A Song for Everyone

Historian and scholar Felipe M. De Leon Jr. has written of the kundiman as “a tenderly lyrical song in moderately slow triple meter with melodic phrases often ending in quarter and half note values. It is mainly a song of selfless devotion to a loved one, the motherland, a spiritual figure, an infant, a lofty cause or an object of compassion.”

In his solo exhibition, Kundiman (if it were not so), Allan Balisi envisions the kundiman as a sonic and lyrical reference point, spurring his latest collection of paintings in the direction of a narrative that explores the potential outcomes of desire, devotion, and longing. Yet he remains unconfined solely to the romantic notions of the genre in the process, utilizing the spring of emotion one might feel through a crooned song as not only dedicated to a beloved person, but which also houses worldviews and ideologies.

An archer personifies Cupid devoid of his blindfold in The Noble and Devoted, drawing his bow taut with purpose. This version of the young god, departing from his characteristic irrationality, aims the arrow of desire at the seedlings of a new world. In this imagined realm, he seeks to forge friendships and love affairs that are driven by cooperation and freed from oppressive dynamics.

When night fell, so did white bolts of lightning strike down like arrows of divine providence. It denied all of light, signaling a much more profound type of darkness. Who has the answers to the demands of the newly banded freedom fighters? All Gates Open depicts one of many stormed gates in the 25 hour blackout in 1977 New York. It opened up the city to the exhilaration of lawlessness and growing resentment surrounding the growing poverty rate and ongoing financial crisis at the time. Now, it is up as a contemplative example or even model for an out from the same system that only maintains its brokenness.

An account of spatial movement, an allegory of social movement is a small congregation of like-minded yearners for a new, secret world. To share this dream to plenty, the intimately scaled Notes to troublemakers invites the readership of faraway friends and the universal stranger. Nestled in this small parchment is the reassurance of burning through the old to get the new.

There is solace in knowing that everyone gazes toward the same sky; it is the intangible source of all courage, all unity, and hope. Such is the comfort in the warmth of a handheld molotov in Dahil sa’yo, its embers twinkling like the stars.

Dahil sa iyo, ako’y lumigaya

Pagmamahal ay alayan ka

Kung tunay man ako ay alipinin mo

Ang lahat ng ito’y dahil sa iyo

• Dahil Sa Iyo sung by Rogelio de la Rosa, 1938

Explosion and Good intentions present a dichotomy of transformation. While the firecracker flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis) blossoms enduringly throughout the seasons, the juxtaposed police cruiser is torched as a deliberate act, a defiant bloom signaling the inevitable pushback of mankind against barriers keeping us from our deepest longing. Nature’s commitment to growing itself against all odds must become the aspiration of movements toward social change.

Ang aking pag-sinta kung meron pag-asa

Sa sulyap man lang sinta

Sa akin ipadama

Sa sulyap man lang sinta

Sa akin ipadama

• Sa Sulyap Mo sung by Diomedes Maturan, year unknown

As the Bind Tightens on the Hand, the Hand Tightens Its Grip on the Knife is a fleeting touch, a glimpse of the future where true freedom is at arm’s length. Just as how music transports us away from where we stand, momentarily electrified, it leaves us wanting more. If it were not so, there would be no need to return to the present (pull). If it were not so, we would need not escape (push).

The exhibition has looked into the chasms left by our splintering cultural milieu. It is a peek into the hesitance that comes with the arduous pursuit of something greater that would hopefully not only mend, but usher in the fiery rebirth of the world—which Balisi imagines is even beyond democracy.

Love and revolution are sparks ignited,

Fostered by ardent devotion,

thus becoming a cataclysmic force.

And many a fire has also spread in native song.

Text by SC