L.H.O.O.Q
signed (lower right) and dated 2006 (verso)
oil and acrylic on canvas
15” x 20” (38 cm x 51 cm)

Joven Mansit has long explored haunting presence of the subconscious - even before he started repainting, fictionalizing and mythologizing old photographs into surrealist fantasies.

“L.H.O.O.Q” features a creature part human part animal, the human element conjuring the many breasted indigenous goddess Mebuyan,the earth goddess in Bagobo mythology whose body is covered all over with breasts and nipples. Born of a need to explicate the unknown, mythical beasts testify to the richness of the imagination. They embody powerful ideas and provide an inexhaustible source of ideas, for the artist to explore. A capiz window covers her face adding to a visual mystery that intrigues, enchants, confounds.