Provenance: Private Collection, Makati City

ABOUT THE WORK

For critics and viewers alike, Rodel Tapaya is the foremost visualizer of indigenous oral histories, expressed through a synchronous juxtaposition of images and a rich color palette. His treatment offers fresh ways through which fables, legends, and myths may be imagined and told from a contemporary perspective. Such may also be said of this surreal work by Tapaya as he combines different narrative strands in order to create enduring effects. From the allegory of creation to the journey of the soul to the afterlife, this work seems to approximate the recurring motifs found in the myths of Philippine culture and even beyond it. But what stands out is how the work foregrounds the five senses: the eyes on the pineapples, the extended limb that evokes touch, the series of noses that emerges from a geometric castle, the red ear that conflagrates like a flame, the many tongue-shaped leaves that populate the scenery. They are not only our doors to this world but to many others, which Tapaya seductively layers in this mind-altering, hectic, and mesmerizing creation.