Art Verité Gallery

“To be human is to live both within and beyond the narrow band of what-happens-now, in the vast regions of the past and the possible, the known and the imagined: our real world, our true Now.”

-Ursula K. Le Guin, afterword to Tales from the Earthsea (2018 edition)

Choosing the lighthearted colloquial greeting “Tao po” (literally “human here”, a phrase Filipinos use when knocking on doors when visiting) as title for his latest solo exhibit, Delmo encapsulates the seemingly basic, intimately familiar, and yet profoundly bewildering age-old inquiry of humans into the nature and purpose of our existence.

On the cusp of an awakening, Delmo invites viewers to his unfolding probe into the nature of human life. The multi-step process of crafting and painting wooden assemblages into swords or elaborate portals has tempered his usually Baroque aesthetic into a restrained, even peaceful introspection embodied in the works “Holy Life”, “Calm Heart” and “The Sacred Magic”. His painted weapons feature anecdotal iconographies of the evolution of human belief, our concept of the sacred and how it has shaped society. A desaturated palette of deep browns and purples glaze over his typically vibrant colors imbuing a visceral quality to the paintings on shaped wood. The effect draws the viewer closer to “feel” the figures,  the way holy relics are touched for miracles, as the artist intended the images to touch the heart.

Not shying away from the romantic and the didactic, the artist connects cosmic themes of creation, belief, and divine design back to the human vessel in works like “Be Life”, and the “Sacred Instruction” series. In “Be Life”, Delmo emphasizes the simultaneous power and preciousness of life while breaking down familiar religious symbols – the heart, eggs in a nest, hands in evocative gestures, and animal guardians – to create his own sacred visual language.

The artist wields his artworks as weapons to cut through the illusions veiling society, and goes on to tackle the alienating effects of colonization in works like “Bantay” featuring a native Bulol deity morphing into a half-faced European idol with a crown, sitting guard before a nipa hut being remodeled into a concrete house; and its continuing legacy diminishing our collective identity in “Your Pet, My Pet”. But for Delmo, the real battle is the battle for self-awareness, the striving to know or define one’s Truth/s as seen in “Warrior of God” depicting a World War II survivor, bearing witness to an atomic bomb explosion, a roaring tiger and an eagle’s talon.

Constantly grappling with existential questions, Delmo challenges us to partake in this inexhaustible striving by asking, “Paano nga ba maging tao?” (“How to be human?”). With a different tone, he seems to knock on the door to this vast unknown, hoping to be let in into an ancient knowing, suggesting what we seek may already be within.

Written by Alee Garibay