ABOUT THE WORK

Solomon Saprid has taken full advantage of the properties of metal through a technique he developed from welding together and shaping pieces of metal scrap. One reason Saprid immediately caught the attention of art watchers was his choice of subject or theme. For this he dragged into the light of day one of those creatures lurking in the folk consciousness, the tikbalang — the local equivalent of the will-o’ wisp which leads people astray in the woods. The taming of the tikbalang, a monster of folklore, which is installed in the Quad area in Makati, reveals the allegorical intent of the artist in this kind of work. A monster is any creature, usually found in legends, that is often hideous and may produce fear or physical harm by its appearance or its actions — and the tikbalang is such a monster. Folklore created a fantastic dimension dominated by strange forces and terrifying creatures, foul because the latter were hybrids that violated the laws of natural forms. Like Castrillo, Saprid prefers the weld out technique with blow torch, with the difference that he uses a great deal of molten metal in modelling his works out. The sculptor is in his element in mythological subjects, as he draws deeply from folk sources for inspiration. Saprid is most famous, however, for his series on the tikbalang, the half human half horse creature of Philippine lower mythology. It is in the Tikbalang series that began in 1971 that Saprid found his creative fulfillment. The artist does not endow the tikbalang with a fearsome quality; instead it has become a playful, witty, somewhat comic creature. Saprid exaggerates its long equine head, its maned neck, and its gangly limbs. In this very work, the creature holds what looks like a long flute in such a manner as if to play it, adding an anecdotal whimsy to the already magical piece.