Noel Elicana’s fifth solo show questions the conventional interpretations of maternity: there are no Madonnas in the exhibit.

Deviating from the usual nuances of warmth and care usually associated with motherhood, Elicana offers an avant-garde gaze at maternity. What dominates his canvases are figures of animals, mythological or otherwise: easily discerned are dragons, sheep, canines, and chicks sprawled over wide spaces swathed in scarlet, a veritable menagerie set on a background of severe hues and forced perspectives; these, among others. 

Far be it for these artworks to exude motherhood statements, they rather frame maternity in unusual imagery, one that explores the artist’s personal struggles and repressed memories while highlighting relevant political issues experienced by the country, particularly about matters territorial and disputed. Inspired by traditions and images in Philippine art while delving deep into his own poignant reminiscences of the absence of a mother-figure, the artist’s geometries and color palettes are evocative of the surreal and contentious feminine: through Elicana’s eyes and art, the State is a woman with her offspring.  

Blurring the lines between the personal and the socio-political, the graphic bestiary and representations in Elicana’s canvases are allegorical of the situations permeating us while his installation is metaphorical of emotional longings. Reinforced by his distinctive color motifs and his penchant for use of patterns, the collection is piercingly sharp and visually rapacious without losing maternal sentimentality: there is still love and light to be found beneath the brushstrokes.

This combination of the intimate and the indiscreet heightens both the artist’s passion and context. Loud in its advocacy and veiled in its meaning, the exhibit becomes his manifesto even as it subtly manifests the Ilonggo flavor and sensibility in the art, bringing the aesthetics of the regional periphery into the core of the national capital.

In Elicana’s ‘Mother and Child’, there are no Madonnas – or even a matriarchy: there are only maternal statements about the Self and the State.

words by J.A. Estolloso