HOUSE BLENDS

Bembol Dela Cruz
House Blends

It’s a belated realization that white elephants do hang around in our cupboards and pantry, and which Bembol Dela Cruz, in his exhibit House Blends, points out in his latest series of paintings that jar the complacent banality and seeming incorruptibility of common household items. The odd juxtaposition of the technique with which they are made and the contents of each tableau confound further this fact.
These are presented as still life paintings reminiscent of 17th century Dutch still lifes which emerged and became popular at the apex of the then Dutch’s republic economic growth following their war for independence in 1568 – 1648.

More than a showcase of the material produce of trade and nature, they also served as moralistic allegories on the transience of life, however marvelously and sensuously these banquet pieces are rendered with each dimpled peel of a rotting lemon, the browning petal tips of a wilting bouquet and the sinewy loins of a newly-killed game animal paired with glinting silver, crystalline decanters and the most luxuriant silk fabrics.

Also called Vanitas, or rather the more didactic of such genre, the worldliness of how these are painted is only matched by the deft skill of the painter who revels in the conceit of his skill for rendering them so in great detail and with impeccable mimesis of light’s effect on various surfaces. Hence, the viewer is dazzled for the surface vanities of worldly objects, and always willing to be deceived by such, if only for the pleasure of this very process of bedazzlement. Indeed, the idea of trompe-l’oleil, literally little deception, encapsulates this and all the more makes apparent the “vanity” of such conceit/deceit, veiling behind the sheen and glimmer the morbidity and frailty of human existence.

Dela Cruz however presents us with commonplace pantry items that similarly conceals/camouflages the latent risk of their combination. The paintings read like a grocery list, not for a dish to be cooked, but for homemade explosives that can be concocted from these presented objects. Hence, a composition of eggs, garlic powder, and oil maybe misconstrued for the ingredients for some savory mayonnaise, if not for the presence of a liquid detergent container and a bullet.

Most of the contents of each still life painting were lifted from the infamous Anarchist Cookbook that was published in 1971 but widely circulated underground, and appended by anonymous pirate authors who put it up on the internet for downloading until it was discontinued or philtered 5 years ago for security breaches and the increased number of militant actions that have used the book for making their own bombs since its first release.

It can be surmised that these paintings are the industrial equivalents of the Dutch vanitas as by laying bare the instruments with which lives, properties and even whole cities are destroyed. It is a predicament very peculiar to our times and which have been engaged with seemingly in the course of the rise and fall of movements and civilizations – a theme that Dela Cruz has since explored in his early paintings – of bombed out cities overlaid by trompe l’oleil rulers, and of scratched car dents and warped car hoods smeared abstractly by another offensive vehicle.

The genre of still life has actually been the vehicle with which Cezanne has revolutionized picture making as he regarded the genre as perfectly wieldy for exploring forms in geometric spatial organization and with which he had taken painting away from its illusionistic/mimetic function to one demonstrating independently the elements of color, form, and line which paved the way for abstract art.

In a way, explosions are a form of abstraction. The fear elicited from such devices depicted in Dela Cruz’s paintings derive from a speculated unknown enemy, which is not necessarily directed to just one person but a group of persons who personify an idea, a belief system or even hierarchical structures built upon fanatical singular visions, wherein our Appolonian vision of the world is continually being threatened by the inevitability of chaos and the overwhelming void that births this chaos.

How do we arm ourselves in such times or do we start revolutions of our own or continually deny these truths in their very containment in our cupboards, camouflaged as one’s basic necessities for survival, or rhetorics as trompe-l’oleil measures for safeguarding one’s sanity against paranoia?
Or rather we let white elephants parade in our blissful ignorance of such and die at the sight of stars in a titian streaked sky.

Interestingly, the camouflage pattern used on warships during the two world wars and designed by artist Norman Wilkinson is also known as Razzle Dazzle or Dazzle painting.
E.g. the extreme leftist-Marxist group The Weather Underground that was formed in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and whose members called The Weathermen, devised innumerable number of bombs such as nail bombs to destroy government buildings and banks. The two high school kids behind the Columbine massacre is alleged to have read the book before beginning their attack on their classmates. In recent times, even the possession of said book could warranty jail time due to tighter strictures and provisions under international anti-terrorism laws.

-Lena Cobangbang

Bembol Dela Cruz Show opens on 6pm Saturday April 9 at blanc compound