At the Fine Arts Museum of Vivid Dreams

For his solo exhibition, Exquisite Derangements, Randalf Dilla situates and contextualizes his works within the space of a museum—the secular temple in which people encounter works of art that move them in all sorts of ways. For some, the experience is one that is close to a religious transformation: what are, in reality, silent, inert objects become powerful conveyors of thoughts, feelings, and ideas, enacting a powerful transference between the artist, the medium, and the viewer that transcends time itself.

This concept is exquisitely rendered by the work, “Transference.” The artist of the theoretical work—long gone—is still able to reach out to contemporary viewers with such dramatic and undeniable force, evoked by a slew of hands, pigment, and brushes. The audience, in comparison, is more passive, with some trying to capture the essence of the work with their cellphones. This essence is what Dilla calls as the “unexplainable beauty” of the work brought about by “the artist’s sincerity to express their deep emotion and that energy transfers to their art, which is one of my bases of a successful artwork.”

Similarly, the work “Visitors” also conveys the indescribable energy that some works seem to possess. A painting of horses, created decades ago, is still able to enthrall and evoke vitality, even symbolically going beyond the limitations of the frame as a pair of museum-goers, garbed in today’s clothing, watch in rapt attention. In the painting, “Unearthed,” on the other hand, Dilla pays homage to works from classical antiquity that have yet to be discovered, biding their time to unleash their energy as powerful as a whirlwind.

While the above works convey the relationship between the artist and the audience, the “Quest for Galatea” articulates the relationship between the artist and his work. The painting is based on the myth in which Pygmalion, who has created the perfect human form, beseeches Aphrodite to transform the sculpture he has made into a real woman, to which the goddess obliges. For Dilla, every masterpiece is a physical embodiment of what the artist considers as beautiful. Another work, “Thirty Three,” which is a self-portrait, proceeds from a different tack in which the work is not merely the conception of beauty by the artist but the artist himself, all in his embodied presence.

If “Quest for Gallatea” speaksof the perfect female form, “Assimilation” presents it in its fractured beauty, inspired by Christina, who suffers from a muscular degenerative disease, in the famous eponymous painting by Andrew Wyeth. In the work, the women, whose bodies are contorted, are metaphorically emancipated from their hardships, as they not only have to deal with their personal struggles but serve a variety of tasks that society expects them to perform.

Dilla’s two other works expand the exhibition’s theme to include the relationship between art and nature. In “Uprooting,” a tree surges forth in the middle of a museum, with a woman on her knees reverently praying. For Dilla, it is an indication of how nature, despite being dominated by civilization, has a way of reclaiming back her space. For the artist, rather than choosing between the two, a balance is what needs to be aspired for. Lastly, “Art Collector” pays homage to the patronage of the collectors who, because of their assiduous purchases, create their own private museums for others to enjoy.

Underscored by a rigorous painting technique that combines a high degree of both figuration and surrealism, which Dilla calls “hypersurrealism,” Exquisite Derangements makes visible the vital relationship between the artist and his audience, as mediated by the physical medium of art. The masterpieces—from painting to sculptures—are imbued with a life of their own, whose capacity to transform both the creator and the viewer cannot be emphasized enough. Dilla’s works expand and derange the senses, particularly sight, so that we, the viewers, may have not only a deeper appreciation of art but also the unique way it enhances, uplifts, and makes multiple our version of reality.

– Carlomar Arcangel Daoana