Dan Raralio

Dan Raralio: Uniquely Universal Opuses 

Text by Pam Brooke A. Casin 

December 21, 2009 / E-3

For an artist to be both significant and suc­cessful, his or her art­works must not just be aesthetically pleas­ing but intellectually stimulating as well. Ideally, the equal­ized combination of the two possibly guarantees an artist with a steady following and ensures one of longevity in the art scene. One such artist who consciously yet effortlessly produces compelling works with high regard to aesthetics is painter and sculptor Dan Raralio. Celebrated for his humorous and well-thought of pieces, Raralio has always been on the lookout to create a repertoire that swims afloat a sea of formulaic works. 

Although Raralio dreamt of being a fireman and a businessman when he was still a child, the urge to be crafty and nifty with art won over his liking for a fire engine and over the thought of managing a business of his own. In pre-school, when he was just four years old, Raralio had started comparing himself and his skills with his playmates. He remembers his friends noting how his drawings and clay models had constantly been more intricately made and advanced as compared to creations of their own. Thoughts of being an artist flooded Raralio’s mind at that time. 

“My interest with the arts contin­ued as time went by,” Raralio shares. “Nag-umpisa ‘yan sa craft, ‘yung naa-appreciate mo ‘yung pagkagawa sa isang bagay. Noong nag-college na ako, siyempre serious na ‘yan eh kasi pipili ka na ng course mo. Fine arts took up over 50 percent of my choice.” At the University of the Philippines, Raralio trooped to painting for formal classes. There, he would learn to paint both traditional and abstract forms.

 

As a student, Raralio admits that he had a difficult time detaching himself from both art genres. “Atten­tion deficit siguro,” he quips. Raralio, however, had another serious reason in mind. It was the need to be match­less that fueled him to learn how to be multifaceted and to multi-task. And so while Raralio was painting using contradictory styles on paper and on canvas, he was also engrossed with sculpting. 

The artist says that his early orientation with carpentry and craft­work proved helpful in him shifting to and conquering sculpting albeit not having conventional training in mak­ing sculptural pieces. “Kapag nagpip­inta ako, iniisip ko rin na paano kung three-dimensional ‘yung mga gawa ko,” he says. “Hindi ko masabi kung ano ang mas gusto kong gawin eh. Meron kasing mga trabaho na mas madaling gawin sa painting, meron din naman sa sculpture.” 

And so throughout Raralio’s artis­tic career, he has fashioned rich and colorful abstract paintings with thick impastos using a mix of modeling paste, sand, and polymer, impres­sionist-motivated paper works in oil, pastel, and acrylic, and elegantly made contemporary sculptures using an eclectic mix of media or whatever is readily available in his workshop. Hence, audiences can expect a predictable unpredictability with Raralio’s opuses. One will never know what type of artwork he will create next only that it will surely be better than his last. 

Raralio explains that he is not conscious of his artistic technique when he makes a suite of artworks. To a certain point, the artist consid­ers a specific and pitch-perfect style and creative process limiting. For Raralio, it hinders the growth of an artist. Doing away with one style en­ables Raralio to get inspiration from other sources such as from classical, cubist, surrealist, postmodern, mini­malist, and formalist principles. As a result, the artist’s pieces come out with a unique and universal appeal. In fact, noted art critic and author Alice Guillermo discloses in writing that Raralio “is able to create an extraordinary range of art, from the visual and luxuriant synergy of his impasto paintings to the fool-the-eye, irresistibly tactile construct of his pillow series and to the remarkably stark precision and elegant poise of his metal sculptures.” 

Raralio’s works cannot be osten­sibly defined and characterized into one genre, only that they are loaded with meaning and symbols and are always created using witty and cerebral analogies. One repertoire that embodies Raralio’s intellectual and comic tendencies is his ‘Pillow Series.’ 

Mostly made from synthetic mar­ble, these works came to the artist’s mind while he “was sleeping on the job.” What Raralio did is to juxtapose different object s t o p i l ­l o w s , making t h e m canvas­es to a painter or black­b o a r d s to a pro­f e s s o r. One pil­low piece h a s a s t a i n ­less steel cube attached to it in the middle and is titled ‘Mental Block,’ while another has five faucet heads glued to it and is called ‘Wet Dreams.’ Another memorable sculpture named ‘Inducing Levitation’ is that of a pillow with several stainless steel sticks pro­truding from it, as if implying flotation during sleep. There is also one with an old-school flat iron pushed on a pillow titled ‘Press Statement.’ 

Unquestionably, there’s a touch of surrealism in this series although not that hardcore, seen in the uncanny juxtaposition of opposing and unre­lated elements. In some instances, Raralio says that he just works on something, say casts a certain object, not knowing what the resultant work would be. An example of Raralio’s spontaneity is a deft opus fashioned from synthetic marble, brass, and resin called ‘Cendrillon’ or ‘Cinder­ella’ hanged in the artist’s living room. In creating the piece, Raralio first made a cast from a clock, then from his legs, and then finally from a shoe. “After seeing those three elements, bigla na akong nagkaroon ng idea kung tungkol saan ‘yung trabaho and I made it into a collage,” he muses. 

Raralio divulges that there is really no definite well where he draws inspiration from. Sometimes, he says, ideas come from everyday and mundane things such as his pillows. “Kumbaga dumadaan lang ‘yung idea and I have to catch it. I’m just on guard always. I see to it that I keep my eyes open to items that have potential to become works of art,” he explains. But however tricky Raralio’s artworks prove to be for the casual onlooker, the artist makes it a point to let his audiences in on some clues with regard to his oeuvre, let­ting viewers trace the impetus that the artist utilized in producing a specific work. 

In his latest one-man exhibition tagged ‘Fish out of Water,’ Raralio once again puts to use his wit and cleverness in his stainless steel sculp­tures that talk about the fish idiom in relation to situations people may find themselves in. Despite the pieces’ in­congruity form-wise, Raralio stresses that there is a latent cohesiveness in his show concept-wise. “Nag-revise ako nang nag-revise ng forms tapos hindi ko na ma-connect ‘yung works kaya nag-end up doon sa idiom, which means feeling detached or alienated from a specific environment,” he tells. Here, Raralio explains that since all works appear in various forms, his show in turn is an apt rep­r e s e n t a ­tion of the idiom, as in an exhibit that car­ries works t h a t a r e out of place when seen in a space.

 

Admit­tedly, Ra­ralio says that he cre­ates art to entertain and to stimulate his audiences. Certainly, the artist always meets these purposes to a t. And what’s really nice and commend­able about Raralio’s universal artistic articulations and renditions is that one will never get tired of viewing them, as they, as Guillermo critiques, “pose riddles to the mind in endless hours of fascination.” 

‘Fish out of Water’ runs until December 31 at the Paseo Gal­lery, 4/L Artwalk SM Megamall A, Mandaluyong City. For more infor­mation, call 706-5514.