CEBU, Philippines - You know how the song assures and assaults your psyche with the scars of avenged wounds, yet your memory refuses to give it a semblance of form.
You know that you have nothing to win and nothing to lose in either remembering or not remembering it, but you still can't see yourself mocking its ties to you by not recalling how it goes. All you have is a hazy memory of what you are trying to form, and - like an old jigsaw puzzle - you don't remember the number of pieces that make the song, but you know that it is complete.
This state of clumsy remembering trails on for some time. Eventually, it leads you to the fringes that lie between heaven and the pits of damnation. Yes, not remembering the song is getting that bad…
But just as things get to that horrendous point, euphoria takes the place of ennui as the song's first note suddenly comes to you!
This glorious moment of recall - this first note - is what Cebu Artists Inc.'s "Larawang Musikanhon" is essentially all about.
Opening on Friday last week, "Larawang Musikanhon" gathers more than 50 music-themed art pieces made by the members of CAI - with each presented work crafted as a nod to the broad creative field's inherent prowess as a medium for creative expression, exploration and collaboration.
Currently on display at the 3rd level of the Ayala Center Cebu's new expansion, the show's overall presentation is not exactly steered by static translations of music's temporal tone, as it focuses on the common ground that is shared by all creative genres - in how creative endeavors are not just about execution and presentation, but also about the interactions that happen between creators, their creations and their audience.
In an insecure world that undermines and validates clumsy analogies that delve into the corrosive qualities of the signs of the times, artists - painters, composers, writers, choreographers, designers and everyone else in between - are not just the recorders of what was, nor are they just the monotonous soothsayers of the ides of March.
Artists are also the stalwart heralds of life, what it means to memory and the purpose of meaning, and they use the terms and tenses they are familiar with in saying what they have to say - be it in the form of lines, shades of color, words, musical notes, pieces of fabric, bits of recorded sound or video.
In the case of CAI's "Larawang Musikanhon," viewers get to hear the first note that leads to the singing of long-forgotten songs - as the show crosses the boundaries of visual art and music without steering away from the traits that defines each of the other; stoking the fires of the creative center that compels artists and their audience to interact, collaborate and even conspire with each other.
"Larawang Musikanhon" runs until July 31, 2014 at the third level of the Ayala Center Cebu's new expansion