To see Oca Villamiel’s art installation at Light & Space Contemporary is to behold the unbelievable.

Over 10,000 excised carabao horns cascade from a source on the wall of a warehouse, flooding its entire huge floor, overflowing to the garden outside.

“Hayop!” exclaimed a musician upon taking in the view.

But the expletive must be interpreted in the higher sense as when one experiences what goes beyond the human, the more than human, the transcendent, the divine.

For art to make an impact on us, it must not only slash our eyes but gouge them out in order for us to gaze with the inner eye, the eye of the mind. Only then may we share and dwell in Oca’s fascinating and surprising vision of our world.

By dint of obsessively collecting over 10,000 carabao horns for nine years, Oca became gifted with the illuminating metaphor of “mga damong ligaw.” Only an artist rooted in the travails and sufferings of our kababayan could have come up with this spectacular insight.

To be metaphorical is to have the capacity to perceive the similarity between two very different things. This is an ability shared by the poet, artist and philosopher—of “coupling” two meanings, and in the process, bringing out offspring—new meanings.

“Mga Damong Ligaw” offers a feast for thought. What first comes to mind is the biblical parable of the sower—the good seeds and the bad seeds. “Mga Damong Ligaw” then reminds us of the “bad weeds”—the people that err from the straight path, “ang tuwid na daan.” “Errare est humanum!”

Oca may also be alluding not only to the insatiable greed and rampant corruption in our present society but also to the lack of direction in our culture and history, the confusion in our identity, and the destruction of our environment.

But it may be too easy to point out only the negative aspects. For when the artist denounces what is wrong with our condition, he also announces a new possibility of living. “Mga Damong Ligaw,” I like to think, makes us remember the diaspora of Filipinos scattered all over the world, particularly the OFWs. “Mga damong ligaw” may stand then for all our kababayan persevering to remain bullish and unbowed through the storms and earthquakes of life, determined to build a compassionate, just and humane society.

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“Mga Damong Ligaw” is on view until March 15, 2015, at Light & Space Contemporary, 53 Fairlane, West Fairview, Monday-Saturday, and by appointment on Sunday. Call 2398202; e-mail [email protected].