- News I Press -
SURREALISM IN THE PHILIPPINES
(Q&A Interview with Danny Castillones Sillada by John Paulo Villones)
Works by 1) Marcel Antonio 2) Camille dela rosa 3) Gromyko Semper
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: HOW IS SURREALISM IN THE PHILIPPINES?
DANNY C. SILLADA: Surrealism in Philippine art is an individual style rather than as a movement compared to Latin America, USA, and Europe. We have no historical surrealist movement in the country with cohesive manifesto that sprang from political or anarchic cause. Hence, I could say that Surrealism in the Philippines is a road less traveled by local artists; it is a personal pursuit of creative style and technique rather than as a popular aesthetic genre in our culture and society.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: IS SURREALISM WIDELY ACCEPTED BY FILIPINOS? HOW DOES FILIPINOS PERCEIVE ART, IN GENERAL, IN RELATION TO SURREALISM?
DANNY C. SILLADA: I can’t say that Surrealism is widely accepted by Filipinos because there are very few surrealists in the country. Besides, Filipinos are not outspoken when it comes to appreciating art, or any artistic movement, for that matter.
The Filipino taste on arts and culture, in general, and their knowledge of visual arts, per se, are still very limited. Filipinos are more visual and emotional when it comes to interpreting or understanding art. Hence, if a surreal art is nice and pleasing to the eyes, they can relate to it in terms of sensual experience (human senses) rather than as an intellectual encounter.
But Surrealism is not only visual or emotional, it also appeals to the cognitive level of human perception. A viewer must think and reconcile the visual composition of the surrealist: what is it all about and what does the symbolic element(s) signify in relation to their lives or conditions in the society?
Conversely, the Filipino concept of art, in general, is about landscapes, flowers, and realistic human figures on canvas. WHY? Maybe it has something to do with our culture and educational system. The approach and the manner in which art is being introduced to us from prep to primary schools and from secondary to college levels of education is convoluted with academic theories and purported myths surrounding the artists and their aesthetics; something abstruse rather than concrete to be appreciated and lived within our lives and culture.
Lamentably, the younger generations of Filipinos are more attracted to soap operas on television, gossips and rumors in showbiz, social networking, computer games, and gatherings in coffeehouses on weekends rather than reading Filipino literature, like poetry, short story or novel, or watching opera and theatrical plays, art exhibitions, and other cultural events.
In order to appreciate art, one must consider it as part of our daily lives and culture, reflective of Filipino psyche, sentiment, and idiosyncrasy. One must go beyond from its aesthetic appearance and decipher its symbolic meaning: ‘how does it appeal to my existence? What value or meaning does art reveal in my life in relation to others and the society?’
Inherently, art appeals to both the cognitive and affective aspects of human understanding. One must comprehend the thematic message of a particular work of art, the artist who created it, and the condition or the historicity from where it is revealed or addressed to.
If a viewer lacks these basic faculties to appreciate aesthetics from its standpoint; then, a piece of art or the artist will become a distant, solitary voice in the wilderness. And time will come that either one will become extinct in our culture and society.
DANNY C. SILLADA: Surrealism in Philippine art is an individual style rather than as a movement compared to Latin America, USA, and Europe. We have no historical surrealist movement in the country with cohesive manifesto that sprang from political or anarchic cause. Hence, I could say that Surrealism in the Philippines is a road less traveled by local artists; it is a personal pursuit of creative style and technique rather than as a popular aesthetic genre in our culture and society.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: IS SURREALISM WIDELY ACCEPTED BY FILIPINOS? HOW DOES FILIPINOS PERCEIVE ART, IN GENERAL, IN RELATION TO SURREALISM?
DANNY C. SILLADA: I can’t say that Surrealism is widely accepted by Filipinos because there are very few surrealists in the country. Besides, Filipinos are not outspoken when it comes to appreciating art, or any artistic movement, for that matter.
The Filipino taste on arts and culture, in general, and their knowledge of visual arts, per se, are still very limited. Filipinos are more visual and emotional when it comes to interpreting or understanding art. Hence, if a surreal art is nice and pleasing to the eyes, they can relate to it in terms of sensual experience (human senses) rather than as an intellectual encounter.
But Surrealism is not only visual or emotional, it also appeals to the cognitive level of human perception. A viewer must think and reconcile the visual composition of the surrealist: what is it all about and what does the symbolic element(s) signify in relation to their lives or conditions in the society?
Conversely, the Filipino concept of art, in general, is about landscapes, flowers, and realistic human figures on canvas. WHY? Maybe it has something to do with our culture and educational system. The approach and the manner in which art is being introduced to us from prep to primary schools and from secondary to college levels of education is convoluted with academic theories and purported myths surrounding the artists and their aesthetics; something abstruse rather than concrete to be appreciated and lived within our lives and culture.
Lamentably, the younger generations of Filipinos are more attracted to soap operas on television, gossips and rumors in showbiz, social networking, computer games, and gatherings in coffeehouses on weekends rather than reading Filipino literature, like poetry, short story or novel, or watching opera and theatrical plays, art exhibitions, and other cultural events.
In order to appreciate art, one must consider it as part of our daily lives and culture, reflective of Filipino psyche, sentiment, and idiosyncrasy. One must go beyond from its aesthetic appearance and decipher its symbolic meaning: ‘how does it appeal to my existence? What value or meaning does art reveal in my life in relation to others and the society?’
Inherently, art appeals to both the cognitive and affective aspects of human understanding. One must comprehend the thematic message of a particular work of art, the artist who created it, and the condition or the historicity from where it is revealed or addressed to.
If a viewer lacks these basic faculties to appreciate aesthetics from its standpoint; then, a piece of art or the artist will become a distant, solitary voice in the wilderness. And time will come that either one will become extinct in our culture and society.
A surrealist is like a Modern Day Mystic, he goes beyond the “invented realities” of technological and consumerist society; he reshuffles and conjures up, like a shaman, these “created realities” in a rational manner to reflect the historical condition of a Post Po-Mo Man amid his multifarious environment.
Wild Beast Dreamer by Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: IS THERE A FILIPINO SURREALISM? WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS?
DANNY C. SILLADA: Once a particular art movement is integrated in a particular culture or society, such as ours, it filters through the consciousness of the artist and then, emerges later in his or her works, reflecting our social and cultural environment.
As a surrealist, I used allegorical images in my works that reflect the socio-cultural and religio-political conditions of our country particularly from the place where I grew up, Mindanao. My works depict my paradise-like place (with vibrant colors) and, at the same time, its troubled environment, filled with symbolic elements of chaos and order, divisions and harmony, cruelty and beauty, and so forth.
What I breathe into my art is what I inhale and exhale from my culture and environment. I can say, therefore, based on that aesthetic experience and observation of other Filipino surrealists, that there is a Filipino Surrealism, which is rooted in our culture. And that, in my own opinion, what makes the Filipino Surrealism different or unique from others!
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: IS THERE ANY GUIDELINES IN SURREALISM; I MEAN, SHOULD A PAINTING BE LIKE ‘THIS’ OR ‘THAT’ TO BE CALLED OR QUALIFIED AS A SURREALIST ART? HOW DO YOU DEFINE SURREALISM IN GENERAL?
DANNY C. SILLADA: There are no guidelines in surrealism; otherwise if it has, it won’t be called surreal art anymore, because it is supposed to defy logic and reason in a rational manner, paradoxically speaking.
Surrealism today, in my own opinion, is an aesthetic style (free of or from its conventions or tradition) that explores and addresses the shifting of reality in our post po-mo (post-modern) society through varied artistic practices and mediums, like painting and installation art, graphic and digital art, film, cartoons and anime, photography, music, literary, performing arts, and even in commercial advertisements on the internet, print media, and the television.
The freedom of artistic interpretation is not confined anymore on any aesthetic “ism” (or art movements), but as an individual pursuit to explore human reality in the context of man’s post post-modernist socio-cultural condition, e.g., social media, virtual existence on the net, entrepreneurial sensationalism in mass media, the “reality TV” syndrome, and mass culture, among others.
A surrealist is like a Modern Day Mystic, he goes beyond the “invented realities” of technological and consumerist society; he reshuffles and conjures up, like a shaman, these “created realities” in a rational manner to reflect the historical condition of a Post Po-Mo Man amid his multifarious environment.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: HOW DO YOU DO YOUR PAINTING, ARE YOU THE KIND OF ARTIST WHO PLANS HIS WORK, OR THE ONE WHO GOES STRAIGHT ON THE CANVAS AND LETS HIS MIND OR (SHOULD I SAY) SUBCONSCIOUS FLOW WHATEVER IT DICTATES?
DANNY C. SILLADA: Any work of art, even surreal art, undergoes a creative process, which includes mental and physical activities. As a surrealist, I rely heavily on cognitive and affective aspects of creative planning.
The mental planning would take from three months to one year, accumulating all ideas and imaginary compositions in my brain and when I am ready to paint, I would lay these concepts first as rough sketches on paper. Here, the process is automatic; whatever flows from my mind through my emotions, I draw them on paper before painting on canvas. They are images or elements that percolate from my subconscious that lay hidden at the back of my brain after a long period of gestation. The rendition of colors on canvas would just come out, instinctively, in the process of art making as though they were already part of my optic memory.
If I were to explain the creative process based on Aristotelian’s principle of four causes, I should say that the “telos” (final cause) or the potential aspect of every concept of my art “to become” is already hatched and formed in my mind before it is seen on canvas. I already saw it vividly at the back of my mind what it would look like and, most often, to my surprise, it would exactly look like the way I envisioned it on canvas from the very beginning of conception.
The “efficient cause,” the prime mover of aesthetics, is both the mental and physical activity; it is the amount of creative thinking and physical energy that I poured on my canvas. The “material cause,” on the other hand, is, literally, the material that I used in art making, like the canvas, brush, oil paint, and the linseed oil. The “formal cause” is the amalgam of symbolic elements or pictorial composition that I laid out on the surface of my canvas, depicting any themes that I wanted to convey for the viewers to see or decipher.
I also employ the same creative process in my other fields of aesthetics, like poetry and short story writing, live art performance, shooting and editing a documentary or a short-short film, photography, composing ethno-techno digital music, and even in my philosophical essays and writings.
DANNY C. SILLADA: Once a particular art movement is integrated in a particular culture or society, such as ours, it filters through the consciousness of the artist and then, emerges later in his or her works, reflecting our social and cultural environment.
As a surrealist, I used allegorical images in my works that reflect the socio-cultural and religio-political conditions of our country particularly from the place where I grew up, Mindanao. My works depict my paradise-like place (with vibrant colors) and, at the same time, its troubled environment, filled with symbolic elements of chaos and order, divisions and harmony, cruelty and beauty, and so forth.
What I breathe into my art is what I inhale and exhale from my culture and environment. I can say, therefore, based on that aesthetic experience and observation of other Filipino surrealists, that there is a Filipino Surrealism, which is rooted in our culture. And that, in my own opinion, what makes the Filipino Surrealism different or unique from others!
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: IS THERE ANY GUIDELINES IN SURREALISM; I MEAN, SHOULD A PAINTING BE LIKE ‘THIS’ OR ‘THAT’ TO BE CALLED OR QUALIFIED AS A SURREALIST ART? HOW DO YOU DEFINE SURREALISM IN GENERAL?
DANNY C. SILLADA: There are no guidelines in surrealism; otherwise if it has, it won’t be called surreal art anymore, because it is supposed to defy logic and reason in a rational manner, paradoxically speaking.
Surrealism today, in my own opinion, is an aesthetic style (free of or from its conventions or tradition) that explores and addresses the shifting of reality in our post po-mo (post-modern) society through varied artistic practices and mediums, like painting and installation art, graphic and digital art, film, cartoons and anime, photography, music, literary, performing arts, and even in commercial advertisements on the internet, print media, and the television.
The freedom of artistic interpretation is not confined anymore on any aesthetic “ism” (or art movements), but as an individual pursuit to explore human reality in the context of man’s post post-modernist socio-cultural condition, e.g., social media, virtual existence on the net, entrepreneurial sensationalism in mass media, the “reality TV” syndrome, and mass culture, among others.
A surrealist is like a Modern Day Mystic, he goes beyond the “invented realities” of technological and consumerist society; he reshuffles and conjures up, like a shaman, these “created realities” in a rational manner to reflect the historical condition of a Post Po-Mo Man amid his multifarious environment.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: HOW DO YOU DO YOUR PAINTING, ARE YOU THE KIND OF ARTIST WHO PLANS HIS WORK, OR THE ONE WHO GOES STRAIGHT ON THE CANVAS AND LETS HIS MIND OR (SHOULD I SAY) SUBCONSCIOUS FLOW WHATEVER IT DICTATES?
DANNY C. SILLADA: Any work of art, even surreal art, undergoes a creative process, which includes mental and physical activities. As a surrealist, I rely heavily on cognitive and affective aspects of creative planning.
The mental planning would take from three months to one year, accumulating all ideas and imaginary compositions in my brain and when I am ready to paint, I would lay these concepts first as rough sketches on paper. Here, the process is automatic; whatever flows from my mind through my emotions, I draw them on paper before painting on canvas. They are images or elements that percolate from my subconscious that lay hidden at the back of my brain after a long period of gestation. The rendition of colors on canvas would just come out, instinctively, in the process of art making as though they were already part of my optic memory.
If I were to explain the creative process based on Aristotelian’s principle of four causes, I should say that the “telos” (final cause) or the potential aspect of every concept of my art “to become” is already hatched and formed in my mind before it is seen on canvas. I already saw it vividly at the back of my mind what it would look like and, most often, to my surprise, it would exactly look like the way I envisioned it on canvas from the very beginning of conception.
The “efficient cause,” the prime mover of aesthetics, is both the mental and physical activity; it is the amount of creative thinking and physical energy that I poured on my canvas. The “material cause,” on the other hand, is, literally, the material that I used in art making, like the canvas, brush, oil paint, and the linseed oil. The “formal cause” is the amalgam of symbolic elements or pictorial composition that I laid out on the surface of my canvas, depicting any themes that I wanted to convey for the viewers to see or decipher.
I also employ the same creative process in my other fields of aesthetics, like poetry and short story writing, live art performance, shooting and editing a documentary or a short-short film, photography, composing ethno-techno digital music, and even in my philosophical essays and writings.
Surrealism today, in my own opinion, is an aesthetic style (free of or from its conventions or tradition) that explores and addresses the shifting of reality in our post po-mo (post-modern) society through varied artistic practices and mediums, like painting and installation art, graphic and digital art, film, cartoons and anime, photography, music, literary, performing arts, and even in commercial advertisements on the internet, print media, and the television.
Surreal Drawings by Danny C. Sillada
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: DO YOU HAVE ANY INFLUENCES? ARE THERE ANY FILIPINO SURREALISTS, WHOSE WORKS THAT YOU ADMIRE?
DANNY C. SILLADA: Any artists, at some stages of their creative endeavors, have influences from the masters, so to say. In my younger years, when I was not yet a full-time painter (I was still studying priesthood in the seminary at that time), I should say that Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, and Vincent van Gogh, in some ways or the other, are my influences. Not in terms of aesthetic style, but from their sense of inventiveness to create something bold and novel. Although, van Gogh is not a surrealist but his overwhelming passion to create, which was bereft of fame and recognition in his time, became my inspiration to embrace my art in the latter part of my life.
In our local art scenes, I admire the works of Raul Lebajo (surrealist), Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr. (a Filipino surrealist based in New York), Francisco Viri (his art of ‘soloism’), Eghai Roxas (his illusionism/abstractionism), Marcel Antonio (the theatrical composition of his figures), Federico Dominguez (his colorful ethnic art), and Cesare A.X. Syjuco (his literary hybrid).
Roxas, Viri, and Dominguez are not surrealists, but I like the intensity and the vividness of their forms and colors on canvas. Although Marcel Antonio’s works are reminiscent of American figurative painters, like Francis Bacon and R. B. Kitaj, but I consider him as a Shakespearean surrealist, because his figurative paintings have the elements of Shakespearean drama and characters portrayed in a theatrical and surreal manner. Cesare A.X. Syjuco is not a surrealist either, but his works are crossing over between surrealism and conceptual art. His three-dimensional works create poetry in space, literally and figuratively. They are iconic collocations of symbolic images and literary texts fused together to create a unique aesthetic genre, known as literary hybrid.
In like manner, I also admire the younger generation of Filipino surrealists, like the works of Ronald Ventura (the hyper-realist of Filipino surrealism, if I may call it), Camille dela Rosa (she recently crosses over from impressionism to traditional surrealism; her works are swinging between grotesque and magic realism), Gromyko Semper (a traditional surrealist whose works are laden with intricate details), Jon Jaylo (the René Magritte of Philippine surrealism), and Charlie Co (his works are theatrical portrayal of tension and harmony), to name a few.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: DO YOU HAVE ANY WORD OF ADVICE FOR ANY FINE ARTS STUDENT ASPIRING TO BECOME A SURREALIST, OR WRITING A PAPER OR THESIS ON SURREALISM?
DANNY C. SILLADA: The only thing I can say is that a fine arts student must have a basic knowledge on the history of surrealism: how it started in France and how it is transported and became known in America, then Europe and Asia. A student must compare and evaluate, based on his or her own perception and analysis: what is surrealism in the past as a movement and what surrealism today is, as an offshoot and aesthetic style, in the context of our post po-mo culture and society.
To become a surrealist is not an overnight choice; it is an attitude, perception, and a process of embracing surrealist style and technique that emanates from one’s creative mind, heart and soul.
___________________________
John Paulo Villones is a graduating Fine Arts student of the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. This Q & A Interview with Danny Sillada is part of his thesis on Cartoon Surrealism.
© 2010 John Paulo Villones and Danny Castillones Sillada
DANNY C. SILLADA: Any artists, at some stages of their creative endeavors, have influences from the masters, so to say. In my younger years, when I was not yet a full-time painter (I was still studying priesthood in the seminary at that time), I should say that Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, and Vincent van Gogh, in some ways or the other, are my influences. Not in terms of aesthetic style, but from their sense of inventiveness to create something bold and novel. Although, van Gogh is not a surrealist but his overwhelming passion to create, which was bereft of fame and recognition in his time, became my inspiration to embrace my art in the latter part of my life.
In our local art scenes, I admire the works of Raul Lebajo (surrealist), Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr. (a Filipino surrealist based in New York), Francisco Viri (his art of ‘soloism’), Eghai Roxas (his illusionism/abstractionism), Marcel Antonio (the theatrical composition of his figures), Federico Dominguez (his colorful ethnic art), and Cesare A.X. Syjuco (his literary hybrid).
Roxas, Viri, and Dominguez are not surrealists, but I like the intensity and the vividness of their forms and colors on canvas. Although Marcel Antonio’s works are reminiscent of American figurative painters, like Francis Bacon and R. B. Kitaj, but I consider him as a Shakespearean surrealist, because his figurative paintings have the elements of Shakespearean drama and characters portrayed in a theatrical and surreal manner. Cesare A.X. Syjuco is not a surrealist either, but his works are crossing over between surrealism and conceptual art. His three-dimensional works create poetry in space, literally and figuratively. They are iconic collocations of symbolic images and literary texts fused together to create a unique aesthetic genre, known as literary hybrid.
In like manner, I also admire the younger generation of Filipino surrealists, like the works of Ronald Ventura (the hyper-realist of Filipino surrealism, if I may call it), Camille dela Rosa (she recently crosses over from impressionism to traditional surrealism; her works are swinging between grotesque and magic realism), Gromyko Semper (a traditional surrealist whose works are laden with intricate details), Jon Jaylo (the René Magritte of Philippine surrealism), and Charlie Co (his works are theatrical portrayal of tension and harmony), to name a few.
JOHN PAULO VILLONES: DO YOU HAVE ANY WORD OF ADVICE FOR ANY FINE ARTS STUDENT ASPIRING TO BECOME A SURREALIST, OR WRITING A PAPER OR THESIS ON SURREALISM?
DANNY C. SILLADA: The only thing I can say is that a fine arts student must have a basic knowledge on the history of surrealism: how it started in France and how it is transported and became known in America, then Europe and Asia. A student must compare and evaluate, based on his or her own perception and analysis: what is surrealism in the past as a movement and what surrealism today is, as an offshoot and aesthetic style, in the context of our post po-mo culture and society.
To become a surrealist is not an overnight choice; it is an attitude, perception, and a process of embracing surrealist style and technique that emanates from one’s creative mind, heart and soul.
___________________________
John Paulo Villones is a graduating Fine Arts student of the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. This Q & A Interview with Danny Sillada is part of his thesis on Cartoon Surrealism.
© 2010 John Paulo Villones and Danny Castillones Sillada
Mindanaoan Artist Sillada Explores ‘Uncharted Border’ in New York
By Robert De Tagle, Asian Journal (New York)
When a Mask is no longer a Mask
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. and Consul General Cecilia Rebong. Acting Phil. Center Manager DCG Melita Thomeczek will be in attendance.
The multi-awarded artist in 2003 received two Pasidungog Centennial Awards in the fields of literary and visual arts in his hometown in Davao Oriental at a centennial celebration attended by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Says Sillada, “This show is not only about my paintings; it is also about my poetry and my music that reflect the culture of the place where I come from. As an artist from Mindanao, I want to share to the world the richness and the diversity of Mindanaoan culture, not the belligerent culture portrayed in mass media, but a culture of a peace-loving people aspiring toward justice and harmony.”
In addition to being a surrealist painter and illustrator, Danny is also a noted cultural performance artist, bringing with him the inflections and the rhythms of Mindanao, combining poetry, song, images and even hip-hop and martial arts: crossing modern and old, urban and indigenous.
Performance artist
Mr. Sillada composes ethnic songs and avant-garde ethno-techno music, such as the album The Battle Within in 2008, along with a hip-hop single titled Bulag (I Am Blind). He showcases his music and poetry at live art performances at alternative venues in Metro Manila.
Filipino essayist Juaniyo Arcellana hailed Danny Sillada as “a perfect example of art in a public space, part performance and walking innuendo, straight from the wilds of Mindanao....”
Self-revelation
As a philosopher, he is a critic of culture and a philosopher of humanity, advocating the social and moral responsibility for the highest good of society.
Hailed by Filipino art historian Manuel Duldulao as the foremost Filipino colorist in the country, “his images are inherently sensual and sensitive”. Moreover, critic Cid Reyes writes, “Controversial subjects never faze Danny Sillada… Using the iconic image of the Sarimanok in a visual context that is rife with irony, the artist makes explicit his call for peace and brotherhood.”
Further, “There are a few artists, who seem impelled—indeed, driven—to self-revelation… Davao artist Sillada’s works are dominated by images of interiors and imprisonment, escape and enclosures, exits and entrances. Sillada’s images and symbols are graphic and unflinching.”
Sillada notes, “In essence, the joy, the agony, and the sense of wonder, which I undergo through the entire creative process, are more cathartic and dramatically significant than the finished artworks themselves.”
About the author:
Robert De Tagle, art writer and journalist
______________________________________________
De Tagle, Robert. “Mindanaoan Artist Sillada Explores ‘Uncharted Border’ in New York.” Asian Journal (New York/New Jersey) 31 July 2009: 2.
The event’s opening reception last July 28 was attended by guests of honor including Philippine Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide, Jr. and Consul General Cecilia Rebong. Acting Phil. Center Manager DCG Melita Thomeczek will be in attendance.
The multi-awarded artist in 2003 received two Pasidungog Centennial Awards in the fields of literary and visual arts in his hometown in Davao Oriental at a centennial celebration attended by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Says Sillada, “This show is not only about my paintings; it is also about my poetry and my music that reflect the culture of the place where I come from. As an artist from Mindanao, I want to share to the world the richness and the diversity of Mindanaoan culture, not the belligerent culture portrayed in mass media, but a culture of a peace-loving people aspiring toward justice and harmony.”
In addition to being a surrealist painter and illustrator, Danny is also a noted cultural performance artist, bringing with him the inflections and the rhythms of Mindanao, combining poetry, song, images and even hip-hop and martial arts: crossing modern and old, urban and indigenous.
Performance artist
Mr. Sillada composes ethnic songs and avant-garde ethno-techno music, such as the album The Battle Within in 2008, along with a hip-hop single titled Bulag (I Am Blind). He showcases his music and poetry at live art performances at alternative venues in Metro Manila.
Filipino essayist Juaniyo Arcellana hailed Danny Sillada as “a perfect example of art in a public space, part performance and walking innuendo, straight from the wilds of Mindanao....”
Self-revelation
As a philosopher, he is a critic of culture and a philosopher of humanity, advocating the social and moral responsibility for the highest good of society.
Hailed by Filipino art historian Manuel Duldulao as the foremost Filipino colorist in the country, “his images are inherently sensual and sensitive”. Moreover, critic Cid Reyes writes, “Controversial subjects never faze Danny Sillada… Using the iconic image of the Sarimanok in a visual context that is rife with irony, the artist makes explicit his call for peace and brotherhood.”
Further, “There are a few artists, who seem impelled—indeed, driven—to self-revelation… Davao artist Sillada’s works are dominated by images of interiors and imprisonment, escape and enclosures, exits and entrances. Sillada’s images and symbols are graphic and unflinching.”
Sillada notes, “In essence, the joy, the agony, and the sense of wonder, which I undergo through the entire creative process, are more cathartic and dramatically significant than the finished artworks themselves.”
About the author:
Robert De Tagle, art writer and journalist
______________________________________________
De Tagle, Robert. “Mindanaoan Artist Sillada Explores ‘Uncharted Border’ in New York.” Asian Journal (New York/New Jersey) 31 July 2009: 2.
