Jonathan Dangue

Going with the flow 

Jonathan Dangue

August 20, 2018 / C-3 

Text by Hannah Jo Uy 

“If I have questions in life, my art provides the answers.” For Jonathan Dangue, cre-ativity is the natural flow of energy pulsating through an artist. “Creativity came from a meditative state of mind that answer questions that the artist can’t explain,” he said. Indeed for Dangue, the artistic process is essentially an untangling of psychic blockages, peeling back layers of doubt, fear, and insecurity—moving towards positivity and paving the way for peace. 

Spontaneous and unplanned, these are the two words that Dangue used to describe his process, which is a nota¬ble departure from his practice as an architect. In architecture, one has to plan everything before finalizing a de¬sign. In art, Dangue surrenders him¬self to his impulses, and contemplates upon its meaning after. “My works are a self-reflection of my current status,” he said. “I treat myself as a child, like playing with wires/rods and sheets. Just like crumpling of a piece of paper. It transfers my energy to the materi¬als through my hands, and leaving se¬cret messages which give life and soul to each piece.” 

This refreshing positivity took cen¬tre stage in Dangue’s sixth solo exhibi¬tion. “Good Catch of Crabs” on display at the Art Verite Gallery. Presenting 88 hand-wrought brass sculptures, the artist challenges the so-called “crab mentality” often associated with mod¬ern Filipino society, wherein people pull others down for the sake of their own interests. “I want to change that perspective,” he explained. “Instead I associated it with the Chinese culture, which looks at the crab as an icon for prosperity and success.” 

Drawing inspiration from the peo¬ple that cared for him—family, friends, and acquaintances, Dangue attacks the misconception towards crabs emphasizing instead their positive at¬tributes. For Dangue this serves as a microcosm of the struggles we en¬counter in our everyday lives, stress¬ing that focusing on negativity will only breed more of the same. Through his art, he prescribes positive thinking and a good mindset highlighting the miracles that hope can provide. 

With this he fleshes out the sym¬bolic characteristics of the crab, with sheets as the shells and rods as claws in the move to mimic it. The thickness of the shell that protects them from harm to the claws, he added signifies our ability to overcome and triumph over our struggles and defend our¬selves from harm. 

This, Dangue explained is why he baptized this show “Good Catch,” speaking on the desirability that the name connotes. A good catch, he said is not perfect. Through his work, Dan¬gue implored viewers to look at expe¬rience objectively, as neither bad nor good but rather a tool for learning in the move forward. Above all, Dangue celebrated the inherent power of the human beings to make their own reality by shifting perspectives and looking towards the positive aspects of the situation. “Learning this can help us a lot,” he said. “For example, what do we often remember? Isn’t it bad experiences or failures? We learn from them more than from our suc¬cess. It can give us a broader picture of life and develop appreciate all as-pects of our lives, bad or good. Rain cannot be created without the heat of the sun. Gold cannot be gold without the process of high temperature. Coal cannot be diamond without the billion years of process from heat and chemi¬cal process.” 

Using art to chronicle important life lessons was not only confined to concept and design, Dangue had a similar approach when it came to choosing a medium. “Brass as a met¬al is heavy but malleable,” he said. “It can be manipulated easily by hand. Just like the typical life of a person, it’s hard but can be controlled. We can shift and change our own destiny.” Favoring the golden brass metal, for its rustic and timeless look—a meta¬phorical of the wear and tear in our own lives, Dangue admitted that as¬sembling metal requires the use of force and heat through welding. 

Dangue continues to challenge himself, shifting from his architectural and artistic roots towards green and sustainable creations. “I would also like to avoid this kind of option and pre¬fer to bend or clip the metal to lock it in place,” he said. “No welding mean¬ing less electricity, no paints meaning no volatile organic compound on my works that can harm people when they small it. It is brass and brass is anti-bacterial, non-ferrous metal. That is what we can call green or sustainable sculpture, less toxic and no harm to environment.” Dangue is pushing the envelope further, as he looks to future projects that he hopes will see stron¬ger integration of bamboo material, revealing the environmental advocacy strengthening his artistic impression as he looks toward more sustainable avenues of creation. “It’s just a matter of technology, on how you make bam¬boo act like metals,” he said. “Bam¬boo is also a green material that can be harvested in our country. If we can make block of wood bamboo to make sculptures or building materials that can replace concrete, metals, and oth¬er nonrenewable materials and then we are good.” 

Essentially, Dangue said, as an art¬ist a true source of joy is people from all walks of life appreciating his works as an extension of their own intimate human experience. “Through this,” he said. “It shows that we may share a mutual connection.”