BenCab, (Benedicto Cabrera, Filipino contemporary artist)

The Origin of the World

Bata pa si Sabel (Young Ysabel) - Benedicto Cabrera aka Bencab

📍bencab museum, 2022.

favorites:

—ready to hope (2011) by abi dionisio is an absolute favorite of mine. the figure stands in front of a tattered wallpaper, with a fabric wrapped around their body. the whole piece might have been a nod to the phrase “blind hope”; to be so helpless as to cover one’s eyes, to dream freely and without abandon, and to optimistically leave everything to an idealistic fate. i find myself resonating with the sentiment. maybe the security of not knowing and perceiving the world through rose-colored glasses is comforting. naïve, but better than quitting [3rd row, left].

—brick game (2001) by jose santos iii is a thought-provoking piece. the brick depicted in the painting interestingly takes on the form of the person behind the window. on the other side, a man holding a ten of diamonds card seems to be leaving, and a woman is watching his departure. the girl at the center pulls the focus from the entire piece, as she is clad in red as opposed to the pallidness of the other figures. every element, in my eyes, all come together to portray the tale of a shattered family. the girl in red, sitting forlorn and dejected, recalls the day her father left, seemingly after his true motives have been revealed as symbolized by his handheld card (i.e. showing his hand), and her mother watching him walk out the door. the figure on the right, behind the brick wall, might have represented her self-perception—trapped, unable to do anything as she watched it all unfold before and as she relive it in her mind now. so ensnared within that even the brick wall has memorized her. and that might have been the reason behind the title—to break out of the game, to break out of the brick. but, of course, that’s only one out of surely hundreds of possible interpretations [2nd row, left].

Benedicto Reyes Cabrera (b.1942, Filipino) ~ The Letter, 1984

[Source: Sotheby’s]

BenCab Museum, Baguio City, PH.

Alay nina Alice at Agnes

Alay nina Alice at Agnes

Lester Reguindin, Tim Cabrera, Dan Dayo and Erl Sorilla in MORIONES by Agnes Locsin. CCP Dance Series: ALAY NINA ALICE AT AGNES by ALICE REYES DANCE PHILIPPINES (ARDP) and PROFESSIONAL ARTIST SUPPORT PROGRAM (PASP) at the CCP Main Theater, September 30, 2022. Photo by Jude Bautista National Artists for Dance: Alice Reyes and Agnes Locsin; CCP Dance Series: ALAY NINA ALICE AT AGNES by ALICE REYES…

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BenCab Museum

Tuba, Benguet

Hi. I was in Baguio City for 4 days :)

© Paolo Dala

Almost Mad Charlie Co (2010) BenCab Museum (Tuba, Benguet, Philippines)

The Wrong And The Evil

For several decades we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and we have acclaimed our freedom from it as epic making. But at length we have discovered to be free in this sense to have the excuse of being sick rather than being sinful is to also court the danger of becoming lost. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity. And with neurotics themselves, asking, “Who am I? What is my deepest destiny? And what does living really mean?” The former president of the American Psychological Association, Hobart Mauer, argued that if we just call it mere wrong doing, we won’t understand the gravity of the wrong that was committed... Somewhere along the line he (and all of the world’s great secular psychologists) was trying to find a middle ground between mere wrong doing and a violation of a God-given moral law.

BenCab Museum - Baguio

Baguio City (Day 2) - BenCab Museum (4/4)

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Benedicto Cabrera aka Bencab

📍bencab museum, 2022.

Your tito is visiting a Museum again! Your tito is hopeful again this year.

January 12, 2024 / 11:17 AM / Bencab Museum, Baguio

Some book and art photos from a recent trip to Baguio City🌲|

I brought The Kindness of Birds by Merlinda Bobis, but of course, I wasn't able to read it. Wishful thinking lang talaga magdala ng book on vacations eh lol. I managed to sneak-read some stories from The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, though, because I have it on ebook. So far, I'm loving it. 🤍

Another highlight of the trip was BenCab museum. The man himself was there when we went, but because I'm shy, so I did not dare to take a photo with him. I just took a photo of the legend from where I was seated. Oh well.

I also finally saw Woman with Fan by BenCab. This painting is the cover art of Gina Apostol's Insurrecto. I had to take a pic.

Of course, I had to visit Mt. Cloud! Sadly, I missed both Ninotchka Rosca and Ambeth Ocampo's talks Sayang. Anyway, I bought five books from there plus a cute bag that I got from the Night Market.

So much walking in this city! (: