There is beauty in Debris.
Denotatively, there is wreckage and rubbles when debris is mentioned. Connotatively though, sans these fragments in the lucid thoughts of Raymond Legaspi, the magnificence and natural attraction of his works would have not been evident. Raymond Legaspi is clever and astute in his keen environmental surveillance and documentation of experiences. His brooding introspection of what he sees around is transformative; his works are attractively fetching and magnanimously appealing.
His fascination with water and global warming are evinced in the fourteen acrylic works on canvas in this Debris exhibit. Metaphorically, the works speak so much of a tranquil torpor when seemingly everything comes to a halt. The notion of what a natural calamity can effectuate to certain individuals and spaces is transposed to the inadvertently satirical pieces of artworks. Case in point would possibly be the aftermath of a typhoon, like Super Yolanda. Adversely affected environs and hinterlands of such catastrophe put a stop to what may have been a daily routine of activities. The raging and rising water bunged and immobilized the individuals.
Think of an orchestra conductor signaling to the ensemble of instrumentalists to hit the last note of an aria. This is Debris. This is what is seen in the whimsical and quirky figures of the recent works of Legaspi. Looking closely, such is a social and environmental commentary that evokes a solid unrequited perspective of underwater images, stagnating every subject and punctuated with the picturesque ruins. Debris is all over. It is deep and so figurative.
His two decades of advertising practice prior to his account to the new art of painting in 2006 definitely enriched and predisposed the mode and process of his visual creations. Raymond Legaspi loves ideas and loves to play with ideas. A Negrense, specifically a Silaynon, Legaspi was shortlisted for the Philippine Art Awards and landed in the Top 10 for the Visayas in 2007 and succeeding to that in 2008, he won the Jurors’ Choice. In 2009, he was recognized as one of the country’s 10 Most Exciting Artists by Nokia and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Debris is open to the public starting September 6, 2018 at the High Space of Qube Gallery, Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu Cty. Exhibit runs until September 30, 2018.
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