PUNAN ANG PATLANG
The human subjects in Neil Carandang’s series know that they are being surveilled. They are watched by animals, almost waiting to be pounced on, a menagerie in reverse. We are also surveilling them, trying to decipher their actions and fill in their obscure intentions. The psychological cost of such observation weighs on these subjects and they seem frozen in various poses of awkwardness and uncertainty.
Indeed, the paintings in his new series Punan ang Patlang seem to be inspired by anxiety under social scrutiny with titles like Tingkayad (tiptoe), Punsyunan (gathering), Salingkitkit (tentative inclusion). The series affects a playful tone of pastel colors coalescing into flat planes; however, inspiration and execution are at odds and—much like the artist’s human and animal subjects—in a tense stand-off.
In the painting Tingkayad, we see a man facing off against a flightless bird while he cooks an egg (presumably the ostrich’s). The scene would be entirely humorous save for the stare down between the subjects in the cavernous interior of a kitchen. In Punsyunan, hunched and faceless figures gather around a dining table with walls pressing down upon them. In Salingkitkit, the artist is at his most fantastical, showing us a scene in the bedroom with a mustached man, a lion, and a rabbit; all crouched and poised for sudden advance.
The works display a dominant narrative framework that locks the viewer indoors, from kitchen to dining area to bedroom, and invites a parallel between the world shown on canvas and our world outside of it.
Not that there was a conscious intent to draw one. Neil has always insisted that any images that appear in his art are determined by experiences buried in the subconscious. The artist is also quick to point out that although our subconscious is rich, unbridled, and limitless; it is also empirical and operates within the confines of his own human experience. Hence, there is both a dream-like and familiar component to his works. What is presented as abstract to the viewer nevertheless feels like it was borne out of reality.
With this intriguing interaction between expressionistic bravado and surreal imagery, an invitation is extended to plumb the artist’s fertile subconscious as it unravels itself. It feels like a tenuous process, delicate and self-aware, calling upon the viewer to meet him halfway through the journey ahead and fill in the blanks as they come.
(Bendix Fernandez)