Crack in the Hull
signed and dated 2001 (right)
mixed media
58” x 89 1/4” (147 cm x 227 cm)

Literature:
Realities, Ronald Ventura, Damiani, Italy, 2011, p. 54

Exhibited:
SMX Convention Center, “ManilART,” October 2 - October 6 2012

In the July/August 2012 issue of ASIAN ART NEWS, Alice Guillermo writes about “Crack in the Hull” (2001) – “…Its image of two figures in a boat alludes to the Manunggul Jar, a fifth century earthenware vessel featuring on its lid a miniature freestanding sculpture of two sea voyagers. Excavated in a rich archaeological site in Palawan, this large burial jar with ornamental designs around its surface is part of the Southeast Asian tradition of Spirit boats in the belief that the souls of the dead cross a bodyof water to the afterlife.

“The figures of the two rowers in Ventura’s painting are of an androgynous cast, with gender differences played down… Complementing each other, the person at the back grasps the oars and assumes the task of rowing the boat… Together they cross the sea in turbulent weather, the windy movements reflected in the Chiaroscuro shadows flitting over their bodies.

“But in the water float collaged units, icons of social institutions, religious and ecclesiastical. To the artist, these are powerful social forces that constantly impinge on the Filipino psyche to the extent that they too breach the hull of the fragile boat, thus hinting at conflicts between the institutional and the personal…“