We also find a study on social
contrasts in ‘Woman with Pearls,’ an
imposing nipa screen painted red and black with
a drawing of a woman in a corner wearing pearls.
In other pieces Veneracion lets go as he creates
through “the subconscious” and relies
on his sense of design to tell him when to stop,
as in the composition of an installation aptly entitled
‘The Subconscious Dictates.’
Here we find a wooden board that has twigs sticking
out of its center, some leaves on the floor, a sort
of door frame made of branches with a piece of painted
plastic draped over the top and a piece of coral
hanging from a chain on the other end.
As a whole the works are rich in aesthetics and
are sometimes theatrically presented. Veneracion
shows his facility in exploring various textures
and treats these like flat surfaces as he would
a canvas. Thus we find paintings done on bamboo,
sinamay or nipa that have been formed into screens.
“Traditional paintings that try to copy nature
tend to hide the medium. Modern art uses the characteristic
of the medium, which become an integral part of
the work. But the medium mustn’t be taken
as the message in itself. It can symbolize something
else.”
So working from the abstract feelings about whatever
strikes his fancy, Veneracion uses objects around
him and tries to translate these through the imagery
of a language that is yet another abstraction –
art.
