Letters from the Wind
(MGA LIHAM MULA SA HANGIN)
by Jaime Pacena II
This series of works is an excerpt from a longer narrative about a father and a son. It tackles a diasporic tragedy of a Filipino soul who yielded to the promises of another land and life, in the city of Rikuzentakata, Japan recovering from the March 2011 Tsunami.
Letters from the wind are sighs, prayers, notes, and whispers that are not heard. Cries left for the wind to carry forever, maybe until it reaches the person intended to hear it.
This particular series of mixed media artworks are part of the thought process in understanding the visual treatment of the story that is currently being developed in a program called Kesen AIR. Pacena is consulting with several Japanese organizers, artists, and coordinators in developing the script. These artworks presented in Marahuyo Art Projects are creative notes of the artist and a glimpse into the story that speaks of love, loss, and rebirth in a story entitled Kono Basho (This Place).
Chasing Memory: Primary Years. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
Nineteen ninety-seven was the year the protagonist left Manila and his family to work in an architectural firm in Japan. His son grew up without a memory of him being there. He worked most of the time in a box, like a Lego piece that could be easily mounted or put away.
He always carried with him a class picture of his son taken in a public elementary school in Quezon City.
Chasing Memory: Blurry. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
Chasing Memory: Deer Hunters. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
Deer has become a pest in Rikuzentakata. But before hunting, they pray. When they kill one, they pray. Prayer keeps the bad spirit from eating the deer’s soul. It also keeps away bad dreams in their sleep.
The process in this series is like writing fragments of the story through images. The notes are transformed as scribbles and the blurry abstraction of actual photographs Pacena took during his 10 years research in Japan suggests compositions of a scene.
Chasing Memory: Hikami Mountain. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
On top of the highest mountain in Takata is a resting place. The protagonist wrote his last letter to his son before he passed away in sleep.
Chasing Memory: Autumn. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
We see the changing colors of the leaves. Another season has passed after the tsunami of March 2011. Winter, the coldest of days and nights, is coming.
The paper as his medium suggests a more intimate approach in this series of works. He strategically works with small pieces to use different processes like printing, acrylic and watercolor painting, drawing and sometimes folding. This allows the artist to be more free and to be more intuitive in what he did in this series.
The protagonist saw his son in his dream today. He was looking outside the window and snow started to fall.
Foldings that mimics that of origami
It was snowing when we lost the city and every time winter comes, it reminds us of all the pain we felt that day.
Papers as mountains
Foldings that resembles a wave from the sea hitting a structure.
Even the grass is fading away.
Before he hunts today, he looks up to stare at the tips of the trees on the mountaintop. The loneliness is creeping in. Foldings that resembles a letter and an envelope.
In this resting place, we will meet again. In this resting place, you will forgive me.
Nest Notes
Foldings that resembles the folded wings of a bird.
Postcard Memory: Reconstruction. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /6.25” x 9”
As the city rebuilds itself, and so does the protagonist’s relationship with his son.
Postcard Memory: Hydrangea. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /6.25” x 9”
The flowers so delicate and expensive in Manila are weeds in Rikuzentakata.
Postcard Memory: Tono. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /6.25” x 9”
A city near Takata where folk stories are told.
Imagine looking outside a window of a fast moving train where everything becomes blurred as images and sound interweave, changing from the Japanese houses we see to heavy traffic in Manila, to a childhood memory of our fathers, to the busy streets of Tokyo, to the colorful lined up vending machines in Akihabara, changing to the different TV programs in Manila. A memory of your first kiss then back to the view from the fast-moving train, back to where we see these houses are from where you are, isolated, and from your mind in isolation.
Postcard Memory: Isolated. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /6.25” x 9”
Postcard Memory: Isolation. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /6.25” x 9”
Postcard Memory: Consciousness. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /15.25” x 9” (Diptych)
Postcard Memory: Summertime. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
Postcard Memory: Autumn. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 / 12.5” x 9” (Diptych)
Whisper: Autumn. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /9” x 6.25”
All leaves are falling off, flying, as the wind carries all our sighs.
Whisper: Protagonist. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /9” x 6.25”
Whisper: Apple Farm. Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, Print, Colored Pencil, Pastel on Acid Free Paper, 2021 /9” x 6.25”
About the artist
Jaime Pacena II is the Curator of Marahuyo Art Projects and CANVAS. He is a teacher of Multimedia Arts and is also a video director in the advertising industry. He leads a multimedia arts collective called BMLab and he is currently developing his first feature film entitled Kono Basho under the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop and KESEN Artist-in-Residence 2020-2021.