Blind Man Achieves Immortality

By Phillip Somozo

Metanarrative in Metamorphosis

(Conclusion of a Three-Part Series)

Eve’s biting the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was not original sin but the first disobedience. It is today something for her descendants not to be repentant of, but one worth celebrating.

So spoke the body language of more than 100 surrealists during the grand costume ball that opened the art exhibit and stage performance attributed to the 400th birth anniversary of John Milton, author of the greatest English epic poem, Paradise Lost.

The notion of Original Sin is the metanarrative by which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic believers see humankind as fallen. Sin, guilt, and restitution constitute the plot of these major religious traditions since time immemorial. It is because of our progenitors’ original sin that humankind is in deep shit: pain, disease, old age, death, not to speak of greed, corruption, and destruction. There is reason for everyone to repent and believe in the Messiah, or the Prophet, if we want out of the hole and go to everlasting bliss.

Not so. Artists, poets, writers, musicians, composers, stage performers and other followers of Surrealism, from all over the world, converged, threw open the portals of  collective Subconsciousness, and revealed its stuffings of fantasies and absurdity. If you are a mediocre person your sensibility will most likely suffer. But these people are different. For the time being, they turned WAH Center into a vortex of a dream—not solely theirs but humanity’s.

You cannot really blame them if they so accurately portray your worst fears for they are just holding up a mirror. What you outwardly see also lurks in the innermost recesses of your mind. Amazingly they are not ridden with guilt, but joyful!

After more than 3,000 years, Israel’s savior is its warheads. All of Christendom for two millennia remains waiting for the Second Coming. The Quoran is being served to justify terrorist activities. Are we serious about accepting the burden of original sin and then pass it on to somebody else? Are we joking?

Supposed to be no, not after millennia after millennia; the rationale is clear.

Hey, it’s the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that the first woman, mother of us all, sank her teeth into. Why then should we now eat each other? If God were anti-science, bigots and hypocrites are welcome to get themselves off this modern planet.

There is something else to Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden. And it is shrouded in Miltonian mystique and semantics, some scholars suspect, while purists disagree. What do you think is the reason why Rich Buckler made Milton’s portrait a la Mona Lisa (see photo 10)? Why would a Ph.D. react antagonistically to Arthur Kirmss’s sculpture of Milton’s head as wearing a crown, looking like his nemesis, King Charles I (photo 9)?

If writers of The Bible suffered oppression, physical torture and death, blind Milton did not do less mentally, emotionally, financially, and visually. He too was as much inspired. His is the new plot of the story; a mini-narrative brewing, developing silently, steadily, in human thought. What it is is still taking form, and the surrealists in WAH Center last September 27 are putting it down in history: the Judeo-Christian metanarrative is transforming. Along with transformation are fresh possibilities.

The only Filipino featured in the visual artsfest, Davao surrealist Bienvenido Bones Banez, says, “My visions are all at once religious and mundane. I present these visions through harmonies of line, shape and color that bring the other realm into our own reality, our world of experiences. Satan was full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, and faultless in his ways until unrighteousness found a vessel in him. That’s why Satan is a good model for my 666 art world because people of the world borrow his style and ways.

Humankind is verging on unprecedented self-liberating discovery.

– End –

Davao surrealist Ben Banez with descendant of John Milton, Clive Milton, the grand costume ball’s special guest in the physical absence of his great great grandfather.

Banez with WAH Center founder and master artist Yuko Nii

Three surrealists: Terrance Lindall, Bryan Kent Ward, and the only Filipino in the show’s international cast of 60 visual artists, Ben Banez of Davao

Multi-awarded New York citizen Yuko Nii speaks to audience

Olek’s models in surreal fashion caused a sensation during the ball

Artist Troy Frantz with two Italian beauties

Artwork by Jesse Forgione

Cutting-edge dancer Yana Schnitzler performs before the impressive mural of Joe Catuccio

John Milton’s head held up by its sculptor Arthur Kirmss, solicited antagonistic remarks and, consequently, an email protest campaign among purists because the head allegedly looked like Milton’s nemesis, King Charles.

If you know Captain Marvel, you also ought to know his creator, Rich Buckler, who made Milton’s portrait for the 21st century, a la Mona Lisa, and unraveled during the ball.

John Milton and Paradise Lost

Blind Man Achieves Immortality

(Second of a Three-Part Series)

By Phillip Somozo

Davao Surreal Artist features in New York Exhibit celebrating John Milton and Paradise Lost

Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo* were the first Filipino visual artists to achieve international recognition by virtue of their winning gold and silver medals, respectively, in international painting competitions in 19th century Europe, during years when Modernism was still swelling as a wave to eventually sweep the world. Luna, especially, did it as a form of propaganda disclosing imperialist Spain’s unjust treatment of its then colony, Las Islas Filipinas. Unknown to these two Philippine art icons, a trail of artist followers would form behind them a century later, in terms of desiring to be recognized internationally, this time as a way out of the  difficult artist condition (whose condition is easy anyway?) in the Philippines. As result, a number of contemporary pinoy painters are now represented by established galleries in some of the world’s art centers. Whether they are financially better off now and happier is, of course, another question.

Bienvenido Bones Banez is a surrealist artist from Davao City who is not after monetary rewards in his artistic pursuits, but is definitely happier since he based himself in New York because he is experiencing acceptance and recognition of his talent. Now, he is posed to enter the portals of art history as the only Filipino invited to exhibit work in what is projected to be the grandest-ever celebration honoring the blind man-turned-literary immortal John Milton and his classic masterpiece, Paradise Lost. Banez’s participation is more significant in that of the more than 60 visual artists from all over the world, who will display work, he is one of only three who are distinguished as featured.

In his emailed letter to this writer, WAH Center President and Executive Director Terrance Lindall announced that Bienvenido Bones Banez has been named a “Featured Artist” in the Paradise Lost show in September 27-November 2, 2008, at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in Brooklyn, NYC, USA, along with two other outstanding artists, Kris Kuksi and Rich Buckler. Terrance said of Ben (Banez’s nickname):

“I know of no artist whose work so sincerely expresses his heart felt belief and knowledge that we live in a Satanic time. Ben calls this his ‘666 World.’ He sees humans as possessing the ability to make a Paradise on Earth and yet devoting their energies for wealth, power, and self gratification at the expense of their fellow beings. It is a contradiction to pursue selfish interests for one’s own satisfaction by creating misery for one’s neighbor. No lasting satisfaction can ultimately come from it. Ben is right in that Satan surely has the world in his clutches while encouraging nations and individuals to dominate one another for wealth and resources. Until another Jesus or Ghandi appears to lead us to the light, we are in dark times and dire straits. One should look deeply into Ben’s paintings to see what we have become and are becoming in this ‘666 World’. True poets and artists must be called upon to sound the alarm. Ben has answered the call!

“He paints as if he is plugged into a wall socket and the energy that pours forth through his brain and fingertips to the canvas comes out in pulses of scintillating colors,” addsLindall.

Kris Kuksi is one of the most highly regarded artists in the contemporary surreal/visionary movement. His work is in the collection of Chris Weitz, Director of the movie, The Golden Compass, based upon Philip Pullman’s book and grounded in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Richard “Rich” Buckler is an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s. He will be producing a portrait of John Milton for the 21st century, unveiling of which will be at the Costume Ball.

Of the participating performing artists, Polish surrealist fashion designer Olek, herself a stunning beauty, will be of particular interest to beholders of the absurdly beautiful as she unravels her latest unique creation with her company of models parading, preening and posing throughout all three floors of the exhibit venue during the ball (see sample photo of her 2003 debut also at WAH Center). Another is playwright/musician/composer Peter Dizozza, described as an “incredibly unique talent,” who will present his musical mystery play “Paradise Found!”

Other performing artists are scheduled intermittently to grace the celebration all the way to November 2: the jazz bar-favorite JC Hopkins Biggish Swing Band; Yana Schnitzler with Human Kinetics Movement Arts—a “mesmerizing”, interactive, cutting-edge dance group; a band of musicians led by Arthur Kirmss dressed in 17th century costume belting out Baroque tunes; and poet S. David as tour guide.

The historical exhibit includes Miltonia; a handwritten Torah scroll of the Book of Genesis— approximately 300 to 400 years old, original copies of Paradise Lost; old woodcuts and engravings; and Royal British memorabilia.

Entrance ticket to the ball is very affordable at $40 for art and entertainment that could go into the annals of history.

*Simon Flores y de la Rosa was reported by the Ayala Museum as having won silver award in the Philadelphia Universal Exposition in 1876, several years earlier than Luna and Hidalgo earned their medals; thus, accordingly, should be credited as the first Filipino artist to receive international recognition.

(Watch out for the concluding Third Part of this series after the grand costume ball in September 28!)

Blind Man Achieves Immortality

(First of a Three-Part Series)

By Phillip Somozo

When British Renaissance poet John Milton wrote what is considered as the greatest poem in the English language, he was a frustrated political/religious writer and financially distraught. Worse, he had become blind. He retreated to a silent life and dictated Paradise Lost to a sympathetic acquaintance who wrote it down (Braille was not born yet) for him.

Milton’s epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden then went through history as the classic, literary masterpiece of the meta-narrative from which three of the world’s foremost religious traditions originate: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The notion of Original Sin is, thus, consequently embedded, this time with a poetic twist, in the modern Judeo-Christian psyche. The world, as we now know it, evolved not without a tug-of-war between the God-fearing and the non-believers.

Milton, despite his surliness and heretical religious views, became an icon representing the poet stepping into divine realms, joining visual artist Michelangelo before him and ancient philosopher Socrates, also blind, who must have found himself in interesting if not temperamental company.

Starting September 27, present year, what could be the grandest celebration of Milton’s birthday is going to be held categorically neither by the God-fearing nor the non-believers. John Milton’s 400th birth anniversary celebration will be opened with a grand costume ball by international surreal artists, musicians/composers, poets, fashion models and other stage performers who, for more than a month, will showcase talent and work.

Consider these: over sixty visual artists from all over the globe will display works; a Miltonia historical exhibit; a stunning Polish female artist with her bevy of beautiful fashion models will materialize from dream to reality what surreal fashion is; a jazz band doing what they do best in some of the finest bars; and a cutting-edge dance troupe. Good food and drinks too are to be served. Even the possibility of traffic jams on the road going to the venue is foresighted. If you get caught in one, you would not mind taking a look at the show’s advertisement in full-color Passport magazine you had earlier received from a band of professional models who distributed the publication to train passengers for free!

That the event is going to happen in Brooklyn, New York City, should interest Filipino readers not because we are the first, and for long the only, Christian country in Asia, and also the first to be Westernized culturally (350 years inside the convent and 45 in Hollywood, remember?), but because one of the three main featured artists is a Filipino—a surrealist from Davao. Why? Because his presence among the world’s best known living surrealists to honor the immortalized blind poet is testament to the Filipino artist’s universality. But this means nothing if the event organizer, the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, along with the people behind it, is not credible enough.

The WAH Center

The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, non-profit, has been described as the epicenter of Brooklyn’s largest artist community: Williamsburg. Its 3-storey, 19th century edifice used to play significant role in America’s financial success as a county savings bank during a time when hostility between the musket-firing US Army and insubordinate, tomahawk-wielding natives had ebbed. A touch of ingenuity from WAH Center founder Yuko Nii, from 1996 onwards, transformed it into a cultural dynamo and one of NYC’s landmark buildings as declared by the City Council in 2007, preserving it forever, hopefully, from the ravages of development.

Yuko Nii, acclaimed artist and philanthropist of Japanese descent, herself, is a beloved daughter of New York State, having been distinguished as one of 1997’s Women of the Year awardees. Her awards did not begin and end there: Betty Smith Arts Award, Outstanding Citizen Award, Asian Cultural Award…include the credentials she had accumulated, and this page would easily fill; it is, therefore, for the interested reader to surf in the web. Suffice it to say that she had once been described by NY Governor George Pataki as “Woman of Excellence with Vision and Courage.” She is presently WAH Center’s Artistic Director.
Official Brooklyn Historian John Manbeck said in an article: “Art in Williamsburg has made great strides. In fact, all Williamsburg has progressed, undoubtedly because of its attraction to artists. Much of the credit must be placed on the doorstep of the director of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Yuko Nii.” The City Council of New York believes in and trusts her enough that it infused the WAH Center a $500,000 capital funding grant.
Reciprocating Nii’s vision and courage is the brilliant and steady leadership of President and Executive Director Terrance Lindall, philosopher, poet, writer, events organizer, and artist. Lindall seems to excel in all his endeavors.  As student of philosophy he graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in 1970; as artist, his modern illustrations for Paradise Lost are today the best known, excepting those of William Blake and Gustave Dore. As leader, he organized in 2003 the largest-ever surrealist show in history. The Brave Destiny, as it was called, gathered almost 500 surrealists from all over the globe, converging in WAH Center, declaring to all dreamers, realists, and abstractionists that Surrealism is very much alive!

Now, WAH Center’s 400th birthday celebration of John Milton and Paradise Lost, with Lindall as Show Director, promises to join the annals of history as Milton’s grandest. The blind immortal has something to thank Lindall for. Surrealism founder Andre Breton, too, now has a successor who is perpetuating the movement beyond the 20th century. So felt is Lindall’s influence in the art world that he was included in the Marquis list of Who’s Who in America 2006. Information about him can also be found in the Smithsonian Institute Library. The original Lindall Paradise Lost illustrations are in the collection of the Yuko Nii Foundation and will also be displayed during the exhibit.

(To be continued, featuring Davao Surrealist Ben Banez…)

“With courage follow the promise of Destiny!”

BRAVE DESTINY, From the Eye of the Hurricane

by Terrance Lindall

Photos by Joel Simpson & Associates

The Brave Destiny show at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (WAH Center) was the world’s largest show of living surrealist artists the world has ever seen. It also boasted the first international Grand Surrealist Ball in the United States, in the tradition of Surrealist balls put on by the Baroness de Rothschild in Europe up until the death of Dali. Many people, including European nobility, flew in from around the world for our one night event, clogging and stopping traffic crossing the bridge from Manhattan, demonstrating the scope of today’s surrealism and its attraction.

From the beginning, artists were desperate to be part of the Brave Destiny show. I was even threatened by a local Brooklyn gang whose members wanted to have work in the show. In the end the show was so successful that some left out artists threatened to burn the show down and drown the participants because it “misrepresented surrealism.” That

is, I failed to include them. Their way of participating in the show and achieving some publicity was to offer this provocation. I should have thought of it myself!

This was not merely a fine art show. We had programmed theater, film, fashion, music and more. None have ever seen a show of such magnitude in this genre before. Many artists were chagrined that among the deluge of art their work would not stand out. This is true. Most of the art was so high class that nobody’s work stood out as the best. All the great artists were submerged in a vortex of other great art. This was not an art show, it was a “happening.”

Most of the feedback I received during and after the show was that the art, theater, fashion, etc. was fantastic and over the top. The fashion show was such a success that people could not get up the stairs to see it.

Clips of video from the Brave Destiny show, not of our making, were subsequently seen on NY1, Channel 56 (Arts & Culture) and MTV television. We had reviews in Block Magazine, and ANNA, a major Russian culture magazine. We were mentioned in Russian papers, Polish papers, Japanese papers and many other newspapers in many languages around the country and the world. The New York art world, being a bastion of post-modern anti-surrealism ignored us. However, last year one of the world’s premier Art & Antiques magazines featured us. Imagine that…three years later, we were still getting attention!

For years the surrealist art movement had been obscure and languishing, and many of the artists who entered the show thought they were working in isolation, and that there were no other artists working in the genre. They eventually heard about how big it was through our Brave Destiny efforts.

THE WILLIAMSBURG ART & HISTORICAL CENTER, THE VENUE

As you entered the building the lighted facade of Dorchester sandstone with it’s magnificent French Empire portico greeted the expectant guests. This great building is on the National Register of Historic Places and was the 7th building in New York City to be named a landmark. Within it’s mythic framework, nearly 500 artists from all across the United States and Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America, Asia, Russia, The Middle East and Africa came together at the place that Time Out Magazine called  “ the epicenter of the Williamsburg

artists Mecca!” Now understand that Williamsburg Brooklyn, at the time, was the trendiest neighborhood in the world, made so by artists. And this show was created by artists for artists. No major museum could put on such a show. Yes, they can get the same artists to send work. But it would not have “the vibe.” Brave Destiny was “it.” The cat’s pajamas!

HOW THE SHOW CAME ABOUT

Back in 2002, Olga Spiegel called me and said that Brigid Marlin, of whom I had never heard, was looking for a space in New York to have a large art show. She and Brigid came over to discuss the matter. After looking at the Society’s credentials, which showed nominal support of Ernst Fuchs and H.R. Giger, I thought it a good idea. My idea was to have the society show their artists and that the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center would solicit additional artists. I immediately put my ideas into play and put out an open call for the show. The response was tremendous. The number of entries exceeded expectations and I was forced to turn away many artists who were of high caliber. At the time I was envisioning a second show to accommodate them. I had a number of meetings with the British, including Brigid, Michel, Ann Ostereich, Inigo Swann, Olga Spiegel, Linda Chido and others. Brigid took us to the Harvard Club a couple of times to discuss the show. The  British were busy putting together their incredible touring package that would go from London to Scotland to New York and then Florida. Down in Australia, Damian Michaels was in the midst of a ten museum traveling show of surreal/visionary artists too.

PREPARATIONS

The WAH Center was not really prepared for such a great show and we had to move furniture, build walls, and do a massive job, which you can see in the documentary movies at the World Premier in November 2007. You have to imagine about 400 packages arriving from all corners of the globe to the art center, unpacking them, arranging them and hanging them. Fortunately the British handled their own 100 plus artists, overseen by Linda Chido, “an angel in the wings.” To honor her, I believe she was named “vice chairman” of the American branch of the Society for Art of the Imagination for a while.

We had printed 7000 invitations for the show. It was a large poster showing many of the artists works in a photomontage. I thought to please Brigid by using one of her works to represent the Surrealist ball in the poster and the same image on the ticket to the ball. The mailing was a whopping half-ton, which Yuko and I had personally labeled with addresses and stamped. It was a massive effort itself preparing the mailing. The day came to take it to the post office, and as I was driving across the Williamsburg Bridge my engine overheated and froze and we had to coast to a stop on the other side of the bridge. Yuko went back by subway to get her car. We reloaded the half-ton into her car and drove to the post office. When we got there, they told us that the mailing was not sorted correctly, so we spent another four hours on the floor of the post office repackaging the half-ton. We did it! WITH COURAGE FOLLOW THE PROMISE OF DESTINY!!!

THE RECEPTION AND THE BALL

I had decided to let the artists in free to the reception, but insisted that guests pay $10 to enter the reception. This angered many artists because it is almost a necessary tradition that art receptions are free to attend. I had to point out that if it were free, ten thousand people from Williamsburg would show up and the artists themselves would not be able to get in because of the crowd. The $10 fee was a crowd control measure. After explaining, the artists understood. Nevertheless, we were jammed with people, as you will see in the documentary movie. The

reception was its own sensation with all of the artists hanging around the building. Yuko Nii, the Founder and Artistic Director of the Art Center with myself, Madam Dollhaus (who created one of the great living installations) and her cohort “pretty poison” were at the door greeting guests. Nicole Pilar, another “living installation,” created a sensation for the press and  photographers, running around naked except for body paint and mosses. At the door, Nicole was able to walk around, go to a local restaurant for coffee and generally raise hell without

getting arrested. That’s the Williamsburg art community! Outrageous art happenings everywhere! I was reminded of my Charles Gatewood show where the subway train engineers slammed on the brakes to watch “the naked and tattooed” marching across the Williamsburg Bridge to the opening reception at our building. For that event we had a man swinging weights from a ring piercing his tongue, among other things…and of course, pretty girls in chain mail bikinis.

Around 800 people attended the opening reception, which is pretty good. I know the numbers because we counted the tickets sold at the door. We also charged for drinks, and served some food. By the end of the reception the servers were totally exhausted and yet had to look forward to a second shift at the ball from 8 to midnight. At 6 PM sharp we closed the doors and ordered out for Chinese food, and we all had a quiet dinner together while abroad. throughout New York, guests were preparing for the ball.

THE GRAND SURREALIST COSTIME BALL

Steve Hindy, the president of Brooklyn Brewery, had contributed cases and cases of his best beer, and the WAH Center purchase cases of wine. Food had been contributed by local restaurants. We were ready!

Although we were inside of the building attending to the guests, a local writer Alex Padalka of Block magazine noted that traffic was blocked up coming down Broadway because “ a bunch of loonies in costume were getting out of limousines…”

“Hey what is this?”  a cabbie yelled, “…a lunatic convention?”

Yes it was! A lunatic convention! At the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center. In Williamsburg, the “largest and trendiest artist neighborhood in the world.” The neighborhood has evolved from a run down crime ridden ghetto twelve years ago to an upscale Yuppie ‘hood with luxury condos selling from a million dollars on up. Some blame us. That’s what happens when artists move in. Prices go up and the artists cannot afford it any more and move out. The lawyers move in.

On the first floor the entertainment was ballroom music from the 1940’s, played on my old record player. The bar was lit with the charming 1950’s lamps so famous at the WAH, and the main floor lit by the original gas chandeliers from the mid 19th century in a room whose ornate woodwork takes you back to a time of wealth and elegance when JP Morgan, Fiske and the wealthiest barons of industry of the 19th century banked in this very building.  Truly, this building, built like a millionaires mansion, was made for a major international gala such as this. I was told that they had grand balls in our building in the 19th century with gold serving dishes. They were the Masons. Our building’s transom bears the emblems of the Mason’s, architectural devices.

I, as the creator of Brave Destiny, stood at the door greeting guests as they thronged in from 8 P.M. on. Many who decided to come to the ball at the last minute formed a crush to buy tickets as our dear Enze, the volunteer ticket seller, worked hard to supply the eager crowd.

Amidst the honored guests came the contingent from England: the Baron of Fulwood (major financial backer) in his Scottish Kilt with the Baroness and his daughter, Le Vicomte de St. Ouen with his flowing white leonine hair, Brigid Marlin in her peacock gown, her brother John and his wife Alice Tepper Marlin, Ann Osterich, the benefactor of the British artists, and then came the hundreds of ticket holders. There were also representatives from various publishers and foundations. We even noted a curator from the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the reception earlier, so we knew we had done a great job at promotion.

Throughout the second floor amidst the outstanding art shipped from the Baron’s castle in Scotland, were motion sculptures by Claire Elizabeth Barrat. These sculptures were in fact beautiful, barely clad ladies painted totally red, green, brown and blue. They moved slowly and gracefully through the galleries. Throughout the building, costumed revelers representing birds, sailing ships, the Mad Hatter, ghouls, vampires, and more hailed from every corner of the globe including Zimbabwe, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and all over Europe and the United States…all flying in especially for this glorious evening of festivities.

In the basement was the living installation by and of Nicole Pillar. As previously noted, she was wearing only her white body paint and living mosses attached in various places on her skin and was surrounded by vines, grasping her and holding her fast amidst sparking star-like lights and accompanied by a dreamlike combination of music and whispered conversations which exuded from the walls around her. Her incredible installation was a vision reminiscent of Jean Cocteau’s film Beauty and the Beast. But this was not a two dimensional movie. Here you could become part of this eerie incredible dreamscape. Guests came back time and again to see her. Clearly this was a prize-winning installation and the prize committee from London concurred, giving her one of the top prizes.

The first floor grand reception hall spread an array of art across the main wall that few museums can equal. Here the Birth Machine Baby sculpture by H.R. Giger greeted guests, and the mysterious Egyptian monolith of Kamecke awaited the dawn of the new age of empire and ancient wisdom. Giger’s work seemed to me to symbolize the concept of Brave Destiny more than any other work: A precocious child looking through strange instruments at the future. Great art emblazoned the wall from the magnificent work of Mariu Suarez’s winged angel bestowing a rainbow of bounty upon the world to Geraldo Alfonso Piquera’s tour de force of strange creatures floating in balloons over an even stranger landscape, again a top prizewinner. And of course, America’s Kris Kuksi had a magnificent painting on that special wall. Yuko herself had worked with James Saunders and Gerard Barbot, artists in the show, to set up that wall. Yuko being very exacting measured precisely each area and placed them precisely where they should be.

On the third floor in a special room was the mad installation by Madam Dollhaus representing a demented salon of the dead Queens of England, most notably the ones Henry the VIII dallied with much to their misfortune. One wore a diamond collar around her neck to hide the scar where her head had been chopped off. The third floor main room justifiably received some criticism form the artists. The paintings were hung in salon style close together, many high up on the walls where they were difficult to view, and the lighting was poor. The art center, being relatively new and with never enough funding was never able to afford museum lighting up to that time. The quality of the art was nevertheless fantastic. I wanted to show the world how many great artists were out there and that is why we had so many artists represented in so little space (10,000 square feet).

During the ball, unknown to the revelers, group of actors shot a scene from a vampire detective film. Also the mysterious Yuma with her mystic musicians created a sensation, and Kathleen Lazziza from the Micro Museum did an electrifying light performance. Later in the evening Vietnamese choreographer John Nguyen, accompanied by two others, performed a beautiful and charming dance amidst the silvery balloon sculptures of French artist Fabrice Covelli.

As the evening of reveling proceeded the joyous crowd chatted with zest, lubricated by drinks, and swirled like snowflakes in a storm…colorful, incredible, a world of fantasy and exotic pleasure. Cameras flashed, New York 1 Television paraded through as well as the documentary artist Ted Stauber and his exotically appointed interviewer, a svelte young barely clad Japanese lady with chrome breast cups and an exotic mask. Entered also our own local writers and publishers Alex Padalka of Block magazine and Breuk Iverson of 11211 Magazine. Breuk had tattooed half his face for the event looking as if a mad Amazon had cornered him and had at him with thorn and ink. This was a party made for trendy Williamsburg, a once in a life time event, the largest art show Williamsburg will probably ever see with so many world famous names and such outstanding art. To be in Williamsburg as an artist and to miss this event is unthinkable. This was the “Woodstock” of art shows! And I can remember now …over there the poor girls at the bar were totally overwhelmed and exhausted by the crush.

And Yuko, recognizing their plight, stepped in to help out. By the end of the evening the servers eyes were glazed and they were clearly numbed. A noble sacrifice to a grand evening of pleasured guests!

The great occasion of giving out prizes had finally arrived and the crowd cheered as each name was read. There were a lot of happy artists that evening, and perhaps a few disappointed ones.

At the end of the evening I sat on the couch surveying the crowd and savoring what was for me a perfect evening. Believe me, getting to that point there were many problems, conflicts and mishaps. That everything went so smoothly at the ball was because we paid for it in hard work and tenacity.

Yes, this was indeed the great culmination to a year of focused promotion and a lot of hard work by many of the artists themselves who labored endlessly before the show to put up extra walls and transform the space to make room for the art. Congratulations to Brigid Marlin, Michel, Yuko Nii, and to all for having created an art show by and for artists, a show that promised to be “the like of which has not been seen before” A promise kept!

THE FULL MEANING OF THE BRAVE DESTINY SHOW

In 2006, the show, unlike many others that come and go around the world, continued to be written about and discussed as part of art history, and was covered in an article I was commissioned to write for Art & Antiques Magazine, the world’s largest and most prestigious Art & Antiques Magazine. The article I wrote was too short to mention the many types of surrealist activities around the world and the many artists in the show. With this article, exclusively written for Jon Beinart, I reveal many new facts. However, I continue to expound on the subject, and still have much to write.

THE PROOF IS IN THE PICTURES: BRAVE DESTINY THE MOVIE!

Down through the years shows have come and gone. Some became legendary, but with little visual evidence. Brave Destiny is different. Since I knew that the show was of historical importance, it was documented extensively in photos and in video. In fact, during the ball we had 5 video cameras going. Being too busy until now, I have waited to look them over. Surprise! They are terrific. About 50 hours of video, covering the setup, the ball, the fashion show, the ballet and more.

WORLD PREMIER

The WORLD PREMIER release of the documentary movie is scheduled for November, 2007. It will have cocktails, a buffet dinner and the film showing, where it all happened – the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, USA.

The film covers the opening reception, the ball, and has a separate trailer film showing behind the scenes on the work by the artists in putting together this colossal show.

The ball footage features original musical compositions by the WAH Center’s own theater director and surrealist composer Peter Dizozza. There is also great footage of the actual art n the walls!

I put up a few minutes of the movie on Youtube for everyone to see

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

For information on the event, email us at [email protected]

or visit The Brave Destiny web page

A List of artists:

Society of Art of the Imagination Artists:

• Bong Abad
• Michael Alan-Kidd
• Iain Andrews
• John Andrews
• Jane Andrews
• Richard Atkinson-Willes
• Claire Auvache
• Donna Balma
• Mitch Barrett
• Paul Beard
• Holly Bennett
• Rosie Birtwhistle
• Delfina Bottesni
• Bhat Boy
• Julian Brain
• Philip Bouchard
• Kate Bradbury
• David Brooke
• Patricia Buckley
• Mark Burrell
• Huw Campbell
• Rosemary Carson
• Luis Ceballos
• Michael Cheval
• Linda Chido
• Michele Clare
• Daisy Clarke
• Coni
• Jeremy Cotteridge
• Kiniko Y. Craft
• Edwin Cripps
• Nick Cudworth
• Joan Danziger
• Michel de Saint Ouen
• Romaine Dennistoun
• Dimitrov
• Alexander Donskoi
• Dusa Erak
• Keith English
• Eike Erzmoneit
• Kate Eggleston-Wirtz
• Julia Finzel
• Kathleen Fox
• Daniel Freidemann
• Prof. Ernst Fuchs
• Michael Fuchs
• Linda Garland
• Roger Garland
• Seth Garland
• Valentin Georgiev
• H.R. Giger
• Artur Golacki
• Andrew Gonzalez
• Toby Goodshank
• Cassandra Gordon-Harris
• Wolfgang Grasse
• Alice Gutleben
• Elisa Halvegard
• William B. Hand
• Brendan Hansbro
• Carol Harrington
• Susan Harper
• Darrell Harrison
• Naoto Hattori
• Edwin Hedge
• Martin Herbert
• Raya Herrzig
• Diana Hesketh
• Erik Heyninck
• Hikaru
• Frank Hill
• Martina Hoffmann
• Nick Hook
• Sean Hopp
• Richard Huck
• Dr. Peter Hutter
• Boris Ivanov
• Brian James
• Mark Jephcott
• M. Jennings
• Pauline Jones
• Martin Jordan
• Journeyboy
• Lukas Kandl
• Rita Kearton
• Jonah Kinigstein
• John Klima
• Deborah Koff-Chapin
• David Kossoff
• Karin Kuhlmann
• William Lai
• James Lancaster
• Franz Landl
• Pascal Lecocq
• Dina Lenkovic
• Melrav Leshem
• Terrance Lindall
• Laurie Lipton
• Jan Machalek
• Brigid Marlin
• Sheila Marlin
• John McGill
• Eve Merkado
• Damian Michaels
• Brad Moore
• Yuko Nii
• Sheila Nursten
• Ed Org
• Mary Orrom
• Neil Owen
• Ria Parfitt
• Bryan Parkes
• Brian Partridge
• Donald Pass
• Silvia Pastore
• Jill Perry
• Adam Pinson
• Isabelle Plantee
• Pooch
• Gail Potocki
• Margot Procknow
• Finlay Ralph
• Philip Rawlings
• Cynthia Re-Robbins
• Jenny Reynish
• Philip Rubinov-Jacobson
• Erica Roch
• Peter Rodulpho
• Elena Sanders
• Neville Sattentau
• Kenny Scharf
• De Es Schwertberger
• Dan Seagrave
• Adrienne Seed
• Frances Segelman
• Alan Senior
• Joannah Shaw
• Steve Snell
• Olga Spiegel
• Carol Spicuzza
• Sandra Stanton
• Clancy Steer
• Prof. Otto
• Ingo Swann
• Evelyn Taylor
• Cecile Tissot
• Christophe Vacher
• Roberto Venosa
• Joanna Voit
• Vonn Stropp
• Josephine Wall
• Sharyne Walker
• Catharyne Ward
• David Whitfield
• Eric Wright
• Dmitry Yakovin

Other Participating Artists:

• Isaac Abrams
• Raphael Abrams
• Antanas Adomaitas
• Gerardo Alfonso
• Hawk Alfredson
• Alpyne
• Esther Amini-Krawitz
• Amy Kollar Anderson
• Antonia
• Humberto Aquino
• Yoshiaki Asai
• Stephen Auslender
• Axel
• La Thoriel Badenhausen
• Bienvenido Bones Bañez, Jr.
• C Bangs
• Gerard Barbot
• Olg Barmazi
• Robert S. Beal
• Chad Eric Beatty
• Alan F. Beck
• Itzhak Ben-Arieh
• Jeff Berman
• Jennifer Bernard
• Deborah Bigeleisen
• Nicole Boitos
• Disney Nasa Borg
• Harold Brammer
• Anne Brown
• Orin Buck
• Helene Burke
• Ken Byler
• Gulsen Calik
• Joe Catuccio
• Merrilee Challiss
• Carolyn Chaperon
• Chaval
• Michael Cheval
• Linda Chido
• Irene Christensen
• Linda K. Christensen
• Ione Citrin
• Lisa Maurice Cole
• Diana Comstock
• Ed Coppola
• Christian Correra
• Christin Couture
• Fabrice Covelli
• Amelia Craigen
• Morrie Cramer
• Scott L. Cranmer
• Mair Wyn Cratchley
• Joan Criswell
• Jeff Daiss
• Christina Dallas
• Denny Daniels
• Clinton Deckert
• Pablo Delano
• Deena des Rioux
• Stephen Dickens
• Lawrence E. Doben
• Madame Dollhaus
• Mary Doyle
• W.S. Duncan
• Christopher Dunne
• Eric Edelman
• Sheila Ernst-Bifano
• Kim Evans
• Solomon Fagan
• Bethany Jean Fancher
• Ailene Fields
• Marc Fishman
• Milton Fletcher
• Jerome Forsans
• Erik Foss
• Andre Freitas
• Chawky Frenn
• Christine Frieb
• France Garrido
• Christopher Gendron
• Damian Gerndt
• Yanusz Gilewicz
• Kevin Gillespie
• Ken Goar
• Carlo Grassini
• Esther Grillo
• Scott Grimando
• Jessica Grindstaff
• Torrie Groening
• Michail Gubin
• Alejandro Guzman
• Joan Hall
• William B. Hand
• Daniel Hanequand
• Mia Hanson
• Richard Harper
• Jim Harter
• Jim Hayes
• Colleen Healy
• James Hendricks
• David R. Hill
• Scott Hinrichs
• David Hochbaum
• Virginia Hoge
• Maura Holden
• Jesse Holt
• Sean Hopp
• Ric Hornor
• Eric J. Hovde
• Sheryl Humphrey
• Fumie Ishii
• Boris Ivanov
• John John Jesse
• Jena Jones
• Charles Johnson
• Eric Johnson
• Laura Lee Junge
• Sam Jungkurth
• David Kaelin
• Theo Kamecke
• Stephen Kasner
• Joshua Katcher
• Ryohga Katsuma
• Marjorie Kaye
• Mildred Kaye
• Daniel Kelly
• Insun Kim
• Arthur Kirmss
• Sol. Kjok
• Chris Klapper
• Robert Kleinschmidt
• Viktor Koen
• Paul Komoda
• Kristina Kozak
• Jenny Krasner
• Michael Krinski
• Kris Kuksi
• Andre Lassen
• Micki LeMieux
• Sergio Lepore
• Ariel Leshem
• Meirav Leshem
• Ellen Levitt
• Estelle Levy
• Scott Lewis
• Alexandra Limpert
• Travis Lindquist
• Linda Lippa
• Barbara Listenik
• Liz-n-Val
• Graham Lloyd
• Stephen Lombardi
• C. J. Lori
• Travis A. Louie
• Emma Louise
• Thom Lynch
• Antoinette Maclachlan
• Gayle Madeira
• Lynda Mahan
• Drew Maillard
• Greg Maillard
• Monika Malewska
• Tatiana Mamaeva
• Louis Markoya
• Loren Marks
• Terry Marks
• Marrus
• Chris Mar
• Anthony Martinez
• Catherine May
• Kike Mayer
• Laura McCabe
• Eric Merola
• Richard Meyer
• Damian Michaels
• Timothy Mietty
• Jessica Monsour
• Anwar Montasir
• Richard Montemurro
• Joel Moore
• Masao Morimoto
• Richard R. Morrison
• Charles E. Morrow
• Bruce Morse
• Adrienne Moumin
• Chris Murray
• Lee Muslin
• Faridun Negmat-Zada
• Mary Nash
• Judy Nienow
• Chris O’Brien
• Amy O’Connell
• Pablar
• Kate Papanikolaou
• Dana Parlier
• Delorme Patrick
• Steven Peabody
• Eric Pederson
• Juliette Pelletier
• Debra Petitti
• Timothy D. Petrinec
• Tracy Phillips
• Nicole Pilar
• Pooch
• J.K. Potte
• Carol Quint
• Dean Radinovsky
• Lana Rayberg
• Aleksandr Razin
• Michael Rich
• Bruce Riley
• Cynthia Re Robbins
• Natasha von Rosenschilde
• Mark Rowley
• Farah Salehi
• Nancy Saleme
• Nancy Sanders
• John Santerineross
• James Saunders
• Valerie Schadt
• Tristan Schane
• Elly Scheblanov
• Franciso Schklowsky
• Thomas Martin Schurr
• Anna Sea
• Benjamin Sears
• Alex Shabatinas
• Tasneem Shahzad
• Gail Shamchenko
• Patricia Shaw
• Aaron Shipps
• Robert E. Sholties
• Seppo Simila
• Joel Simpson
• Jaswant Singh
• Rebecca Skelton
• Tim Slowinski
• Adam Smith
• Linda Smith
• S.N.A.F.U.
• S.R. Sopha
• Stephen Soreff
• Olga Spiegel
• Gary Spradling
• Sandra Stanton
• Nigia Stephens
• Mariu Suarez
• Jami Taback
• Heidi Taillefer
• Hanayo Takai
• Peter Teraberry
• Ruth Terrill
• Michael Anthony Thomas
• Miguel Tio
• Charles Tisa
• Fulvio Tomasi
• Yuko Tonohira
• Alessandra Torres
• Cynthia Lund Torroll
• Dan Trocchio
• Pawel Trocha
• Rick Turner
• Matt Turov
• Yelena Tylkina
• David Ull (Eleftheriou)
• Karl Unnasch
• Nocien Uskaem’u
• Jay Van Houton
• Brian M. Viveros
• Voke
• Milan Vujosevic
• Sharyne E. Walker
• John Neal Wallace
• Caroline Waloski
• Bryan Kent Ward
• Alyson Weege
• Carolyn Weltman
• Richard Willhardt
• Mia Wolff
• Katharine S. Wood
• Michael Worthington
• Miwa Yagi
• Dmitry Yakovin
• Riichi Yamaguchi
• Marc A. Yannarelli
• David Young
• Yuma
• Ling Y. Zhang
• Victor Zinuhov
• Zbigniew Zolkowski
• Zen

Awards

Cash Prizes:

Choix des Juges:

• Jan Machalek
• Gail Potocki
• Carol Quint
• Ingo Swann

Prix d’excellence – Premier Cru:

• Gerardo Alfonso
• Eike Eirzomeit
• Terrance Lindall
• Nicole Pilar

Prix d’excellence:

• Alpyne
• Antanas Adomaitas
• Alejandro Guzman
• Laurie Lee Junge
• Kiniko Kraft
• Michael Krinski
• Travis A. Louie
• Tristan Schane
• Evelyn Taylor
• Madeline von Foerster
  

Outstanding contribution to Imaginative  Art:

• Cynthia Re Robbins
• Olga Spiegel

Achievement in Surealist/Visonary/Fantasic  Art:

• Emma Loise (Madam Dollhaus)
• Zen
• Dana Parlier
• James Saunders
• Kevin Gillespie

Awards of merit:

• Orin Buck
• Chad Beatty
• Hawk Alfredson
• Humberto Aquino
• Gerard Barbot
• Linda Chido
• Jeff Daiss
• Christina Dallas
• John John Jesse
• Theo Kamecke
• Kris Kuksi
• Olga Spiegle
• Gary Spradling
• Ling Zhang

The Brave Destiny show at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (WAH Center) was the world’s largest show of living surrealist artists the world has ever seen. It also held the first international Grand Surrealist Ball in the United States, in the tradition of Surrealist balls put on by the Baroness de Rothschild in Europe up until the death of Dali. Many people, including European nobility, flew in from around the world for the one night event.

Imagine five floors of art of the finest international surrealist/visionaries in a French empire mansion in the world’s trendiest artists neighborhood – filled with magnificent art from catacombs to attic by nearly 500 artists! Add on a month of incredible living installations, dance, theater, a fashion show, ballet, and film. An extravaganza never likely to be equaled. This is the documentary.

WORLD PREMIER release of the documentary November, 2007. Cocktails, buffet dinner and film showing, where it all happened – the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, USA.

The film covers the opening reception, the ball, and has a separate trailer film showing behind the scenes on the work by the artists in putting together this colossal show.
The ball footage features original musical compositions by surrealist composer Peter Dizozza.

For information on the event, email us at [email protected]

Visit the Brave Destiny web page at: http://www.wahcenter.net/exhibits/2003/surreal/index.html

Events & Exhibits

“The sole justification for our existence as artists, superfluous and egotistical as we are, is to confront people with the image of their destiny.” — Max Beckmann

“Fidem Fati Virtue Sequemur”
With courage follow the promise of Destiny!

September 20 – November 2, 2003
Special Gallery Hours:
Thurs – Sun, Noon–6 PM
or by appointment

Opening: Saturday Sept. 20, 4 – 6 PM, $10 adm.

“Reason, honor and the limitless bounds of our own imaginations compels us now to do what others can only admire! Unhindered by the mortal flesh, the mind can visit realms which the body cannot. In that we are like Gods. That is our own “brave destiny,” the destiny of art of the imagination! Let us then create a show of this art, the like of which has never been seen before!” — Terrance Lindall on behalf of the Society for Art of the Imagination, June 2002

THE WORLD’S LARGEST SHOW of living artists working today in Surrealism, Surreal/Conceptual, Visionary, Fantastic, Symbolism, Magic Realism, the Vienna School, Neuve Invention, Outsider, Naive, the Macabre, Grotesque and Singulier Art, including: Professor Ernst Fuchs, founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism in the 1940s; H.R. Giger, one of the world’s foremost artists of Fantastic Realism and Academy Award winner for the designs of the title character and its otherworldly environment in the film “Alien;” and many other renowned artists. $5,000 in cash prizes for art guaranteed, plus thousands of dollars in purchase awards.

Many incredible performances and events, including:

SURREALIST FASHION SHOW –
Sunday Oct. 26, 5 PM
see surrealistfashion.net

SURREALIST FILM FESTIVAL
Friday October 3, Saturday October 4

SURREALIST THEATER
“The Marriage at the Statue of Liberty”
by Peter Dizozza (after Jean Cocteau)
Oct. 10-11, 17-18

SURREALIST BUTOH DANCE
Oct. 12, 8 PM

Featured artists and performers:

DISNEY NASA BORG “empassioned to assimilate the techniques, ways of working, and aesthetics of new media and bring these inspirations back into the realm of the physical”

PETER DIZOZZA, Surrealist dramatist, Director of the Royal WAH Theatre, and founding member of Cinema VII Productions presents scenes from his shows “Prepare to Meet Your Maker,” “The Last Dodo,” “The Eleventh Hour” and “The Golf Wars” and introduces a mad new musical comedy “Winning the Futurity!”

MADAME DOLLHAUS Currently Madame is working on five paintings which will be based on great Queens of England, fetishistically adapted and mutilated in great portraiture form.

ERNST FUCHS, Founder of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism in the 1940s

H.R. GIGER, One of the world’s foremost artists of Fantastic Realism, and the Academy Award winner for the designs of the title character and its otherworldly environment in the film “Alien”

TERRANCE LINDALL, Surreal/visionary artist, writer, philosopher, art critic, and President of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center

BRIGID MARLIN, Chairperson of the Society for Art of the Imagination and renowned practitioner and teacher of the Mische Technique

DAMIAN MICHAELS, Visionary artist and publisher of “Artvisionary Magazine”

YUKO NII, Surreal landscapist and Founder & Artistic Director of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center

EMPIRE S.N.A.F.U. RESTORATION PROJECT: Who was S.N.A.F.U.? How will the Empire be rebirthed? Find out in the extensive catacombs beneath the WAH Center

GEORGE TOOKER, One of America’s greatest living surrealists

ROBERT VENOSA, One of America’s greatest living surrealists

KENNY SCHARF
His instantaneously recognized works feature the oddest creatures popping up in the oddest places. He was part of a group along with Keith Herring who rose to prominence in the 1980s.

SALVADOR DALI, art loaned courtesy of Mr. & Mrs. Craig Morrison

And many other internationally renowned stars

Sponsored by the Society for Art of the Imagination. Made possible in part by grants from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Independence Community Foundation and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz

Saturday, September 20th after the Opening Reception: THE GRAND SURREALIST COSTUME BALL 8 P.M. – Midnight Photos of the Ball are now available from Joel Simpson Photography Le Viconte de St. Ouen will open the Brave Destiny exhibit at the ceremony, with Ernst Fuchs honored guest and Brave Leader of the movement. Many world famous artists. Fantastic happenings! Prize for best costume. Winners of cash awards announced. Lifetime achievement honors announced, and more. Great food from the finest restaurants in Williamsburg, a culinary feast at the WAH Center, the institution that Let’s Go Travel Magazine called the “epicenter of the Williamsburg artists Mecca!” Awards Cash Prizes: Choix des Juges: Jan Machalek Gail Potocki Carol Quint Ingo Swann Prix d’excellence – Premier Cru: Gerardo Alfonso Eike Eirzomeit Terrance Lindall Nicole Pilar Prix d’excellence: Alpyne Antanas Adomaitas Alejandro Guzman Laurie Lee Junge Kiniko Kraft Michael Krinski Travis A. Louie Tristan Schane Evelyn Taylor Madeline von Foerster Outstanding contribution to Imaginative Art: Cynthia Re Robbins Olga Spiegel Achievement in Surealist/Visonary/Fantasic Art: Emma Loise (Madam Dollhaus) Zen Dana Parlier James Saunders Kevin Gillespie Awards of merit Orin Buck Chad Beatty Hawk Alfredson Humberto Aquino Gerard Barbot Linda Chido Jeff Daiss Christina Dallas John John Jesse Theo Kamecke Kris Kuksi Olga Spiegle Gary Spradling Ling Zhang
The Brave Destiny show continues citywide The concurrent traveling exhibit Sponsors and Other Affiliated Organizations: Prize Sponsors
Michael Fuchs	Sheryl Humphrey
H.R. Giger

Source: http://www.wahcenter.net/exhibits/2003/surreal/index.html

VISUAL ARTS

The greatest living Filipino surrealist is a Dabawenyo

By Phillip Somozo

Davao surrealist Ben Bañez

The Williamsburg Art and Historical (WAH) Center in Broadway, Brooklyn, New York, is a Mecca for contemporary artists the world over. In September 2004 a Dabawenyo visual artist donated to the center a painting that was pleasingly accepted by the management; after all, they are familiar with Bienvenido “Bones” Bañez Jr. — the only Filipino who qualified to the juried international surrealist show held during the fall of 2003 also at WAH Center. If Ben, as he is commonly known in Davao, were a patsy artist, his donated work would have been refused by the center lest they stake Williamsburg Art and Historical Center’s credibility. But, as circumstances would have it, Ben’s painting “My Warlock Dreams 666,” first exhibited at the Royal Mandaya Hotel, Davao, in 2002, now is a fixture at one of the world’s art Meccas.

October came, a fabulous fashion photographer wanted to make a shoot of Surrealist fashion at the WAH Center. Surrealism through decades, allow me to add, is no longer confined to dream states made tangible through painted canvases but, like a shifting rubic cube, has revealed a multi-faceted mode invading other forms of art __expression like poetry, literature, music, movies and more recently, yes, fashion! A new word describing this all-inclusive quality of surrealism has been coined: PANSURREALISM – surrealism as an everyday fact of life. The fashion photographer, Disney Nasa Borg, himself a professed surreal artist, asked WAH Center President Terrance Lindall for permission to use Ben’s painting as background for the fashion shoot. By authority bestowed on him, Lindall consented with the condition that whenever the photo gets published, the photographer will credit the painter. On top of that, in his letter to Borg, Lindall described Ben Bañez, now known as “Bones” among his artist peers in the US, as “the greatest living surrealist in the Philippines!”

I personally know Ben, he being my colleague in the art group Artisthood. While I respect the guy’s art and craft, I have reservations in becoming party to what may be a presumption that could stir dissenting opinions among beer-guzzling Filipino artists who frequent bars, beerhouses, cafes, folkhouse joints, and even sanatoriums from Davao to Manila to Baguio. Instinctively, I questioned Terrance Lindall’s uncalled-for description of Bañez as the Philippines’ greatest living surrealist. Who is he, in the first place, to speak about Filipino surrealists?

Part of the answer is Williamsburg Art and Historical Center itself for it is an institution flourishing out of art history’s organic topsoil. Its founder, Yuko Nii, was New York’s “Woman of the Year” awardee in 1998. The Time Out magazine described WAH Center as the “epicenter” of the art Mecca that is Williamsburg, Brooklyn – one of New York’s largest artist communities. Since its establishment in 1996, it gained international recognition for serving the general public by presenting art shows and cultural events of special interest.

If WAH Center’s credibility is impressive, Terrance Lindall’s is none the lesser. Described as surrealist/visionary artist, writer, philosopher, art critic, philanthropist, and institution-builder, he peers from his institutional outpost where he guards the cream of Surrealism from going down the cosmic drain. What qualifies him most to do so is his cross-century connivance with John Milton when he incarnated the latter’s “Paradise Lost” through a highly acclaimed illustrated adaptation. If that isn’t enough, add to that his 2003 New International Surrealist Manifesto wherein he coined the earlier-mentioned term Pansurrealism — the latest addition to the free encyclopedia of art styles. This last-mentioned achievement of Lindall’s rightfully puts him in history’s sparsely populated corridor next in line to Surrealism’s political boss – the poet Andre Breton who wrote “Beauty will be convulsive or nothing.”

Breton’s above-mentioned precept is fundamental to Surrealism. Musing on this information, I am jolted by the realization that Bones is in fact closely related by psychological affinity to Milton, Breton, and Lindall! Ben’s major series, born of obsession, is his “Anti-Christ 666:” a morbid depiction of the evil in man – selfishness, greed, cruelty, ignorance. While his figures and colors were excellently crafted, the overall subject matter evokes dread so that the viewer’s mood is swung back and forth between awesome appreciation and horror.

Beautifully convulsive! . . . Bones is one of us! I could almost hear Lindall describe Bones’s Anti-Christ 666 to Breton down the lonesome corridor. Indeed, Ben’s Anti-Christ 666 series stands as a fulfillment – albeit, a monument – to Breton’s beauty being convulsive! Once I asked him why does he amplify the negative features of man in his works when he could instead paint pretty pictures, he answered in his stuttering manner that he is just being “honest” to himself. To the question how he feels about being described as the greatest living Filipino surrealist, Ben humbly replies it is not his own personal claim but Lindall’s, insinuating at the same time that it is Lindall’s responsibility to substantiate it.

While it is but appropriate for Mr. Lindall to put more meat on his claim about Bones, his praises for the Davao artist confirms the perception that homegrown talents of international caliber often first gain recognition from outside his home country. God’s gift to Ben is his visual art. If he does stutter in his struggle to verbalize his thoughts, it is not because he lacked talent but because he is naturally surreal in his perceptions – congenitally surreal that he is. Art enthusiasts are better advised not to listen to his futile verbalizations. Instead, they should take a closer look at his gargantuan body of works. Nestled within the haywire of colors is the true essence of the man: Bones as the universal man who is part you and me, presenting to us a secret image of our own hidden deluded, sinful selves! Probably the reason why many of us ridicule him is because Ben is not a pretender like many of us are. It is remarkable that it had to take a surrealist luminary from New York to see through the cobwebs and find the rare jewel in the man.

Bienvenido “Bones” Bañez Jr. is a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Ford Academy of the Arts in Davao City. For some time he served as associate professor at the Ford Academy and the Philippine Women’s College-Davao. In 2002 he won the Asian Fellowship Painting Competition of the Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA, and had since based himself in the US. Last year he was the lone Filipino who qualified to the world’s largest-ever surrealist exhibition held in WAH Center, Broadway, Brooklyn, New York. Entitled “Brave Destiny,” the juried show was organized by Terrance Lindall himself and gathered 500 surrealists from all over the globe. Brave Destiny was opened to the public with a grand, royal, surrealist costume ball with the Prince of Denmark as one of the special guests (please log-on to www.wahcenter.org). Presently, Ben is in Northern California where he works as art teacher for autistic children. For more of Ben’s art, please log on to www.welcomebonesbanez.cjb.net.

Going back to Terrance Lindall’s authority to pronounce that Bones is the Philippines’s greatest living surrealist, I can only surmise, at best, that Surrealism’s aging contemporary guru has had encounters with other Filipino surrealists in the past. New York being the most active art center of the present world and Lindall being a part of the movement that sublimates day-to-day reality into a world of imagination, fantasy, dreams, magic, and visions of the macabre and grotesque, it is quite probable that his comment to Borg was born of a mental comparison between Bones and the other Filipino surrealists he knew. Never the less, the man’s credentials beg for rivalry while putting others’ in shame.

A New International Surrealist’s Look at Progress, Overcoming and the Irreversibility of the Avante-garde, Massurrealism and The Death of Art

By Terrance Lindall , Provocateur

Enrico Pedrini, Italian theoretician and curator, who wrote a thesis on “Irreversibility and the Avante-garde” once created a show by placing books on physics on pedestals in an empty room. This was a show of art without the artist. “It is the inevitable end of the progress and overcoming represented by the avant-garde in art,” he said, “… the artist is no longer in the picture.”

Yes, the nature of the avant-garde in art is that they, who ever “they” are at the moment, will be superseded by the next avant-garde. And the “progress” it represents is happening faster and faster. So after an artist is out of school and has his first show, assuming he has “gone beyond what has gone before,” or has made “progress,” he and his work must immediately be disregarded and placed in the dust bin of history because behind him is the new avant-garde with a show ready to go up. You cannot reverse the progress of the avant-garde. You cannot make it stop where you are at, to be revered for all time. To historicize it means it is not avant-garde. It is a contradiction that exists today in the notion that museums are exhibiting the avant-garde. In point of fact, if museums are exhibiting it, this proves that it is not avant-garde, but rather history. The idea of the avant-garde is that it is something that is happening that has not yet been recognized by the “establishment” or the mainstream.

The avant-garde artist today is a sacrifice to the moment, to be superceded instantaneously, and cannot even be placed into history except by some very bad thinkers, because if something is avant-garde, it cannot be history and if it only exists at a moment to be superceded instantly, it will not have had time to be historicized in the sense that it meant anything to culture at all. Essentially the avant-garde artist is unimportant. The only important thing is the IDEA of the avant-garde artist. So, Pedrini, eliminating the unnecessary, displayed books on physics, demonstrating that the “notion” of entropy in physics was the final culmination in ART to the progress of the avante garde in the art world.

Such strange material are these notions of “progress” and the “avant-garde.” Progress implies that we reach a goal or a place of ease and contentment. Instead, today it represents only continual dissatisfaction with the “Now.”

In order to have this headlong rush of progress, we must not only continually topple what has gone before, but also give up all contentment in the “now” in order to pursue the future.

And so, I, the observer, must amuse myself with watching the masses of avant-garde artists and art institutions making a life and a practice of being dissatisfied, while I, in my more primitive way, find peace and contentment by retiring to my “Treasure Room,” to look at my not very avant-garde works of art, drink a brandy, smoke a good cigar and listen to operas which are not very avant-garde at all. And sometimes I free my libido and renew myself in the excercise of Surrealism as applied to my art.

Regarding the death or decline of Art, Vattimo remarks that “the death of art is a phrase that…constitutes an epoch at the end of metaphysics.” The introduction to the books says that the death of art takes place in three different forms: First, the work of art ceases to be a specific fact; there is no longer an autonomous realm of ART, isolated from all other forms of discourse, and instead calls into question its own status and traditional institutional framework, exemplified by body art, street theater, and earthwork. Secondly, the technologies of mass production in 20th century Western culture, such as photography, also significantly contribute to the death of art…we must look here to our own Massurrealism to see what part it plays here in the age of mass production where an infinite number of identically reproduced images can coexist, subverting the notion that art exists in a domain apart from that of the rest of existence and the aestheticization of experience at a mass level (through television, advertisements, etc.), breaking down the notion that art is sealed off from the rest of mass culture. And thirdly, high art has regularly sought to commit suicide in the 20th century!

On September 8th, 2005 I myself made a pronouncement that “Art is Dead.” It was not a frivolous statement, although I presented it as a bit of fun. Yuko Nii, a fellow thinker in the arts, and I are in fact writing the thesis. The history of the death of art can be traced. There is a timeline of events. There were portents and augerings. One was when Enrico Pedrini curated an art show in 1992 wherein there was no artist, as described above. In any case, here is the Death of Art encapsulated:

“Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Art is dead. It has something do with Nietzsche and others in how they define art, and how artists of the past and their public viewed what they were doing. It has something to do with Vatimmo’s augerings in his 1985 “Death of Modernity.” It has something to do with James Seehafers final revelation of Massurrealism in 1992. And Massurrealism, as art, is a most important thing at our time. As an idea come to fruition, it is glorious. I wrote about the entry of surrealism into the mass media in my Art & Antiques (world’s largest magazine of its kind) article in March 2006. The great thing is that James Seehafer, Massurrealist, was the one to have made the key statements that announced the end of art, although he did not say that “art has ended.” And James is free to disagree with me! And I am the coroner, so to speak, confirming the death of art. But understand the meaning!

Essentially all of the augerings were correct. Art has now become something else…a “gigantic insect” as it were. It has become a vehicle for mass entertainment and a commodity for investment. For the mainstream, the art is gone, although they still call it “art.”

All of the heated buying and selling of art at the end of the 20th C. and the beginning of the 21st are indications of a high fever, of the disease of avarice, and art has been swallowed whole.

I do not mean to say that there are not those who still practice true art for its own sake and not for fame or money. But fewer do. The fevered eye is on the money. And in the larger mass society art IS DEAD.

It is inevitable that the successors of DADA, WE, the New International Surrealists, would have something to do with the recognition and proclamation that art is dead. The surrealists were the true romantics. They can see the great loss for what it is, and yet continue. As Keith Wigdor the leader of the International Surrealist Movement says,”this is what I see: art has been stagnant too long! It has been overwhelmed with ‘La Fausse Industrie’, a term that I borrowed from Charles Fourier. We need to attack and negate everything! That has been my plan all along. If others cannot understand that, then they are just polished “totems of illusion, no real threat. My declaration must be shouted to the rafters: ‘Swim against the current and Return to the source of Everything!’ That is what SURREASLISM IS ALL ABOUT!”

Out of the ashes of the death of art, a greater Art will be reborn. Art will come into itself again! A new Man (and woman) will come into being. The disease of avarice and thirst for fame and power will give way to a Greater Man. However, the time may not be in the immediate future. Another event(s) may have to take place first.

Two postscripts:

1) Before the Death of Art, there was the Death of God. This occurred when thinkers began to rely more on a created system of value than on the absolute and unchangeable Values of the idea of God. Humanism was born and Nihilism was at the door. The value of anything became interpretable. Belief systems were to take the place of God’s Word. Think about this. I have more to say at another time.

2) In my opinion two of the greatest art shows ON the avant-garde in the arts (that I know about) were the ones by Pedrini, the art show without an artist, and Breuk Iversen’s Offalist art show where he sold money for half price. Great statements on the avant-garde in the arts are rare. Savor them!

Essay by Terrance Lindall , featured artist on beinArt International Surreal Art Collective

Filipino among the world’s Top Contemporary Surrealists

The making of Future Legends
by Phillip Somozo

A handful of homegrown Davao visual artists are out to prove something in New York. Having either won prizes or entered the finals of international art competitions they joined in, Artisthood art group members are exhibiting their works at the Philippine Center-New York in April 10-21, 2006. Title of the exhibition is

“5 artists, 5 paths life as our art art as our journey”

Leading the cast of featured artists is multi-awardee Artisthood founder Ega Carreon and 2002 Asian Freeman competition winner Ben Banez Jr. The rest are art competition consistent finalist Bong Espinosa, cutting-edge conceptual artist Paul Corpus (now Canada-based), and this writer.

The five painters, diverse in both style and substance, are showcasing works that could tickle the extra-olfactory ability of grizzly critics whose habitat is Art New York. This is so because Artisthood’s achievement — loose and young an art group that it is — like a smooth and flat stone pitched on still waters, creates ripples reaching the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

In October 2005, Artisthood member Michael Bauzon won special prize in the Jules Verne-inspired Decourtenay Art Prize based in Belgium. In 2003, Carreon won third in the Internet International Art & Photo Competetion launched from Japan, while colleagues Espinosa, Jun Pamisa and Rodney Yap reached its finals twice, in 2003 and 2004. The year 2002, Artisthood’s foundation year, was even more prolific when three founding members became finalists to Dracoblu-Canada’s International Symbolist Online Art Competition. This too is the same year that Banez bagged the top prize of Vermont Studio Center’s Asian Freeman painting competition, with Pamisa placing second. The fact that Artisthood’s epicenter, Davao, Philippines, had been intermittently under “travel advisory” by rich countries makes Artisthood a sociological curiosity, if not a phenomenal art group.

Interpreted in simple terms, Artisthood’s growing number of international art achievers reiterates Davao as one of Asia’s most livable cities. A flourishing sector in the arts, being society’s highest expression of refinement, tells it all. Davao should be allowed to continue to grow as tourist and investment destination. After all, its hardworking people deserves a shot at achieving their hopes and aspirations for a self-determined peace and development. Only the uncivilized would disagree to that. But paranoia, especially of international proportions, could muddle the pleasant realization of a collective dream with aberrant misconceptions.

Intentional or not, a travel advisory suggests to the minds of men that a Third World city, under terrrorism’s threat, is no breeding ground for world class artists. But almost a dozen combined international art awards and recognition in its 3-year existence speaks well of Artisthood. It may be more accurate to say that Third World inhospitability to the arts is what makes Artisthood shine.

Very recently, symbolist Carreon and hardcore surrealist Banez signed a contract with Sorrell Publishing House (Elmhurst, NY), represented by the socialite husband and wife tandem of Nicholas and Victoria Mascetta, to have their work published in the 4th edition of a hardbound and full-color coffetable book called “Best of New York, Impressions in Continuity.” Carreon and Banez will fill twenty pages of the chapter “Future Legends.”

Banez, too, was included in the list of top contemporary surrealists appearing in the article “What’s New in the Surreal World?” by Terrance Lindall. Said article was published in the Arts & Antique Magazine, March 2006, in New York. In August 6 to September 24, 2006, he is scheduled to hold his first-ever one-person exhibition in the United States at the Amarin Cafe in New York.

All things considered, Artisthood’s humble beginnings and the travel advisory on Davao are but water under the bridge, so to speak. Mystics have a term for Artisthood’s crossing the bridge: transcendence. It is easy to observe that the problem with trying to stifle stars by intensifying darkness is they shine brighter.

Artisthood’s group exhibition is being sponsored by Dabawenyo-USA association members, as represented by husband and wife Nikki and Daisy Torres, Patricia Weiss, and Ms. Sandra Naraval.The Philippine Center-New York is located in 556 Fifth Avenue corner 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City. For more information please call PhilCenter-NY (212) 575-4774.