Artist Geraldine Javier begins the year with an exhibit that intrinsically explores the human condition through cautionary tales and stark images. Entitled Living Images, Leaden Lives, the exhibit will be on view at the Art Center SM Megamall from January 5 to 20.
Javier’s paintings almost always leave you with conflicting emotions of longing and dread; the ambiguity of fear and desire, notes a fellow artist. The images seem to activate dormant emotions and awaken irrational, unarticulated childhood anxieties-letting viewers in on sensitive situations and captivating them with her keen attention to detail and recurring motifs. Viewers, too, are also prepared to see the visual twists and turns, as if leading them from one highlight to another.
Where does Javier get all these inspiration for her works? Is it from her experience as a nurse that gave her first-hand accounts of daily human drama in the confines of the emergency ward? Or did pop culture lend a hand to motivate her to go for more dramatic elements? In her continuing quest to express through painting all these ideas and images, we became witnesses to Javier’s skills as a visual storyteller, weaving different threads from man influences.
The diptych “Morning Doesn’t Always Mean Sunshine” dwells on old age and youth. One is headless figure of an elderly woman; the other is that of a young girl on a swing-both images reflecting how the passage of time has affected them, physically and emotionally. “Life Ends at Second Childhood” features an ancient figure struggling before a bathroom sink. Supported by an aluminum walker, the viewer senses both helplessness and hopelessness. The angle of focus gives the viewer a child’s perspective, imbued with brooding apprehension, and a curious detachment of observing someone else’s struggle.
“The Last Thing I Want to See” depicts a derelict figure in a fetal position on a mangy mattress, resembling a raft behind and expansive body of water. There is forlorn image of world-weariness, a man adrift in a sea of serenity, offering both acceptance and deliverance.
Javier discusses these and more in her exhibit, from the loss of innocence to the inevitability of mortality.
Documentation
