Roger “Rishab” Tibon

REKINDLING HUMANITY’S CONNECTION WITH NATURE 

How Roger “Rishab” Tibon creates a fusion of nature and art

 January 7, 2019 / C-3

Text by HANNAH JO UY

The integration of natural elements underscores Tibon’s propensity toward nature, an inclination heightened during his time in Baguio where he marveled at the indigenous people’s ability to continue with their way of life without negatively impacting the environment. 

“It is just intuitive for me to create art in any form I do,” said Roger “Rishab” Tibon. 

“I don’t think much of trying to please anyone—I create art because I enjoy the process, the exploration of the subjects.” 

Known for bold and vibrant paint­ings that are visually appealing and intellectually stimulating, Tibon specializes in works that are playful, whimsical, and surrealistic, yet strik­ingly charged, deliberately and sub­consciously, with strong philosophi­cal undertones. 

Since his childhood days, Tibon knew he was an artist. “I never had a formal education on the arts but I still developed my skills through reading books, watching other artists paint, and practicing whenever I can,” he said. “The urge and passion was so strong.” Throughout his impressive program of self-apprenticeship, Ti­bon did freelance, before working as an artist/designer during the 1980s in the now-defunct Alemars bookstore. He also further refined his visual rep­ertoire as an art director at the Cebu branch of Olbes, Ogilvy, and Mather. After his work with the agency, Tibon moved to Baguio City, pursuing paint­ing full time—a decision that also helped shaped his aesthetic identity. 

“When I lived in Baguio City, I was influenced by the different Cordillera cultures,” he said. “Because of that, I painted tribal portraits adorned with indigenous elements, patterns, mo­tifs, and so on. But later on, I tried to move away from that and adopt a more universal theme. 

From the very beginning of his professional career, Tibon was drawn to painting people in informal and sur­realistic portrait forms being inspired by the works of the genre’s luminaries such as Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, and other contemporary sur­realists. Tibon also took to the works of Pablo Picasso, Diego Velasquez, the Pre-Raphaelites, Leonardo Da Vinci, as well as a number of contem­porary pop surrealists, magic and hy­per realists. 

Though Tibon continues to cre­ate distinctive surreal portraits, he has evolved his style and modified his portraits over the years toward a more contemporary rendition of sur­realism. Largely informed by his own advocacy and visual observations, Tibon has integrated pop elements such as anime, marvel characters, toys, imaginary flora and fauna, on his subjects. These modifications were further enhanced and exem­plified in his Incognito series, which saw the subject’s face covered with masks – a “chimera” of different ani­mals or with a patterned Zentai suit. In Tibon’s solo show in last year’s Manila Art, titled “Veiled Iconogra­phy,” the portraits were covered with translucent veils and bedecked with his unexpected images. 

The integration of natural elements underscores Tibon’s propensity toward nature, an inclination heightened dur­ing his time in Baguio where he mar­veled at the indigenous people’s ability to continue with their way of life without negatively impacting the environment. As such, Tibon created nature installa­tion art pieces, which he was regularly invited to participate in Biennales, Sym­posia, and Residency Programs. 

“Most of the time, these events are meant to promote current issues such as climate change, nature, and environ­ment, biodiversity, promoting wetlands protection, and so on,” he explained. “I do these using indigenous materials found locally and with the help of local community, students, and profession­als.” Tibon shared that these events served as a vital platform to discuss relevant and significant issues related to the environment. 

As for his process, Tibon shared that he does not do studies or pre­liminary sketches. “I work directly on the canvas guided with initial inspira­tion,” he said. “I just let my conscious/ unconscious mind do the thinking and I just paint whatever it presents. I don’t know what will come out of my finished work. For me, it’s the feeling of not knowing how it will turn out and the feeling of elation afterwards that makes painting enjoyable.” 

To date, Tibon has participated in a number of shows, biennales, sympo­sia, art fairs, and exhibitions, with his work reaching South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Germany, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, and China. Such recognition is trite when compared to the authentic plea­sure that creativity offers him. “For me, ‘artist’ is just a label. It doesn’t hold much value for me personally,” he candidly shared. “Of course, we need these labels to make life easier espe­cially as a means of communicating or categorizing people. I just do what I am good at and passionate about.” 

For Tibon, art is not only a liveli­hood, it is the life blood of existence. “There are various reasons why people do art—fame and fortune, and there are those who do it for the sheer pleasure of it,” he said. “I learn from my art, from the un­derlying philosophical undertones I discreetly put in it. My artworks are like mirrors that I can ponder on and hoping some viewers may discover it or make up their own.”