“The Eagle Man” art as story telling

Central to the most of his works is the human figure, which is often appropriated as a narrative and allegorical device, as seen in the works of Davao artist Ben Banez of the Ford Academy of the Arts. Perhaps unconsciously borrowing from the popular sub cultural sources. His works assimilate the neurotic energies of heavy metal comics, with their dense and profusely crowded spaces disorienting perspectives and a preponderance of Grotesque imageries.

Banez seemingly blasphemous visuality (exemplified by his direct reference to the Ant-Christ) stems from a Apocalyptic conviction that the world is in exorably hurtling to end, via what he termed as ” The breakdown of World religions.”

Banez works stand out, not only because of their defamiliarizing effects, but also because they are going against the grim and determined thematics of the social realists tradition, purveyed by both its progenitors in the metropolis and their clones in the regions. At the same time, they also violate the drawing room decorum of what it constitutes most of the works of Davao and its satellites. But Banez, merits does not lie in the way he transcended this thematic and formal clichés. He must always be reducible to religious and institutional manifestations.

Despite these reservations, the values of Banez contribution to the bandwagon of nostalgic indulgence, currently being reproduced and legitimized by market forces, the mass media and even the academe.

Source: Pananaw book “Beyond the Tribal: Rethinking Mindanao”.

A very nice article. I was accepted to Fordham for their PhD program in philosophy back in 1970. They had a great Jesuit professor named Alice Jordain. I went to NYU instead and was disappointed with NYU’s analytic school of thought which came to a dead end in the 20th Century. Anyway, this is a great Catholic university. Although a Protestant, I regard myself as a natural Jesuit.., a devils’ advocate, so to speak. Regards, Terrance

Twisted Paradise in Williamsburg Celebrates Milton’s 400th

“Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden…”

– Paradise Lost: Book I

The paintings of Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr., another featured surrealist artist of the exhibit, are filled with psychedelic colors, lines, dots and othergeometric figures, which combine to concoct paintings reflecting his interest in the “666” worldview. In one painting, Satan is a serpent-like creature with the colors of flames surrounding his head and the figures below that could easily be representations of Satan’s children, Sin and Death, as described in “Paradise Lost.”

Source: http://www.fordhamobserver.com/twisted-paradise-in-williamsburg-celebrates-milton-s-400th-1.823607