Sillada's World
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"Beyond Realism," as surrealism implies, requires a good grounding in realistic art---it is, a fortiori, a multi-dimensional creation of all reality perceived by the artist. This aspires to create more "realities" than the eye can see. As an aesthetic experience, it tends to be more cerebral than visual. But objectified representations of reality (as those in photographs) is within the province of surrealism as it disfigures reality to discover other realities that more often than not "surprise the beholder" into recognizing more planes of reality. Danny Castillones Sillada is definitely a skilled surrealist.
~ Albert B. Casuga, Filipino- Canadian poet, fictionist, and critic
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Highlights
Truth, Language, Compassion, and the 'Danger of Single Story' (Essay)
A philosophical essay (with illustration) on epistemology, phenomenology of language, and linguistic theory titled “Truth, Language, Compassion, and the 'Danger of Single Story.'” This essay is for those who are studying linguistic theory, phenomenology of language, epistemology, logic, law, and journalism, and for those who are lovers of truth, knowledge, and wisdom. Keywords: Truth, Epistemology, Language, Linguistic Theory, Phenomenology of Language, Human Brain, Human Judgment, Compassion, Cubus Theory.
Ghost Calling | Solo in Kudlong | Danny Castillones Sillada (Music Video)
A neo-noir ethnic music, "Tawag Ng Kallag" (Ghost Calling) is a raw cut from Danny Castillones Sillada's forthcoming music album "Mga Hagas Ng Kudlong" (The Whispers of Kudlong) composed of 12 instrumental tracks performed in Kudlong (two-stringed ethnic instrument).
News & Events
Danny Castillones Sillada featured in GatheringBooks
Sillada's art is featured for the months of March and April 2013 in GatheringBooks. Please click the following links:
~ Oddballs and Misfits/Surreal and Peculiar
~ Installation, Nail-Art, and Hydrokinetic Sculpture
~ Landscape of Thoughts and Images: Beyond the Mind of An Artist
~ Phalluses and Vaginal Forms: A Sexual Repression or Sublimation?
~ Poetry and Drawings: The Tragic Story Behind the Artist’s Creation
~ The Agony of Living and Dying: Photographs from the Existentialist Perspective
~ The Vanishing Journey of Mandaya Poetry and Music(Bayok, Dawot and Oyog-Oyog)
Sillada, the New Member of Visionary Art Gallery
Invited by the VAG founder Otto Rapp, Danny Castillones Sillada is the newest member of the VISIONARY ART GALLERY (Visionary Art – Fantastic Realism – Surrealism), which is composed of surrealist and visionary artists across the globe.
Founded by the renowned international visionary and surrealist artist Otto Rapp, the exclusive members (by invitation only) of VAG have grown steadily since its inception in 2009. This community of international artists is one of the leading visionary and surrealist movements in the contemporary milieu, highlighting the recent developments with multifaceted array of works (a total of 9,000) from different artists around the world.
Six Filipino Poets at 'World Poetry Peace Festival' in Canada, 2013
Photo courtesy of Jaypee Belarmino
Link to the Third World Poetry Canada International Festival 2013
Albert Casuga, Felix Fojas, Danny Castillones Sillada, Joanna Allas, Santiago Villafania, and Jaypee Belarmino—the six Filipino poets to represent the World Poetry Peace Festival on April 4-30th, 2013 at the Ike's Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Albert Casuga - nominated to the Mississauga Arts Council Literary Awards in 2007; has won awards for his works in Canada, the U.S.A., and the Philippines.
Felix Fojas - one of the most decorated Filipino poets; a true legend in Philippine contemporary literature.
Danny Castillones Sillada - accomplished surrealist painter, sculpture, installation and performance artist, philosopher, multilingual poet, essayist, musician, photographer, and an indie filmmaker.
Joanna Allas - fashion designer and co-host of a literary website called 'Pinoy Poets' Circle' with over four hundred active members worldwide.
Santiago Villafania - Pangasinan's 2010 Asna awardee for Arts & Culture (Literature); author of Malagilion, a finalist in the 2007 National Book Award for Best Book of Poetry; has won the Gawad Komisyon (Gantimpalang Tamayo sa Tulang Pangasinan) in 2007, and the Writer of Year Award in 2004 from the Association for the Preservation of the Pangasinan Language.
Jaypee Belarmino - 2012 World Poetry International Empowered Poet and Artist of the Year; published writer, essayist, photographer, graphic and abstract artist.
Danny Castillones Sillada Live!
‘Danny Castillones Sillada Live!’ at Blot Art Studio with his blues harmonica, kudlong (two-stringed sitar), and rap on January 5, 2013, Saturday, 8PM. Blot Art Studio is located at 9726 Pililia, St. Brgy. Valenzuela, Makati City, Philippines.
Modern Vintage Illustration, a book by Martin Dawber
Danny Castillones Sillada has recently been included among the international artists in Martin Dawber’s book “Modern Vintage Illustration,” composed of some of the best illustrators across the globe.
The book is an exquisite and eclectic survey of modern illustration emanating from different artistic styles, genres, and expressions by artists around the world. Inspired from Art Deco and Soviet Poster Art to Blue Note record sleeves, from surreal graphics to comic books and punk, the book is a compendium of 420 illustrations (224 pages in paperback, Batsford imprint) evoking a sense of different time and place yet refreshingly witty, elegant and delightful to browse and read.
Martin Dawber is an internationally acclaimed author on contemporary fashion, style and image. A graduate of the prestigious Royal College of Art, he was the Principal Lecturer in Fashion at John Moores University for over 30 years and continues to be globally in demand as a recognized authority on fashion and illustration. He is the best-selling author of New Fashion Illustration, New Fashion Prints and Big Book of Fashion Illustration.
Stephen Bayley, author and one of the world's renowned commentators on modern culture and contemporary design and architecture, wrote the foreword of the book.
Sillada's Art, Poetry, Film & Music at Davao Oriental Museum
Provincial Capitol of Mati, Davao oriental
The Provincial Tourism and Arts and Culture of Mati, Davao Oriental, Philippines, will present Danny Castillones Sillada’s works (painting and sculpture, music, poetry and short films) at the opening of Davao Oriental Museum on July 2013, a project by the incumbent provincial governor, Gov. Cora Malanyaon, spearheaded by the consultant for provincial tourism Cynthia Rodriguez.
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Journal
Revisiting and Recreating My Fear: The Mana'og Sculpture
The Royal Mandaya Mana’og, 2012, by Danny Castillones Sillada
THE ROYAL MANDAYA Manaog (my modern version and five times bigger from the original carved Mandaya god) is my tribute to my most feared Mandaya idol as a young boy—the Mana’og or guardian spirit-god of the night (female) and day (male), the emissary of the Mandaya gods Mansilatan and Badla. Every Mandaya household in daya (upstream or mountain) has either male or female mana’og as a protector against the busaw (evil spirit).
Its name or presence used to frighten me, not because it was scary; our ompô (grandparents) and ginikanan (parents) in the patag (downstream or town proper) would scare us of its powerful spell against the bad children, that is, if we were incorrigibly rascal and naughty. We would cower in the corner of the house or slither under the bamboo bed to hide away from the fury of unseen Manaog (“unseen” because we had none in the house, only its terrifying name).
The same degree of fear that I would feel with the Gino-o (Christian God), where my mother used to scare me of hell or Gino-o’s wrath. I guess “fear” has no racial, religious, or cultural discrimination—the intensity of feeling is the same—whether a Mandaya or a colonial God. This leads me to realize, when I was growing up, that “fear” is the most powerful feeling on Earth, and it is synonymous with God or any gods for that matter.
The Mandaya is one of the ethnic tribes in southeastern Mindanao, in Davao Oriental, where I was born and spent my entire childhood and adolescent life before I entered the seminary to become a priest, and took further studies in Manila at UST and Ateneo De Manila University, only to become a lowly “hyphenated” artist in the end.
As a young lad, I would often go to the pristine mountains of my province with friends and relatives to commune and interact with the Mandaya villagers, aside from the NPA rebels. Their colorful rituals and practices fascinated me, as though I had always been part of the Mandaya culture and tradition. And it was here where my art was born out of “fear” and reverence of my ancestral beliefs and cultural roots, totally abandoning my teenage dream to become an NPA rebel or assassin in Mindanao.
Lamentably, the last time I visited there, the Manaog was already replaced with television set, laptop computer, Android Tablet, and Apple MP3 player. My most feared wooden idol was no longer revered as an emissary spirit-god of Mansilatan and Badla. It was now carefully tucked at the corner walls of the house along with the framed photos of Justin Bieber, KC Concepcion, Angel Locsin, and some Korean teenage idols (if not PSY of Gangnam Style).
“Friend me on Facebook,” says a ravishing native girl before I left the Mandaya village, trudging with heavy footsteps on an almost barren mountain!
--Danny Castillones Sillada, Inusara Journal (November 30, 2012)
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Detail of Sculpture:
Title: The Royal Mandaya Mana’og
Dimension: 7ft. x 7ft. x 1ft.
Medium: Wood, Metal, Acrylic Glass, Wires, Beads, Fabric, Fluorescent Light and Synthetic Hair
Collection: Davao Oriental Museum
Interviews
Surrealism in the Philippines
(An Interview with multidisciplinary artist and writer Danny Castillones Sillada)
FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, 2006, by Danny Castillones Sillada
by Paulo Villones
Paulo Villones: How would you describe surrealism in the Philippines?
Danny Castillones Sillada: Surrealism in Philippine art is an individual style rather than a movement compared to its development in Latin America, USA and Europe. We have no historical surrealist movement in the country with a cohesive manifesto that sprang from political or anarchic cause relative to its inception in the early 1920s by French poet and writer André Breton. Hence, I could say that Surrealism in the Philippines is a road less traveled by local artists, a personal pursuit of creative style and technique rather than as a popular genre in our local art scene.
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Symbolism, Culture, and Politics
(A conversation with multidisciplinary artist and writer Danny Castillones Sillada)
Menstrual Period in Political History by Danny Sillada
by Angelita Porteo
Angelita Porteo: “Menstrual Period in Political History” is your most “controversial” mixed media artwork in 2005. What is the parallelism of “Politics” and “Menstrual Period” and how does it relate to Philippine politics and culture?
Danny C. Sillada: “Menstrual Period in Political History” is a mixed media on metamorphic rock or slate, with painted and carved vaginal form at the center. The visual narrative of the artwork is not vociferous with bleak background in contrast to the vibrant colors of my typical paintings. However, I never expected that its inconspicuous presence along with the title would become controversial in 2005.
The parallelism of “Politics” and “Menstrual Period” is, obviously, the cyclical political turmoil in our country, which is periodic since the Marcos time up to the Arroyo regime.
Like a woman’s menstrual period, Philippines politics has its own menstrual cycle in our country in the form of corruption, economic instability, violation of human rights, the involuntary disappearances of civilians, the century-old war in Mindanao, insurgency, poverty, and inadequacy of political leaders to address socio-economic and political problems in our society, to name a few.
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Reviews
The Surrealistic Reality of Danny Castillones Sillada
The Mask in My Dream, 2001, (oil) by Danny C. Sillada
by Shar Matingka
Danny Sillada has established himself as a neo-ethnic artist, his masterpieces overflowing with vibrant incoherence, transcending movements spawned from legacies of surrealists. Not many of our contemporary artists can recreate a poetic replica of a disjointed reality captured on canvas as Sillada can, and that too with such wild abandon. Distinct geometrical patterns with ordinary objects, a signature characteristic of time fluidity injected with hallucinatory flows, the blood of his emotions fleeting in seamless strokes where a person can get lost forever in random speculation on what was meant to be conveyed. Minds are left bewildered and slightly disturbed yet visually gratified – these are some trademarks of Sillada’s work of art.
At the tender age of seven, Danny’s thirst for art manifested itself. Identified as a gifted child with the flair for immortalizing his emotions and the world around him through sketches and paintings, he began with portraits of teachers, classmates and relatives and landscape painting. Between 1977 and 1982 in Davao Oriental, he earned the Gifted Child Award in Cateel Public Elementary School and Award of Excellence/Artist of the Year Award in Maryknoll High School of Cateel. A proud native of Davao, he has earned and advocating ethnic culture in his paintings, music and other literary works.
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Past Events
Mindanaoan Artist Sillada Explores ‘Uncharted Border’ in New York
 5th Avenue, NYC
PAINTER, POET, ESSAYIST, and performance artist Danny C. Sillada comes to New York for the ‘Uncharted Borders’ exhibit, his 13th one-man show. The exhibit opened last July 27 and will run until August 7 at the Philippine Center, 556 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
‘The event’s opening reception last July 28 was attended by guests of honor including Philippine Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide, Jr. MORE... |
Uncharted Borders’ in New York, the 13th One-Man Show of Danny C. Sillada
 Danny Sillada invite
‘UNCHARTED BORDERS', a one-man show by Danny C. Sillada at Philippine Center, 556 5th Avenue, New York, July 27 – August 14, 2009. Sillada performed his poetry and ethnic music at the opening of the exhibit, which was attended by the Philippine Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide, Jr., Consul General Cecilia Rebong., and Acting Phil. Center Manager DCG Melita Thomeczek. |
Hain Yang Kanak Bay (Where is My Home)
(Music composed, written, and performed live by Danny Castillones Sillada)
“No man can fully grasp the existential agony of losing a home and the harrowing feeling of homelessness until he loses a house and his loved ones to tragic deaths respectively. Even if a man were to build another dwelling, establish a family of his own, and find a community to belong—he would never find himself at home anywhere else in this world. Because that feeling of homelessness is no longer the quest for empirical home, but how to contain the infinite homelessness of a wounded soul in one’s being.”
--Danny Castillones Sillada, The Homelessness of Being
--Danny Castillones Sillada, The Homelessness of Being
