Tijing: "The Return of the King"

CEBU, Philippines -  Roderick Tijing is a man of contradictions.  The swarthy, semi-bald, and hawkish eyed Illonggo looks like he could draw a dagger at any time and skewer an unwitting passer-by.  He could be a ruffian, waiting by a street corner and checking out chicks.  He doesn't look like he could be an artist wont to paint pastoral scenes of fields and meadows.  But he is, and he does, as is evident in his latest one man show in Nova Gallery entitled "The Return of the King."

That is exactly what we are served in Tijing's latest ouevre: breathtaking panoramic scenery, a vista so vast as to take in the whole world and swallow up the onlooker in pigments and shades of verdant greens and fragrant yellows.  The sky is a beautiful heavenly blue interspersed with dainty white clouds, the seas and rivers are mysteriously deep and invitingly fresh.  Who would have thought that this surrealist, who seemed so intent on bending minds and warping reality in his previous works, would end up giving birth to these calm, unruffled sceneries?

Yet, Tijing has not entirely given up the strange quirks that characterize his offerings.  His somewhat creepy, sometimes adorable man with the round bald head figures prominently in this collection, appearing in more than half his canvasses.

There he is in Rabbit Season, chest laid bare, hiking through a gorgeous mountainside, armed with a carrot and stick, to better tempt the diminutive rabbit cheekily eyeing him in the foreground.  There he is in Public Pervert 6, scarf tied gaily around his non-existent neck, astride a podium marked with Batman's logo.  We see him in The Apple Pickers of Schonenwerd, mouth turned down, apparently dissatisfied with the harvest.  Tijing's usual protagonist is here, very much alive.

Even in "Return of the King," the work after which his show is named, we see the round man, this time in his trademark blue color, being escorted by various fauna through the grounds of the kingdom en route to the palace.  The procession is headed by yet another bunny, and we are given to wonder: are we seeing, perhaps, a new trend from Tijing?  Is this the birth of the rabbit motif?

We don't see his usual turtles or elephants here, so perhaps, the rabbit is now the object of the artist's affection.  We do see some Pinschers, and one-eyed extra-terrestrials, but also joining the menagerie in this collection are the unusual (for him) horses, cows, squirrels, and even a mouse.  As already observed, this artist is a study on contradictions.

Obviously, Tijing is still very much inspired by his sojourn in Switzerland, his canvasses imbued with the wide open fields, the fresh air, and the sheer joie de vivre that a summer day can bring to a hiker in the hills.  We are borne along to that pleasant world, a ride we are happy to take along with (and despite) his sometimes odd companions.

His Swiss trip after graduating from college in 2004 must still impact on him, but as Janine Cabato writes in her review of Tijing, "[i]t is an on-going plot.  Tijing's works echo across a crossing of cultures, an apparent interconnectivity of ideas and influences."

As we see in his works, his Filipino spirit still imbues the Swiss countryside with dashes of local humor.  I mean, why is Batman referenced at the speech of a public pervert?  Well, maybe we can ask the superhero:  "Itanong mo kay Batman" (literally, "Ask Batman," which usually means an answer isn't forthcoming.)

Another canvass has a green-tinged man with a brassiere for a hat.  And, is that a carabao placidly lording it over Swiss cattle over by the dells?  Truly, the trademark colloquial humor we are so known for hasn't disappeared, and is very much alive in the Alps.  Never mind which part of the world the Filipino goes, we know that what rules us and defines us, at least in Tijing's vision of it, will still show itself.  Long live the king!

"Return of the King" was on show at Nova Gallery, La Fuerza Compound, Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City, until last month.