EP72: Ling Quisumbing's Visual Poetry on Fixing Broken Things | Found Objects, Lakbay, Memory, ALT

Описание: The viewer stands transfixed, caught in a silent storm of awe as the scene before him commands his senses and draws him into its vast embrace. The immense canvas swallows him whole, urging his thoughts to drift. He recalls Mark Rothko’s words about painting large to create intimacy, yet here, faced with a mountain of spent sandpaper, he is left searching for meaning. Then, Stuart Davis’s insight returns to him: the very materials are part of the message.

Christina “Ling” Quisumbing Ramilo, a Filipina artist, has always danced with the paradox of objects, seeing them not just as carriers of illusion but as living metaphors. Like an urban archaeologist, she delves into her subconscious and the city’s refuse, unearthing hidden beauty from discarded scraps and transforming trash into something almost mythic and sublime.

Behold the fruits of her restless spirit: piles of scribbled paper, heaps of broken pencils with jagged stubs jutting upward like a silent clash. A staircase of bricks that climbs to oblivion. Dental casts grinning in silent triumph. Bookshelves built from blocks of wood. A collection of chicken bones, bleached and bare, lay out like relics.

Quisumbing is not merely a shadow of the Italian Arte Povera movement of the Sixties, which championed the raw pulse of humble materials. These overlooked scraps, dismissed by most, become her treasures. Here, poverty of material is not a lack but a celebration, a jubilant rediscovery of vision and the senses.

Ling Quisumbing embodies the urge to embrace the very essence of matter. Her journey is not about collecting objects, but about coaxing meaning from the wounded and discarded. Her art halts time, honoring each object—sandpaper, pencil stubs, dental casts, wooden blocks—before they are transformed into symbols.