ETERNITY IN AN HOUR: A Celebration of Reuben Ramas Cañete's 

"Kosmograpiya" and "Four Seasons" 

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For Baudrillard, "Modernity in painting begins when the work of art is not seen as a syntax of fragments of a general tableau of the universe but as a succession of moments in the painter's career, as part of a series of its works.”

 

At the very heart of this, ETERNITY IN AN HOUR is an homage to the mentorship of artist and art critic Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete. Organized by his students to celebrate his teaching career, the exhibit is loosely inspired by William Blake's 'Auguries of Innocence' which begins with the verses:

 

To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour

 

Poetic at best, the selection features a tradition of art history and painting that place greater emphasis on visual sensation than the depiction of objects. Showcasing two of his abstract painting series Four Seasons and Kosmograpiya, Cañete presents intangible and theoretical concepts existing in the realms of mind and spirit, rather than in outer reality. Masterfully utilizing nonlinear fashion, the works invite us to partake in the artist's visual monologue evoking raw emotions.

 

What do the particles strewn across an infinite pitch black abyss in Cañete's paintings offer the viewer? Constellations? Stardusts? Galaxies? How about the patches and blotches of bright incongruous pigments splattered on marine-wood? Sensations? Anatomies? Lucid Visions? Like the vastness of unchartered space or the biomorphic nature of matter, the images are enigmatically haunting. 

 

Void of closure, we are left hanging. The abstractions go beyond the frames teasing the imagination to explore and look for unidentifiable missing part. This specific junction of gaze provides space in which the viewer could create their conclusions.

 

 

- Eryl Torres