Dengcoy the Barok

Everytime I find myself in Singapore, I have to break bread with this guy, whose laughter is as baroque as anything over Tiger beer and baby kalang, a cousin to our kangkong. Make that barok, as with kalang and kangkong, but not quite though sounds like Dengcoy.

I call him Denx, sometimes written as Denks. His real name is Prudencio Miel, but he’s not as prudent as honey, so Dengcoy it became, close enough to Parecoy. 

I still had yet to start on this space when Dengcoy Miel drew distinctive cartoons for The Philippine Star. He left for Singapore in 1992, and while he has kept looking back, he’s made quite a name for himself as a multi-awarded editorial cartoonist for The Straits Times.

His cartoons are syndicated by The New York Times Cartoonists’ and Writers Syndicate and by CagleCartoons, and have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Newsweek, Asiaweek, Washington Post, Japan Times and South China Morning Post. A member of the National Cartoonists’ Society (NCS) in the US, he was its Reuben Division Award Winner for Newspaper Illustration in 2001. He also received two “Excellence in Editorial Cartooning” awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA, 2007 and 2011).

He has authored at least a couple of best-selling books that compiled his sketches as telling commentary on the Singapore scene. In 2013, no less than the city-state’s Ministry of Communications and Information chose SceneGapore by Miel (as his byline reads very simply) as a must-read title. Published by Epigram Books with the support of Media Development Authority, the book was cited as a “humorous collection of comic strips (that) offers a unique perspective on a range of topics close to the Singaporean heart.”

Miel simply acknowledged it as his “collection of snapshots of Singapore,” but evident throughout the pages, as I wrote in a review, was his “characteristically wholesome outlook spiced with light irreverence, which renders his tongue-in-cheek binges heartily appreciated.”

Late last year, he did the cover art and center cartoons for Get Lucky: An Anthology of Philippine and Singapore Writings, edited by Eric Tinsay Valle. But his Pinoyhood as barok knows no limits, as time and again he’s joined group shows in Manila, in much the same way that he seasonally exhibits his brilliant paintings in Singapore’s art galleries. He’s also joined numerous group shows elsewhere — in Paris, Venice, San Francisco, New York, and Germany.

With a master’s degree in Design from the University of New South Wales, he’s definitely a full-fledged artist. Last December, he contributed his Pepito Bosch art for a tribute-exhibit at TheBar@1951, on M. Adriatico St., Malate, as well as a painting for inclusion in “Chromatext Rebooted” at the CCP Main Gallery. 

Now, finally, starting on May 1, a one-man exhibit billed as “Philippine Barokue” will showcase his unique paintings at Kaida Contemporary on 45 Scout Madrinan, South Triangle, Quezon City.

Artist-buddy Jose “Bogie” Tence Ruiz, who was instrumental in the show’s mounting, explains the theme/title:

“Prudencio ‘Dengcoy’ Miel’s long overdue first one-man show ‘Philippine Barokue’ serves up tautologically layered nuances as delicious as a bandejado of fresh talaba. We think oysters because Baroque originally described imperfect pearls, barruecco in Spanish, and, for most of us old enough, our Philippines, our pearl of the orient, has its world-class share of, as it were, idiosyncrasies. Further, Miel’s ’70s-rooted, misspelled pun, Barokue conflates both the Eurocultural epoch of exaggerated motion, mannered theater and overabundant if not stifling ornamentation and our endearing Pinoy Neanderthal comic hero, Barok, crude polar opposite to the gilded, monarchic bubble of privilege which somehow sounds like his name. It must be noted though, not cartoonist/creator Bert Sarile’s fault, that in Dutch, Baroque is actually spelled Barok.”

Dengcoy started on these paintings a year ago. Kaida Contemporary had wanted to schedule his show much earlier, but he insisted that he had to get it done right. “Preparation talaga. Kailangan solid ang konsepto at ’yong suite ng images ay naguusap-usap din.”

There will be 10 works altogether: three pieces at 4’x5’, four at 3’x4’ and three in an oval format measuring 12” x 24” each. As for the genre, Dengcoy says: “They’re more like Social Realism/Surrealism, if there is such a thing. I use acrylic as a base — and use oil in the final stage where I could be allowed to do a ‘pentimento’ of sorts or a rethink/correction in the composition while actually painting it. Oil is more malleable din kasi.”

His meticulous practice borders on a painstaking process.

“Daming studies muna. Fine-tune ’yong idea at hagilap ng references. I spend about a month or two on a canvas. I paint nights after work and I spend my full two-day weekend to fine-tune or finish a piece. Pero may mga canvases na ini-iwan ko if it doesn’t seem to work. Binabalikan ko na lang. It takes time talaga. Pinapahinog ’ika nga yong kahulugan sa pamamagitan din ng pag-gamit ng kulay.”

“Trick or Treaty” in shades of orange simulates colonialist hellfire, with a uniformed American soldier still in the continued process of lighting up a cannon that is in the form of the Statue of Liberty, its smoking mouth still pointed at the kneeling figure of a Filipino revolutionary whose puny rifle lies on the ground. Both the cannon’s mouth and the Pinoy’s head exude smoke, as does the imperialist’s sword’s end. But Dengcoy gets back at him by planting a black Mickey Mouse cap on his hat.

In “Empire of the Gaze,” the uniformed invader, a cavalryman, rides a half-skeletal horse, headless since part of the Philippine archipelago begins to take up that space. On the horse’s tail rides in turn a small figure of a Pinoy in salakot, holding the thin reins that suggest that he’s reining in or directing the horseman.

In the show-title painting “Philippine Baroque,” a seated, ornately attired potentate also grasps a sword in one hand, and in the other, a crude wooden club. His visage is of a thickly snouted pig.

These are the ways our very own Barok of art gets back at the memories, if continuing, of colonialism. And asserts the freedom of the artist as much more than that of a jokester. As in his cartoons, Dengcoy never condemns, rather applies seemingly insouciant commentary that turns ironically acerbic with its apparent lightness of touch.

His artist’s statement confirms this left-handed yet adroit resolve:

“I do art to make sense of the things that I know and not know. 

“Painting is a device for me to inquire into the intangibles, into the unknowns, into the imperceptible importance of people, events and circumstances. The tragedies in our history are the primary resource in my art. The pathos is comparatively easier to portray than the triumphs. There is an urgent need to tell the truth through them again so that we may be able to confront, counter and disentangle ourselves from these facets of our dishonorable heritage. Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

“Painting for me is also about remembering. The personal, social, cultural, political and the historical are interfused, rearranged and investigated on canvas. I keep informed so that I could easily break up the tired, aforementioned narrative and reconstitute them in more ways than one. My approach can result in an anachronism, or in a mild dissonance that would heighten the visual experience. I do a lot of research. I read. I sketch. I paint. My influences are the Surrealists and the Social Realists. I tend to favor the Balthusian conceit of rejecting conventions.

“I paint the things that are inherent in me, that is, of being Filipino. As a sojourner to other parts of the world, the rich history and culture of the Philippines and the Filipinos have become real, distinct and appealing. All of these are no longer distant in my mind. Every completed canvas is a homecoming.

“My paintings can be likened to fresh lines drawn over a palimpsest map, retracing the land, revealing the seas and the rivers of the here and now, flooding the sinews of memory and setting the stage for the eventual return of this native son’s disembodied eye.”

Dengcoy also allows that he could retire from official work in three years’ time, when he would have built up a sufficient nest egg. Meanwhile, he will do more shows. Then he might go balikbayan and focus on painting full-time and perhaps also do sculpture. Now those might go rococo, as in Cucurucucu Paloma of yet another colonial past.