Artist Jinggoy Buensuceso was busy putting the finishing touches to “The Mouth of Qi,” a large red origami sculpture. It was sitting on a sandbox and the sculptor was meticulously tracing lines on the sand.
He was so engaged that he seemed oblivious to the people watching him at work.
“Every time I create the pieces I stay focused,” Buensuceso told Lifestyle. “I feel like I’m in a different world and I like that. Because that is the time when I enter the portal of the pieces that I create.”
“The Mouth of Qi” is just one of nearly 30 pieces in the contemporary artist’s newest collection titled “Dis/Order” on display at Casa Bella Home and Living In Makati City. It may not be your usual gallery, but Buensuceso chose the furniture store because he wanted people to imagine how his pieces would look displayed in their homes. All pieces were sold even before the collection was unveiled to the public.
Unfolding universe
“‘Dis/Order’ is about the infinite folding and unfolding of the universe,” he explained. “If there is no disorder, you cannot achieve order.
“You need to destroy, you need death. If there is no death, there’s no life,” he continued. The collection is a reminder to himself as well as to his audience that there is always a beginning.
The collection is composed mostly of Buensuceso’s origami-like sculptures. The Japanese art of paper-folding requires making precise and definite creases and folds, but Buensuceso is inspired instead by the discarded, crumpled pieces of origami paper.
“While folding the origami, you are focused on perfecting it, but for me the most important phase of the process is when you make mistakes,” he explained. “We tend to forget that without those imperfections, you cannot achieve perfection.”
Beauty, according to him, is in the experiences and the challenges that one has gone through. He sees his origami series as a journey to perfection and hopes that those who view the sculptures get that as well.
“Dis/Order’’ also includes some of Buensuceso’s R.E.M. series and a rework of a 2018 piece, “The Wound That Never Heals, The God That Never Dies,” his interpretation of a dead Christ. He also introduces two new series, “Kintsugi” and “Spiritus Sanctus,” and admits that the pieces from these are his current favorites.
Connection
“I think (it’s) because I’m discovering our connection to the universe,” he said. “Maybe for me the ‘Kintsugi’ is one of the keys so that I can enter that closed door to a new world.
“And the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spiritus Sanctus,’ is one of the characters of that story of the universe. Maybe I wanted to meet that Holy Ghost and to interpret it in my own way.”
It took him almost a year to prepare for this show. The three-piece “Spiritus Sanctus” series was the longest to make.
“That uses a lost-wax technique so it’s a tedious process. But I love the process from beginning to end,” said Buensuceso.
He’s the type of artist who enjoys the process, despite it being laborious and tiring. “I like using different kinds of materials that are intended for a different use,” he said. He loves departing from the usual materials that are used for sculpture or for painting.
If he finds meaning in rejected, crumpled pieces of paper, does that mean he’s the type who does not discard a piece even if he’s not satisfied with it? “Maybe not discard, but I just set it aside for a few months, even years, when I feel that it’s not yet ready.”
He forms a connection, a relationship, with every piece that he does. “Lahat ng piyesa na ginagawa ko, for me buhay,” he said. “I talk to it, may drama kaming dalawa. We dance together, we romance, we have fights. We are happy. Any emotions that you feel towards another person, that’s how I treat the pieces.”
Does he have pieces he finds difficult to let go of? “Oh yeah, but sometimes you can’t say no, especially when people woo you and eventually you will feel that piece is for them. I would feel in my heart that I have to let (a piece) go.” INQ “Dis/Order” is on display until Dec. 18 at Casa Bella, 8 Jupiter St., Makati.
