jaz

📍national museum of anthropology, 2024.

📍baguio country club christmas village, 2023.

📍the manor at camp john hay, december 2023.

📍the manor at camp john hay, december 2023.

mojojo, 2023.

📍bencab museum, 2022.

—brick game (2001) by jose santos iii is a thought-provoking piece. the brick depicted in the painting interestingly takes on the form of the person behind the window. on the other side, a man holding a ten of diamonds card seems to be leaving, and a woman is watching his departure. the girl at the center pulls the focus from the entire piece, as she is clad in red as opposed to the pallidness of the other figures. every element, in my eyes, all come together to portray the tale of a shattered family. the girl in red, sitting forlorn and dejected, recalls the day her father left, seemingly after his true motives have been revealed as symbolized by his handheld card (i.e. showing his hand), and her mother watching him walk out the door. the figure on the right, behind the brick wall, might have represented her self-perception—trapped, unable to do anything as she watched it all unfold before and as she relive it in her mind now. so ensnared within that even the brick wall has memorized her. and that might have been the reason behind the title—to break out of the game, to break out of the brick. but, of course, that’s only one out of surely hundreds of possible interpretations [2nd row, left].

📍bencab museum, 2022.

📍bencab museum, 2022.

📍heritage hill and nature park garden (old diplomat hotel), 2023.

on the road again, 2023.

on the road again, 2023.