Since the dawn of humankind, art has held a ritual - almost required - presence. The discovery of ancient cave paintings came alongside the thought that they acted as hunting magic, allowing prehistoric humans the ability to overpower wild animals. Similar to the cave paintings, Indios created portable vessels for magic, such as amulets and talismans known as anting-anting. Copper or bronze, drawn or engraved with a plethora of symbols, Katipuneros are known to have tapped on these both for protection and power as they fought for freedom and sovereignty, gaining the ability to overpower their Spanish oppressors.
Previously attuned to the signs and symbolism of the world at large, Filipino visual artist and professor Patrick Cruz draws his own practice closer to the hidden realm of ritual magic. Having been studying the ways of the manggagamot for the past year, he aims to bridge art and magic - or rather to resurface its ancient ties. At some point he encountered evidence of that flow of energies, from a book on old magic that drew a connection between energy - an infinite resource - and a manifested reality. That reality presented itself as love. It's not simply amorous love, but rather one that is universal. A love that surrounds and consumes us, one that drives us to act in the interest of the greater world. This connection stands for much more than we imagine. It is compassion, it is empathy. It is an expansion of the self.
The art that Cruz makes is situated in a liminal space. Despite being subject to a complex multitude of readings and possibilities, they are also simple and specific. Traversing this in-between of interpretations, he harnesses the magic that there lies, potent and untapped. Through paintings akin to talismans, through figures that appear as masks, he traces an invisible connection between the physical and the psychic, between logic and intuition. He threads this connection, making a tapestry of indigenous sensibilities and post-colonial thinking. We often perceive magic and rituals as "imaginary," although art draws from this same place. It allows the practitioner to reveal truths, and to critique - to undo and to banish. It gives the power to heal.
Filipino Folk Psychologist Carl Lorenz Cervantes highlights the magical connections of the Katipunan Revolution through the spirituality of the Baybayin "k" (ka) - wavy lines representing two spirits, forming a soul bond as they are connected by a straight line. In a way this is a representation of Cruz's trajectory, being the line that connects the spirits of art and magic.
https://www.instagram.com/sikodiwa/p/CmMB_lXPM0p
https://traveleronfoot.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/museo-ng-katipunan/
Koki Lxx
