The Imaginarium of Reamillo + Juliet

MANILA, Philippines - Be not fooled by the banality of those random objects destined for the junkyard. Torn pages from cheesy romance novels, bed linens from a bygone-era, the discarded lid of a grand piano — all these are given new life in the hands of your friendly neighborhood artist.

It’s a gift, really, to be able to flesh out a hidden form and purpose from the most unlikely of things. In hindsight, that’s probably why we have artists in the first place. To see what no one else sees. To dissect a piano or experiment with a colorblind test while the rest of humanity looks on and wonders what the hell is going on.

And while some artists fancy themselves as the only ones able to notice an object’s potential for transformation, others beg to differ.

Indeed, for artists Alwin Reamillo and Juliet Lea, everyone can contribute to the creative process.

Reviving a partnership that first began in 1993, Reamillo and Lea come together once more in an exhibit titled “Clouds & Wings,” whose main attraction consists of works from Reamillo’s “Nicanor Abelardo Grand Piano Project” and Lea’s “Colorblind Disasters” series.

Now arguably, the whole point of a joint artistic venture is to have the works be viewed as a joint artistic venture. To do differently would be to compromise an otherwise holistic experience and appreciation of the art. In the case of “Clouds & Wings,” however, the audience is invited to look both ways. You have on the one hand, a beautiful juxtaposition of two different cultures, art forms, and styles — a feast for the senses when viewed as one. Meanwhile, on the other, you have two separate, individual works of art — foregrounding the unique background of each artist. 

It’s anyone’s guess which way you’ll want to look first.

Flights of fancy

Interestingly, despite being a proud native of Baguio City, Reamillo’s career has taken a distinctly trans-cultural route — having made his home in Western Australia (where he subsequently met Lea) for more than a decade now. That’s not to say his works suffer from any lack of nationalism, however. Reamillo’s solo pieces — and even his collaborative ones with British-Australian Lea — are tinged with a soulfulness that harks back to his Filipino artistic roots. 

Take, for instance, his four-fold, piano-wing installation art. My favorite solo piece of Reamillo’s in “Clouds & Wings,” I was infatuated before I even understood what it was. You have four piano lids, opened at an angle to resemble the wings of a very large butterfly (or dragonfly, or sparrow; take your pick), respectively positioned in its own direction facing to the north, south, east, or west — a veritable metaphor for flight. And on the surface of each wing, individual paintings drawn from the richness of Philippine lore and history dare you to unravel their meaning.

For example, “Amianan,” the north wing, is symbolic of the Philippine cloud rat — the largest species of rat in the world, found only in the Cordillera mountains of Northern Luzon. On the opposite end, “Katimugan,” the south wing, depicts a white man bartering with pearl divers from Sulu. According to Reamillo, he created this particular image with the “complex political situation of the South in mind,” serving as an allegory for the vested interests of foreign superpowers in Mindanao. Then there’s the west wing, “Kanluran,” emblazoned with a painting of Rizal and the other ilustrados, representative of their venturing to the West.

It’s easy to see where Reamillo’s sentiments lie in the process of art-making. More than anything, (yes, even more than the sheer awesomeness of his art), Reamillo’s works are relevant. They presuppose conditions grounded in actual historical realities and socio-political events — a long cry from simply being “art for art’s sake.”

In hindsight, the installation piece seems like an oxymoron — grounded flight, flight that is grounded.

But it fits.

And if you consider Reamillo’s humble beginnings, present fame, and implicit political activism, well, then, it really, really fits.

Seeing clear

Of course, what’s a partnership without common interests?

Never mind the fact that on the outside, Reamillo and Lea are distinct as night and day (with Reamillo’s jovial loquaciousness an amusing foil to Lea’s taciturn wit) — the similar thrust of their art speaks volumes for itself.

In fact, with Lea’s “Colorblind Disasters” series, its difference from Reamillo’s piano art begins and ends only at the level of style and form. Other than that, everything in between concedes to only one thing: the message.  

And incidentally, it’s hard not to interact with this particular work of Lea’s. You can walk around the exhibit stubbornly refusing to glance at the beguiling dot paintings behind you; and yet, almost unconsciously, you find yourself turning wide-eyed to stare at the hypnotic interplay of round-ish shapes and pretty colors. Trust me; this was a tried and tested experiment.

In any case, would you expect anything less from a work called “Colorblind Disasters”? It’s surprisingly straightforward despite the abstract impression it gives off at first. Fusing elements as varied as the Ishihara colorblind test, Australian Aboriginal Art, and her interest in destructive entities, Lea utilizes circles to fill out drawings of mushroom clouds (recalling the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima), the number 45 (the year when the US first conducted nuclear-weapons tests), and a cross (since, you know, religion is the opium of the masses), among others.

Although Lea says that viewers are free to interpret her work any way they want; I for one can’t imagine looking at those drawings in any other way. They just ooze with a gravitas that’s increasingly rare in art these days.

“Colorblind Disasters” is a reflection of Lea’s political consciousness and concern regarding the issue of the non-proliferation of nuclear arms. Australia is, after all, a major producer of uranium, which is a critical component of nuclear weapons manufacturing. As such, social responsibility weighs heavily on the shoulders of the Australian government; they hold the cards in the trade and disposal of this element.

Sound and sight

By now, you can probably see why Reamillo and Lea’s partnership works. It’s not so much the balance they’re able to find in the use of binary opposites — with Reamillo focusing on sound and Lea playing on sight to enhance the aesthetic encounter — but more about the unified diversity of their ideas and influences.

Another oxymoron, but it’s easy to explain: similar principles + different cultural roots - all the dictates of exclusivist, “high” art = Reamillo and Lea.

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Clouds & Wings,” on display until July 11, is located at Manila Contemporary, Whitespace, 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati.