In the physical world, there is no such thing as sequence. Matter and beings occur at the same time all the time, in arbitrary intervals and changing proportions. It is only the mind that makes sense out of things, that imposes logic on everything it can contain. So accustomed human minds have become to this process that they fail to recognize the grandeur of nature’s sensual and sensory simultaneity even at the presence of it. So hardened human senses have become through logic that they fail to perceive matter as they fall together, letting some take the foreground while others fall back to be perceived some other time. Little does the logical mind remember how, in some other part of the brain, the same thing has been taking place: The simultaneity of sense perceptions and the spontaneity of meaning-making brewing in hidden chambers of the mind, waiting to be released by some stroke of luck only an artist could pull off.

The ability to bring all of the mind’s concurring images on the foreground for everyone to perceive and re-vision — this is the artist’s power. Gifted with this ability, Benjamin Lontoc, Jr. does exactly this. He creates art in concurring images, re-presenting those in our physical world and lending viewers this vision of simultaneity. Lontoc’s art pieces then become physical manifestations of the raw form of the mind’s idea, in its most vivid, most detailed, most spontaneous form.

The hidden chambers of Lontoc’s artist mind needed not much to be unlocked. Even as a child, Lontoc knew he was fascinated with the arts. “Hindi naman struggle ‘yung pagiging artist ko, e,” he says. “It was a creation of joy and a little madness.” Although he came from a typical family where art is not part of the tradition, Lontoc says pursuing art in college didn’t become that serious an issue, and would anyway come naturally for him as a personal decision. “Ang problema ko lang siguro noon, hindi gano’n kalakas ‘yung psychological strength ko in terms of creativity, na pumapasok pa ‘yung ibang tao,” Lontoc recalls. “Mali pala ‘yung gano’ng system. Kailangan pala, kung ano nasa isip mo, gawin mo. ‘Wag mong isipin ‘yung sasabihin ng ibang tao.” He also recalls how, as much as he admired classical masters such as Francisco Goya and Albrecht Dürer, he struggled under the shadow of their influence. “‘Yung masters na inaadmire ko, gusto ko rin takasan ‘yung influence nila sa’kin,” he explains. “Gusto ko madiscover ‘yung sarili ko, ‘yung creative world ko.”

Much like the shadows with which he struggled, Lontoc’s art puts the play of shadows in the foreground through the thorough use of black and white. His chamber drawings dwell in the in-betweens of blacks and whites and explore the possibilities of gray — conceptual and visual, both — in creating illusions of foregrounds and backgrounds and concurrences. His art pieces lead the viewer’s eyes to see the picture first on the macro scale, only to be led deeper in to the tiniest detail. Upon instinct, the logic of the mind would tell you to create sense and meaning out of the plethora of images, only to fail miserably; the profusion of images resists meaning-making, eludes sense and sequence. This is art that reaches out to the figurative part of the brain, that almost obscure part that understands without reservations, accepts without doubt. All attempts in elucidation get lost elsewhere. In the end, the viewer takes in the carnivalesque visuals and accepts the grandeur of its simultaneity. Such an effect Lontoc achieves through the use of his media of choice, watercolor and pastel.

“Ang pastel, parang hindi seryoso. Light medium lang ‘yan sa visual arts. Pero ang watercolor, accepted as a major medium. Naglalaro kasi ang watercolor. She has her own movement ‘pag inaapply siya, especially ‘pag wash. Minsan ‘yung mga colors niya, sumasabog lang,” he explains. However, he doesn’t believe that an artist’s medium matters, since, after all, it is just a medium, a means to an end. “It doesn’t matter naman kung ano ‘yung medium mo e, basta you have a strong concept of the visual arts,” he shares. “Whether sa computer or installation or mixed media or paints, nasa concept naman ‘yun e, wala sa medium.”

Perhaps, just as Lontoc’s media of choice are fluid and fragile, so are the mind images his art portrays. The fluidity and fragility of the mind’s ideas are just as delicate, so much so that translating them into art through another medium might destroy it completely, just as the mind’s tendency for logic destroys the spontaneity of image concurrence. Lontoc’s art pieces thus serve as fixatives for his visual ideas, preserving them by giving them life on the physical level, keeping its rawness intact and elusive to sense.

Although such resistance to logic begs the question: Is this kind of art incommunicable, like those the profundity of which stays unreachable to the typical viewer? Benjie Lontoc’s answer: “Let the art decide for itself.” He believes that despite the seeming inaccessibility of art pieces such as his, participation is still demanded from the viewer by the very act of looking. “Sa classical art din naman, nagpaparticipate rin ang viewer. Whether [faced with] classical or modern art, viewers participate, must participate.” This is because art, for Lontoc, serves as an escape route from the limitations of social conventions.

“Art is beauty. You can use it as a tool or as a musical instrument to harmonize your spirit. For me, it’s inner contentment. The mind’s an abyss na hindi kayang punuin, kaya very exciting ‘yung mga pwedeng gawin. Walang limitations, walang squares. Sa art, nabubuksan ‘yung stream of consciousness mo, and ilalagay mo lang ‘yun sa paper, tapos dadalin ka na somewhere else.

Laging may kulang na kailangan punan, and for me, ‘dun pumapasok ‘yung art,” Lontoc explains.
The next time you see a painting then, let your mind wander farther. Explore the hidden chambers of your mind and let other parts of your brain take over, guiding you to faraway lands of words and languages of images, mapping new geographies of a mind you’ve perhaps only learned and sought to discover by looking at the art of Benjamin Lontoc, Jr.

Benjamin Lontoc’s solo exhibit “Chamber Drawings” runs until August 19, 2010, at Mag:net Katipunan, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.