Compendium

Guided by a bibliophile’s intuition, Compendium by Angono-based artist Lyndon Maglalang is an exhibition of surreal impulses and off-kilter matter. Maglalang presents us with ghostly yet quietly affirming happenings, glistening with a mystic awareness of geometry and symbolism. A man stares out a window—and before he knows it, he has become his surroundings. Another figure finds himself in a deserted and hilly landscape with only a bird as his witness. Elsewhere, stones of varying sizes, shapes, and textures are piled on top of one another, keeping a fickle balance.

These paintings, brought to life by Maglalang’s instinctual and vivid brush strokes, revolve around transformations. That’s the case literally with a series of paintings employing hardbound book covers as the canvas, altering one form into another. But there are glimpses of this too on a more foundational level: scenes, colors, and figures are entombed within a backdrop of unpredictable change. These changes, Maglalang’s paintings suggest, inspire fear and terror, but it is also through those states of dread that the presence of one’s inner self lies.

Like a book of lyric poetry, Maglalang’s paintings do not exactly form a clear narrative sequence but instead hinge on vital moments of emotion. In an accompanying poem, the writer Jerome Destacamento relates the act of reading to the mindful practice of meditation:

I Read
To recenter
What has been moved to the sidelines
To pace
And link the scattered dots
It might take a while, for the work is vital

I Read
To plan and consolidate my skills
To continue burning the flame
And finally get some sleep

Across Compendium, we come into contact with Maglalang’s attempt to recenter and link the scattered dots, to pace and continue burning his flame. This effort to make sense of life’s disarray can be derived from his titles which reference acts of premeditation and discernment. The latter term in particular feels especially apt in encompassing Maglalang’s keen ability to interpret the labyrinthine currents of one’s inner experience.

Within the show’s moonless terrain, surreptitious shades of gray, black, and green linger upon their haunted subjects. In the face of these myriad shadows, Maglalang’s paintings ultimately leave us with the impression of hard-earned stoicism. These artworks act as portable yet powerful reminders: that facing our deepest and darkest turmoils renders us open to the greatest changes.
Blurb

Guided by a bibliophile’s intuition, Compendium by Angono-based artist Lyndon Maglalang is an exhibition of surreal impulses and off-kilter matter. Maglalang presents us with ghostly yet quietly affirming happenings, glistening with a mystic awareness of geometry and symbolism. A man stares out a window—and before he knows it, he has become his surroundings. Another figure finds himself in a deserted and hilly landscape with only a bird as his witness. Elsewhere, stones of varying sizes, shapes, and textures are piled on top of one another, keeping a fickle balance.
These paintings, brought to life by Maglalang’s instinctual and vivid brush strokes, revolve around transformations. That’s the case literally with a series of paintings employing hardbound book covers as the canvas, altering one form into another. But there are glimpses of this too on a more foundational level: scenes, colors, and figures are entombed within a backdrop of unpredictable change. These changes, Maglalang’s paintings suggest, inspire fear and terror, but it is also through those states of dread that the presence of one’s inner self lies.

Text by Sean Carballo

–

On a special seat in my reading room
I take the moment to make time to process

A Book, I consume.

I Meditate, I Pray.

The conversation begins, the message revealed
On time, all the time
The guides guide me to do the work
In service of
The greatest force at play

And so I continue to read
The signs

Reposition me to avoid disasters
Enables the forward motion
On to a straight path

I Read
To recenter
What has been moved to the sidelines
To pace
And link the scattered dots
It might take a while, for the work is vital

I Read
To plan and consolidate my skills
To continue burning the flame
And finally get some sleep

(×) ^^^ (×)

Sa paglalathala ng mga tunay na saloobin
Kalakip nito’y ang pagninilay-nilay
Ang marahang paghihintay
Ay may bungang tagumpay

Baon ay ang mga natutunan
Mula sa mga salmong pinagtuunan
Kausap ang Diyos
Kaakibat sa paglalayag at paghakbang

Payak, ngunit malalim
Tila may tinatagong lihim
Sa mga gawa ay tila makulimlim
Nangingibabaw ang talim

[•] — [•]

The forest gives back twofold, tenfold
A lesson in silence

DREAM…

The cool wind is a parcel of goodness
The peak of love

POWER

The service is internal
The work reveberates outwards

The delivery is informed by the lengthy process of learning and unlearning, the lessons from the One above.

Maglalang’s Compendium is part of an ongoing series of works that talks about the many ways in which faith can be regarded. In this offering, he highlights the act of reading as a metaphor to the process in which we learn and apply our learnings.

In many of the paintings, we are asked to see, or rather, read the images as if it was a compact visualization of a book. His usual subject matter: nature, the mysterious, and man situated in an inner journey are still apparent and are taking on a different yet familiar angle. The works invite contemplation and offers time to breathe. Lyndon continues to tell his stories under the banner of his faith, and he does so with an ever-deepening fire.

Sit back, relax and read along with Compendium.

-Jerome Destacamento