Dala-dalang Dalangin, Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2006

Article was published in Business World, Wednesday, March 22, 2006. 

Arts & Leisure page

Angelo Magno’s

Embodied prayers

By Josefa  Labay Cagoco

“Sana bumaba ang presyo ng mga bilihin. Sana bumaba ang pamasahe sa jeep.  (I hope the prices of commodities go down.  I hope jeepney fares go down.)”

Ipinagdadasal ko ang mga taong biktima ng digmaan at mga biktima ng mga sakuna ng kalikasan.  ( I pray for victims of war and natural disasters.)”

“Gusto ko ng sarili kong espasyo. Gusto ko malaman ang sikreto ng  kapitbahay ko.  (I want my private space.  I want to know my neighbor’s secrets.)”

“I love you. Please love me back.”

Whispered and shouted, sung and chanted, begged  and beseeched, these words reflect the  everyday prayers of people.  Many such prayers are gathered in Dala-dalang Dalangin, Angelo Magno’s exhibit that transforms the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Pasilyo Victorio Edades into an intriguing representation of a sanctuary.  As the title of the exhibition – Dala-dalang Dalangin- suggests these are the most intimate pleas carried in mind  and heart, and deposited only in public temples or private sanctums where people feel unrestrained to do so. 

The prayers, of course, come with the individuals that spoke them.  The faces, drawn on paper with oil pastel and graphite, are pictures of reverence and fear, impatience and resignation.  Some heads are plump, some thin, while others almost emaciated.  The drawings stand on top of thin metal poles  lodged in shoe molds. As the myriad color combinations used on the faces signify the invisible  emotional bruises, the  worn-out molds   stand for weathered feet and bodies.

The many gaping  toothless mouths empty eye sockets and bald heads leave grotesque impressions. (The anxiety embodied in expressionist Edvard Munch’s famous  work

The Scream   comes to mind.)  Is this really how people look in their most desperate?

With his background in creative writing, painting and theater, artist Angelo Magno recreates narrative embodying  visual, textual and symbolic elements. The wide ranging concerns shown in his installation reflect a life involved in, or in the least observant of, what goes on out there.

This recreated sanctuary is a place we are familiar with, a refuge we go to in our loneliness or sought in our gratitude.  Most definitely, it is a place that transcends the material space, for indeed it is something that we carry with us.