"Vega’s artworks are deeply personal expressions of emotion and religiosity made tangible."
"Vega’s artworks are deeply personal expressions of emotion and religiosity made tangible."
Mixed-media artist and poet Joel Vega’s work is painstakingly made, thoughtfully presented, and suffused with such emotion that they can bring tears to the eyes of the lover and the bereaved.
This year the Netherlands-based Filipino artist shows the world the manifold dimensions of his art through two projects: his third solo art show at Artinformal Gallery in Makati, and the release of his book of poetry ‘Drift’, published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House.
At the start of his visual arts career about a decade ago, Vega took found objects such as doll’s heads and put them together with other materials to create towering assemblages reminiscent of sculpture that were almost monstrous and always provoking, whether of sentiment or emotion.
He later worked with fiber techniques such as embroidery on vintage 19th-century photographs printed on fabric.
Vega lost his mother Flora to lung cancer less than a week before the show opened, and his beloved partner Sjef Kerkhof in 2014. Bereavement, sorrow, longing, and love are the themes of his works, created as the artist worked through his own feelings. His artworks are deeply personal expressions of emotion and religiosity made tangible.
In ‘Devoted’, he “explores the rituals of grief and remembrance that border on fetishism and nostalgia” through works such as “Our Lady of the Miraculous Rosebleed,” a figure of polymer clay rosettes in blue and red on an antique wooden holy water panel, and “Deer Skull 1 (Conjoined),” a deer skull festooned with beads and dyed fabric.
The show’s centerpiece is “Devoted,” embroidery on photo transfers tucked into the compartments of a vintage accordion sewing box. There are nine panels each bearing a lyric from The Bangles’ song “Eternal Flame.” Seeing it, one can’t help singing along—“and then come and ease the pain” – adding a layer of interaction to the work, as the viewer recalls their own association to the song, and their own pains and heartaches.
In “Devoted” and “Perfectionism is Terrorism,” the photographs are of males in Victorian dress, some with an intimate arm around the other. The artist agrees that there is a nod to the queer in his work, a tacit expression of sexuality that provokes analysis and memory. His works also point to the notion of Christian discipleship and how religious feeling turns into fervor in times of loss and grief.
My favorite is “Cyphoids,” a clever creation of photos, a stuffed doll, paper, thread, and a vintage mints box, all mounted on a wooden church collection box. Open the mints box and inside you will find a tiny fish. “Bait,” Vega says. I move the lid up and down. It is an interactive moment. I feel a child again, much amused by the surprise inside the box.
‘Drift’ (2018) is a collection of Vega’s poems written through the years, many of which were published in various international and local magazines and platforms.
Of it, writer Krip Yuson says, “Here is a poetic voice that is undeniably mature, characterized by sophisticated articulation on a variety of thematic motifs.” Literature professor Danton Remoto says the collection is notable for its “architectonic balance,” the “use of science,” and “the elegant diction and pitch-perfect tone.”
Here Vega writes of the “errant body”, as “without a pause the surgeon’s hands / probe below the skin”; of “bones closest to the arm, scaphoid, lunate, triquetral…”; he writes of war and conflict, of place and distance of time, of reason and reasons, and, in “Amulet,” of the power of belief and superstition: “She sits under the red umbrella, fully awake in the heat and hour of siesta, balancing a wooden tray of invisible powers. / I take my pick: twins against hypocrisy or the Janus face of time, the eye in a pyramid for premonitions, / a copper-coin angel clad in loincloth, slaying winged dragons.”
Vega has won two Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature— for Poetry in 2010 and first prize for Essay in 2016. Judging by the quality of his work and the sincerity and purity of his expression, there will be more prizes to come. Visit ‘Devoted’ at Artinformal,
The Alley at Karrivin, Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati, until Feb. 9. Get “Drift” from the UST Bookstore.
Art is the soul and conscience of a nation. FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO
