Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

The creation or genesis of rocks, with their characteristic metamorphic structure, cannot have been lost on Orlina, and his understanding of the forces at work in the creation cum manufacture of glass in reinterpreting natural rock/crystals were concurrently at work in the making of his sculptures. At the same time, the artist is keenly attentive to the forms of nature in their dynamism and diversity. What particularly strikes the viewer is the structural approach to the planes that go beyond the rhythmic designs and contrasting details. Basically, his art involves a reductive process of direct carving on the raw, irregularly shaped blocks in dark tones because of the high silica content of the industrial material. Unlike sculptors of wood or stone, however, he does not work on the material with a chisel: instead, he uses grinding tools and abrasive powders to give it shape, as in jade sculpture.