief-god) in any Rodel Tapaya painting. In some readings, Lumawig (the son) is interpreted as the demi-god incarnate of Kabunian who brought fire and taught the first human beings to plant rice. In both cases Kabunian and Lumawig are treated as supreme deities of the Ifugao tribe and one encounters similar stories differing only in the names of the protagonist gods. Both are traditionally said to live at the peak of Mount Pulag, in the Northern Cordillera region of the Philippines. Kabunians descent is equated to mans judgment and salvation. The depiction here illuminates the personal, symbolic, and formal complexities of the ancients that the artist extracted. Cross-referencing his other paintings, one can sense the main semantic threads and historical influences involved; culturally-specific symbols form the painters extensive mythology. The differences offer nuanced insights while allowing the images to speak

on their own. Tapayas fragmented landscapes and enduring characters float between the iconic and ornamental, social and psychological, graphic and painterly. Within this serving, we discover the density and enigmatic openness of his paintings. Through a deep reflection of philosophy, art history, literature, and personal dreamscape, the paintings show the remnants of folk wisdom and the struggle to represent them by transcending the pitfalls of being merely didactic.