Entry 076

Sculpture 04: Nine Muses of the Arts

In a previous post, I featured the Napoleon Abueva’s homage to the Arts.

His “Siyam na Diwata ng Sining” (1991) stands stately at the grounds of Bulwagang Rizal in UP Diliman. albeit open to the harsh elements. Here are their profiles in detail. Don’t you think it is interesting to appreciate such masterwork up close?

This sculpture by Napoleon V. Abueva is called “Siyam na Diwata ng Sining” and is permanently installed at the grounds of Bulwagang Rizal (Faculty Center) in UP Diliman.

Computer

Sculpture

Dance

Music

Film

Literature

Theatre

Painting

Architecture

That’s all from me for now.

Entry 075

Sculpture 03: Magdangal

Towering at UP Diliman’s College of Arts and Letters ground is a figure of a naked woman, perhaps the artistic embodiment of the arts—that of a Muse. Inscribed in her pedestal is this (diacritics are mine):

“MAGDANGÁL”

Magbángon ka, aking Mutyâ,
Mula dágat ng dálitâ;
Pairálin mo sa lupà
Ang tárong, ragsák, at layà.

This text is by Virgilio Almario, former dean of the college and a National Artist for Literature. The sculpture is characteristically a Napoleon Abueva, National Artist for Sculpture.

My unwarranted translation of the text is this:

Arise, my Muse,
From the sea of misery;
Diffuse throughout the land
Righteousness, bliss, and liberty.

“Magdangal” facing a distance yonder.

Close up of her face

At whatever angle you look at her, she seems to gaze at something unknown.

Entry 074

Snapshots Series 02

Walking around town before dusk is perfect for snapshots, I think. The light is losing its radiance becoming softer; on the other hand, the colours turn surprisingly vivid, probably because of the sunset hues.

Waiting for no-one. This man is pensive, seated below a national monument, probably sniffing the jasmine flowers around.

Asking for alms. This boy jumps onto a moving public transport probably to beg for a few coins.

Messy vagrant. This child, holding a plastic of contact cement (“rugby”), likely spends the whole day sniffing around, figuratively and literally.

Selfie couple. These two are taking most of the dusky ambience.

Outside the gate. These homeless (or “house-less”) people are symbolically excluded from enjoying amenities. These urban poor people reside outside the gates of Intramuros–a colonial symbol–remaining figuratively outside the walls of social development.

Picture-taking. A group poses for a photograph with La Madre Filipina as their background. The girl in the monument seems to ask the mother what the heck these men are doing, while the man on his knees cannot help to make a facepalm.

Kite flyer. Here a father teaches his son how to fly a kite at the Quirino Grandstand grounds.

Entry 073

The Maragondon and Ternate Shores

Here are some images that I couldn’t resist to capture. One holiday afternoon, I followed a whim of going out somewhere rural and rid myself of the intoxicating and monotonous urban life. Luckily a friend agreed to drive me around southern Cavite–no itinerary, no plans–just following where the wind, well not literally, blows us.

We drove on a continuous roll of highways passing through Naic, Maragondon, Magallanes, Alfonso, Indang, and Ternate. We’ve seen the progression from mountain ridges and valleys to small populated towns. People here walk on foot to bring merchant items (like bamboo poles) and do everyday errands. To them, life was simple and peaceful, characteristics that city dwellers are bereft of. I loved the abundance of canopy and lush vegetation. Enough of the descriptions. Here are the photos.

The sea off Maragondon

The scene atop Patungan Cove

Enveloped in blue

Static boats

Land and sea

Sheeny sea

Eroding the rocks

The people

Running ashore

Dark figures against a lustrous sea

Afloat leisurely

The way children ought to be

The boatman

A man plying the Maragondon River after a day’s work

The water is wide / I can not get o’er

Random people

Boys by the riverside

Showing off

Flipping over

He crossed the bridge when he got there

At the end of the day

Detail of a communication tower

Still burning as she bade farewell

Entry 072

Sculptures 02: Rizal Monument

How many of us have taken a closer look at the whole Rizal Monument in Luneta? The iconic image of an upright Jose Rizal, holding a copy of his novel Noli me tangere and glancing rightwards, and a stars-decorated obelisk behind him are the images formed in our consciousness whenever we conjure the monument. But there sit other figures that are worth noting. At Rizal’s right is a mother rearing an infant. Below this figure is an inscription:

LA MADRE FILIPINA CRIA EL PORVENIR DEL PAIS

I am not an expert in Spanish, but a quick reference from Google Translate yields “The Filipino mother raises the country’s future”. At Rizal’s left are two youths reading a book. Below the figure an inscription reads:

DE LA INSTRUCCION NACE LA GRANDEZA

Again, a translation can be understood as “from instruction, greatness is born”. The monument was designed by Richard Kissling, a Swiss sculptor, and was formally titled Motto Stella. You can read more information about the monument from this article by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The Rizal Monument with the infamous Torre de Manila condominium in the background

The obelisk behind the Rizal figure is fashioned with three stars.

Entry 071

If I would have to die tonight

If I would have to die tonight—

I am resigned to my peace

And could sleep without grief;

For at last I could leave

This wretched state,

This incorrigible world

That taught me to hate.

It is not as if I never learned

To love and be loved;

Only the gall was strong to bear

I had not mustered to defy.

I always lost my battles

And left those I cared for

(Or I thought I cared for):

For they made me taste

The bitter truth of rejection.

And so I vowed to survive,

To subsist on my own

Enwrapped in my innate warmth

Against the coldest loneliness.

I needed not someone’s touch

Nor words to abate the pains.

My barriers were strong,

Impregnable and unshakable.

I was complete on my own;

Others could not define me.

 

This person I had been,

The mask I often wore—

I shall leave to this world

If I would have to die tonight.

 

2015.02.11

Entry 070

The following are scenes that I happened to capture digitally months back.

This sculpture below is by Napoleon V. Abueva. It is called “Siyam na Diwata ng Sining” (Nine Muses of the Arts, 1991) and is permanently installed at the grounds of Bulwagang Rizal (Faculty Center) in UP Diliman. They embody both classic and modern arts, I think: one is seen with a computer, another with a video camera, one with a flute, another with a palette, another with a chisel and hammer, one probably dancing, and another maybe acting.

On its dedication plaque is a delineation of the identity or representation of these muses: theatre, literature, architecture, painting, sculpture, dance, music, film, and computer.

Below is the work “Raha Sulayman” attributed to Anastacio Caedo. But we can never really ascribe this image to any hero whom we do not have a likeness of, right? So this one should be whom the sculptor indicated it to be. The figure should be holding a kris on his left hand. I wonder where it could be. This is displayed outside the Vargas Museum.

Below is an image of children playing football at the open amphitheatre in UP Diliman.

Children looking for something at the one of the lagoon tributaries at the Sunken Garden.

And behind these youths is the Oblation.

The bust of Nicanor Abelardo at the UP Diliman’s College of Music courtyard. It is an inanimate witness to the formative years that each music student has to live through.

This is another Abueva, though as a private collection. “The Three Graces” (1999) is on display inside a building along Rada Street in Makati.

The sight under the towering acacia tree is a natural art. The ramifying branches provide a pattern-less design; but that organic order is the motif itself–nothing is the same. Every branch an individual, yet they can all be traced to a single trunk.

A view of a cone of Taal Volcano taken from behind a bus window. Many would think of the volcano as that small protruding mound but that is merely an outgrowth of a larger one. The one on the image is called “Binintiang Malaki”. The whole island inside the lake is the volcano and at its centre is the Crater Lake (not seen in the image).

Below is an old building along Roxas Boulevard near the Luneta in Manila.

And finally, a lamppost.

Entry 069

Madz Fanboy

I have been watching the Philippine Madrigal Singers (Madz) perform live for years. Because cameras are forbidden inside the concert hall (of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines), I could only take images before or after a concert. The following is a collection of the iconic Madz semicircle chair formation taken at different concert events. Some venues like the Abelardo Hall Auditorium in UP Diliman permit spectators to take images during a performance, thus I have a “tangible” memory of Madz.

Ang Pagbabalik ng Madz sa Abelardo, 27 June 2013, Abelardo Hall Auditorium (AHA)

The girls take the stage literally.

 

Madz 89 Reunion Concert, 04 August 2013, AHA

The most decorated batch of Madz put up a reunion concert, dubbed the first and perhaps the only reunion concert they could make; Madz founder Andrea Veneracion had not lived to see this.

 

Aurum, 15 December 2013, Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo

This logo of Madz (UPMS stands for University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers) has since become a regular fixture in their concerts.

This concert included various guests and celebrities. Lani Misalucha and Katsie Llave are seen in this image.

 

Haluhalo Special: An Asian Musical Treat (recital of Madz member Riva Ferrer), 22 January 2014, AHA

Here, Riva Ferrer and JC Jose accompanied Madz singing “Tagumpay Nating Lahat” with kulintang and a drum

All about Love, 09 February 2014, Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

 

New Renaissance, 29 June 2014, TNA

At this concert, Madz performed newly composed and arranged songs. The background seemed a sun rising ushering forth a new morning.

Change of background for a different feel

 

Panorama, 10 October 2014, AHA

Choirmaster Mark Anthony Carpio posing for a post-concert portrait

Just a quarter of the circle (literally half of that semicircle)

In Excelsis, 21 December 2014, TNA

This concert capped the 2014 season of Madz with new members or trainees (of course not on photo).

Alay sa Bayan ng Philippine Madrigal Singers, 22 January 2015, Malolos Sports and Convention Centre

Madz singing against a woven design of the Barasoain Church during the Fiesta Republica celebration in Malolos, Bulacan

Too bad I haven’t an image of their Premiere concert on 06 October 2013. And I had other Madz experiences ante-2013. I didn’t have a camera then I think.

Entry 068

Snapshots Series 01

Some images I want to share.

Children above the ramparts of Intramuros

At the background is the National Arts Gallery: could these children have tried to discover the rich arts of the country?

Adherents to a mixed sense of religion: the cross is Catholic but the practice of incense offering is more like Buddhist, I think

My lens is not advanced and my shutter not too fast to capture this young man doing parkour stunts.

A young man warming up before a parkour training

What could he be reading?

A family, I suppose, on a lazy afternoon

I always wonder how graffiti was scribbled on the walls of a train track suspended over a river

Hanging clothes to dry on a polluted urban air: do fabric conditioners still have an effect on the scent of clothes?

Vandalized lighting fixtures on a bridge in Manila

I assume this is a barge

Steel framework of Quezon Bridge, built during the time of American Manila

I could only imagine myself not wanting to ride this

Atop on a Ferris wheel, I could see merry-making people scattered around the amusement park

Walking past an illuminated fountain

Waiting for a good (or better) life

The Post Office at Plaza Lawton at night

A cat out for a walk

Entry 067

Take flight no more

You have lost your flight
With those shabby wings
You are now alone
In this thick forest of resentment
And of regret
The river sounds of gushing pain
And the trees sway confusingly
Everything is in motion
But for you they are still
And you are empty

Take your flight once more
With those shabby wings
As your arrogance
Foments a storm within
Your heavy heart

Instead you begin to plunge
Back into this forest
As you are pulled to the earth
Stare at the gleaming sky
That sight you so often beheld
Is now obscured
By the rustling leaves and needles

Lay peacefully on the ground
And take flight no more

2014.12.31