Turn on the headlights

Monday, March 21, 2011

THERE was this art group that just had to hibernate. But actually, it was more like taking an extended vacation to recharge their cells. Turn on the headlights—and see what’s new on the road.

Now the art group Tuslob Buwa is back. And there’s no other better way to tell the world that they’re still alive than with one of their thought-provoking group exhibitions they are so renowned for.

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This comeback show of contemporary paintings and sculptures is called “HeadLight,” and may be viewed at the Canvas Bistro Bar Gallery, second level, The Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu, and is sitll ongoing.

Forming the group known as Tuslob Buwa is Evan Bejec, Jojo Sagayno and this writer.

By the way, tuslob buwa is a Cebuano a kind of street food. Diners dip a ball of rice or a piece of puso into a big wok, boiling with hot oil in which the vendor deep-fries a merry mixture of spices, pork liver and brain. The oil is flavorful, and by allusion so is this art group, which is a mixture of different artists and temperaments.

Bejec presents small pen and ink works and wooden sculptures. A college art instructor, Sagayno shows his heavily patterned monochromatic oil paintings that are like puzzles to decipher. The writer, on the other hand exhibits, his series on black paintings as well as miniature sculptures made of assembled found objects.

The much needed vacation from the art scene must have been a healthy thing for had it not been so, the trio would not have looked so refreshed and energized. The group now most definitely feels brand new. Reloaded, improved, enhanced, upgraded—and what more can you ask? They are already making plans for up and coming shows, and turning the headlights to better see the road.