Lumad

CEBU, Philippines - Sixty-two-year-old Fernando “Jun” Solis Alfon Jr. (yes, son of Visayan film director Fernando Alfon Sr. and nephew of esteemed writer Estrella Alfon) wants urban people to “feel the pulse of hardworking and warm souls who exist in an almost extinct, but genuine world generally unknown to the public.”

His works, featured in his 31st one-man show at the SM City Cebu Art Center from June 25 to July 10 with EastAsian Art Gallery as one of the sponsors, profoundly capture the mystical aura of Philippine southern tribes like the T’bolis, Bagobos, Higawnons, Maranaos, Mandayas, Mansakas and Badjaos.

The exhibit again documented his experiences among the indigenous people of Mindanao with whom he had interfaced, while immersing in their actual environment.

“I have always been fascinated by these people’s inner strength, love for colors, and capacity to reach out to others,” Alfon said in an artist’s statement.

A coffee table book on his works entitled “Mystical and Magical Mindanao” penned by Grace Dacanay-Chong, printed in 2008, revealed how 40 years of his life got dedicated to producing a series of acrylic and watercolor paintings – on panel, as well as vendor, musician, and mother and child series, and his works on paper in the modernist’s approach.

The smile in his subjects is described to be small. “Very small, and almost forthcoming, but it never seems to break out into full bloom. Yet, you can deeply feel the warmth of welcome and invitation to friendship,” Chong wrote.

“This is what strikes the beholder of Jun Alfon’s subjects on canvas. They are a rare - and hopefully not vanishing - breed of men, women, and children from the uplands of Mindanao. They belong to some of the many tribes, collectively called Lumad, who are precariously hanging on to their ethnic culture.”

Alfon noted that “tourists go up there and make them smile for their cameras and pose for their videos, turning them into tourist posters. They are being coerced and lured into the commercialism of modern society!”

“These are strong, angry words from someone who values the beauty and appreciates the uniqueness of indigenous cultures which, until the onslaught of mass media, have been pure and untouched,” the book further read.

Alfon feels he has something in common with these people. They look as colorful as his own life journey.

Born in Manila in the 50s, Alfon lived here in Cebu where his father, Fernando Alfon Sr. was a filmmaker, with an artist’s temperament. “He was always excited and always deep into creating new ways of doing things,” Chong pointed out in the book.

“Very much his father’s son, the irrepressible young Alfon was excited about the things, activities, and people that surrounded him.”

“I started drawing everything I could see at age four,” Alfon reminisced.

It was also learned that Alfon pursued his love for the arts, even if his father tried to force him into taking up Law when he came to Manila for his college degree. To his father’s chagrin, Alfon enrolled at the University of Sto. Tomas College of Fine Arts. “I didn’t get my dad’s all-out support in my decision so I had to make do with a very meager allowance. To keep going, I tried selling my paintings in Mabini (said to be the “hive of budding, struggling and unrecognized artists”),” he recounted.

Those were labeled as Alfon’s hungry, but learning years. “There would be days when I had a very late lunch, or none at all, because the buyer of my painting took his time paying me. But I kept painting.”

Finally with a degree, Alfon apprenticed as a stage designer at the Cultural Center of the Philippines under Willie Buhay, an interior designer. Buhay, spotting Alfon’s talent and passion for the arts, encouraged him to take up serious painting.

Suddenly a door opened for Alfon when he was commissioned to do all the paintings for Margarita “Ting-Ting” Cojuangco’s living room which he helped transform into a Chinese emperor’s room.

Now armed with confidence and a sizable portfolio, he journeyed to Davao where he hoped he would develop his art further.

It was in Davao where he worked with Victorio Edades - considered the country’s Father of Modern Art. From him, Alfon learned to appreciate modern styles outside of the realm of his chosen (and perfected) realism.

Alfon said that he began experimenting by distorting his figures, modifying his depths of field, and purposely defying art rules learned at the university. He also trekked to the uplands of Mindanao and discovered communities of people who spoke a different language, wore colorful clothes and jewelry, and had a culture all their own. It was love at first sight!

He knew right then and there that he had a role to play in their lives.

“I am deeply thankful that from that small boy of four in Cebu, who wanted to paint more than anything, I emerged to be an artist who is now very much a part of the Philippine art scene, painting forgotten cultures and marginalized people so they may be a part of our collective consciousness as citizens of the world,” Alfon shared.

He will carry out a two-man show with National Artist for Sculpture Abdul Imao of Sulu at the Dusit Hotel Makati sometime in October of this year. The exhibit seeks to present a convergence of sculpture and painting on everything about Mindanao. (FREEMAN)