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LAGUNA (MindaNews/26 July) -- Edwin Jumalon has always been synonymous with contemporary art in Western Mindanao. His past forays with art have been numerous and wide-ranging: paintings that remember rustic slice-of-life and social realist scenes, pictures that channel local myths and the occult, and, in the past years, large-scale non-representational works exhibited in “Circumstance” (2003) and “Form Follows Man” (2007). Zamboanga City, Jumalon’s hometown, has served as an appreciative audience to most of his art shows.
This year marks a return to representational forms for him as well as a change of exhibition venue. “Scarecrows”, Jumalon’s 9th solo exhibit opens July 26, 2009, at the Nineveh Art Space in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. In his current crop of works, he refocuses surrealist elements from his past paintings into a commentary that evokes childhood play and, perhaps, draws on his own experiences of regional conflict. 
Piloting the scarecrow home.
Its focal image is a scarecrow; some resembling the actual figures of straw that we are used to seeing, others more whimsical mannequins. Called panakot ibon or tao-tao in the some local dialects, the scarecrow is traditionally a human figure dressed in old clothes used to discourage birds from disturbing crops. However, although the artist renders its image with all the associated accoutrements – the static posture, poles or pegs which anchor it to the earth – he does not use it to convey its image as a protector of crops but evokes something different.
Lost boys and girls
As a counterpart to the unmoving tao-tao, Jumalon also incorporates the figure of a child in his canvasses. They interact with the scarecrow in different ways as playmates, guardians, and even superheroes. The artist uses children that play a role in his life, and the affection is evident. He captures his two grandchildren – a boy and a girl – looking serious and deep into their imagined roles. The young boy is a superhero and glares at the viewer with an aura of power; the lass assumes calm authority as captain of a strange sailing vessel. He also paints his own child, Is, frolicking in the scenes he created for her.
Perchance Hero.
Jumalon’s worlds are Neverlands populated and ruled by children, and the only grownup allowed is the immobile figure of the scarecrow. It seems to serve as a surrogate guardian watching over them. But its mute presence, in contrast to the frolicking children, only emphasizes the absence of a parent. The only sign of another grownup found in one painting is Darna, and she is as fanciful a creation as the scarecrows themselves.
It is curious that the worlds that they play in are not the playgrounds a young child imagines. In one painting, the background is broken-down brick wall lit by a crescent moon. In another, the skies are red and billowing smoke rise up near what seem to be distant ruins of buildings. Another painting shows a girl clambering up a tank beside stone steps where the words “Oro Plata Mata” are etched. Furthermore, the colors that Jumalon uses are not vibrant playground colors one associates with children at play. They are pale reflections of the world we live in, leached of life.
No murder of crows
There are children, but this is clearly not Oz nor Disneyland. The absence of adults and the desolate backgrounds create an eerie other-world where the children seem like survivors of an apocalyptic event.
Chance meeting
Going back to the Jumalon’s central image, one notices that most of the scarecrows are clad in camouflage similar to soldiers’ uniforms. A foreboding of war is also reflected on images of tanks and ships on his other works. It may be significant if we note that he comes from a region where years of conflict and sanctions have created a vulnerable environment, where numerous casualties have already been reported and whole communities displaced.
The artist himself has not been unaffected by the effects of regional conflict. In November of 2001, rebels seized hostages from communities close to his residence in Zamboanga City. He, along with his family, moved out of their home in the Pasonanca district when guerrillas moved the hostages to their location. They fled when they heard that armed men were crossing the rice fields right at the back of their house.
The scarecrow as the guardian of the crops. The connection, along with the antiwar sentiment, is subtle but palpable. Except that instead of soldiers brandishing rifles, we have the tao-tao dressed in camouflage: immobile, inutile, and unthreatening. Whatever authority their uniforms had has been usurped by the little boys and girls. The children are the pilots, the superheroes, the explorers.
They play around the men of straw, swing from their arms, dream of overturned tanks. The scarecrows can only stand silent and bear witness.
“Scarecrows” is on exhibit until August 19, at the Nineveh Artspace, 2452 1st Avenue, Villa Silangan Subdivision, Barangay San Pablo Sur, 4009 Sta. Cruz, Laguna. You may contact the gallery by landline: (+6349) 501-6617 (PLDT) or mobile phone: (+63905) 4281329 (GLOBE) or (+63929) 4733899 (SMART). You may also email them at
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and
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, or visit their website at http://www.esnips.com/web/ninevehartspace
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