MEMORY is something enigmatic. They stay in our subconscious- lay in there and pops up when we are reminded of it. It is a reservoir of knowledge, of our own personal history, and if one has the capacity to transcribe these into images or words - then a work of art is born.

The pen and ink drawings of Dave Palanca and Bert Berondo pay tribute to the lives that touched them and in so many ways helped shaped their very lives.

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The two Negrense visual artists, who are both active members of the Art Association of Bacolod-Negros, will hold a ‘Black on White’, a two-man art exhibit at Syano Artlink, Naminamit Resto, Pagkaon kag Taliambong, Arte Kalye, San Agustin Extension in Bacolod City from May 23 to June 23, 2009.

In the pen and ink drawings of Palanca, who was brought up and spent his childhood in the rural town of Cadiz and Hinobaan, Negros Occidental, the rural folks are celebrated, shown and rendered with eyes and hand of somebody who have known them intimately. The 47-year-old Palanca is a self-taught artist who dedicated himself to it for two years now. His optimistic perspective is reflected in his works, neither sad nor melancholy but rather a celebration of what life is. Palanca’s images are vignettes of his childhood, portraying the rural folks in their simple, honest ways; working in sugar plantations, in their dinner tables, and talking their time with hobbies and re-creations. One has to have an eye to see the poetry of the ordinary and the simple, most of the works are small scale panorama of rural life, where focus could shift from one to another, making the artist a visual narrator of his experience and what matters to him as a human being.

Berondo, meanwhile, focused his attention to the ethnic tribe who were the original dwellers of the island of Panay and Negros - the vagabond Ati tribe. These people, according to the Maragtas, would disperse after the barter of Panay all throughout the island sometime during the 12th century. Whether they were already vagabonds before the barter we are not sure, and Berondo does not focused on that too. Instead, he focused his eyes to the contemporary Atis found in the cities, selling vegetables and fruits for economic survival and the “Mother and Child” series depicting the human intimacy that nowhere else could be found. These kind images are rarely seen in the cities now, as whatever character the early Ati possesses must have been melted by history and the multi-cultural changes that our society have been going through. The Ati, for whatever their ancestors were before them, are different now. They can be seen drunk in the city streets and other images which are things that should not be. The works of Berondo then offers an idea of what if; they are images of alternative existence worthy of dignity.

What is common to both Palanca and Berondo is the penchant for maximization of space. In most, both their work -- every space there is an object, group of objects and/or lines that suggest something for contemplation, for decoration and as part of the story the image tells -- a tendency for baroque which is either inherent in our primeval Filipino consciousness or inherited from the Spanish, who must have been influenced by Aztec culture in Mexico. However, the greatest merit of both their works is the positive aura and the celebratory character that each piece breathes, an offering of hope in our trouble times.

“Black on White” art exhibit opens on May 23, 3 p.m. at Syano Artlink, Naminamit Resto, Pagkaon kag Taliambong, Arte Kalye along San Agustin Extension.

For more inquiries and details, Syano Artlink could be reached thru Sally Alvarado at mobile #0929-7440934. (Edmund Bacia)