Uma ti Biag / Archetype, A Cordillera Labyrinth
(Back garden of Daily life) / 1989 / Bamboo and runo grass / Installation / 45 cm in diameter, 600 m in length / Artist: Roberto Villanueva / Cultural Centre of the Philippines grounds
Villanueva, a Baguio artist, who may have designed his mark in installations of indigenous elements, is impressed by ethnic symbols and traditions. Getting his element in this kind of components as runo grass and bamboo, he made the fantastic open-air labyrinth Archetype or Uma ti Biag (Kankanay for “Backyard of Daily life”) around the grounds with the CCP in mid-1989.
A considerable circular labyrinth made of two.forty four m runo reeds assembled with each other by basket weaving and thatching strategies, it is of archetypal symbolism. It leads the viewer by way of a superior and winding bamboo corridor with various turns that may induce anxiousness and bewilderment, And at last finishes, to his aid, inside a central clearing, which can be “dwelling,” the Cordillera dap-ay, a sacred ritual floor. This can be represented through the artist to be a round sunken pit, .thirty m deep and 3.sixty six m in diameter. At its center, presiding around the ritual House lined by monolithic stone seats, can be an archaic bulul or image of the Cordillera guardian spirit. During this zone, that is residence, one recovers heat inside the welcoming hearth and common Local community presenting food stuff and drink. Within the artist’s worldview, the middle is intensely vitalized with the power of lifetime versus indifferent character as well as the forces that damage human beings. The labyrinth turned a web Manila Food `s piece on Recipes page for cañao, a sacrificial ritual, and for general performance artwork.
Published by Alice G. Guillermo
at first released within the Manila News-Intelligencer - https://manilanews.ph