Raravis #2: The flight continues

Drawings by Tikoy Aguiluz

Creating visual fugue

The flight continues.

It starts with a passionate line, or a meandering river, or a path teeming with bends and curves. The lines, the paths, the rivers transform themselves into feathers, wings, tails, or burning fires with fiery eyes. Or it begins with a curve, or a half-moon, or a full one. It grows and multiplies; and they soar and fly.

The lines are like melodies singing in different voices. The circles are like notes playing tunes in different tones and pitches; they recur and return in different variations and transformations. 

Is it a mystical dragon rising from the deep or a cyclone ready to land? Are they embryos swimming in a stream of blood? Or are they tadpoles in a pond? Is it a monarch butterfly with wings burning? Is it an elephant, pregnant and taking a rest? Is it a melancholy ghost? Is it a fire grieving? Is it a bean pod split with eyes that inquire, peep, and pierce? It is a twin whirlpool in endless turn. Is it a soaring bird in search of prey?

Tikoy Aguiluz creates a kind of visual fugue. His themes: flight and transformation play and overlap alongside each other in a dozen variations. Closed or half-closed circles counterpoint long and open labyrinthine lines. Weight blends with lightness. Darkness coexists with light. The artist’s pen flows naturally, thus giving the composition of the works with dynamism and organism. Each piece of work is a visual fugue, a ‘polygraphy.’ There is not a single image in each frame; there are multiple images. In music there is polyphony. And in Aguiluz’s drawings there is ‘polygraphy’ — the abundance and multiplicity of images.

UP Film Center co-founder, Cinemanila International Film Festival founder and director, and prizewinning filmmaker Tikoy Aguiluz (Boatman, 1985, Bihayeng Langit, 2000, Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story, 2011) returns to his old love — drawing and painting pictures. 

Returning to his old love, Direk Tikoy, liberates himself; he has regained his creative powers and calmness. His doodles and sketches reveal his playfulness and imagination in flight. He controls the shape, the look, the flow, the narrative, the tools and medium of his art. Unlike in filmmaking where every aspect of the business is a constant struggle, in drawing pictures he only uses paper, pens, and oils to create works that are original and rare. 

In 1976, he was one of the Cultural Center of Philippines (CCP) Thirteen Artist Awards (TAA) awardees. In 2013, the French government awarded him with Chevalier L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. (Rey Ventura). 

Direk,
Maraming salamat po
sa inyong pamana.