The urge to create
Ioannis Sicuya's ode to creation and destruction
Fundamentally, art serves to satisfy Ioannis Sicuya’s urge to create, a primal urge that burns within his soul. “I like the idea that I have the capacity to create something out of anything,” he says. “It matters little to me whether I’m doing an artwork for an exhibition or a cabinet for our house.”
Initially considered an assemblage artist, Sicuya early on gravitated toward the works of Joseph
Cornell. He was heavily inspired by the weirdly wonderful books of Nick
Bantoc. “Locally, I admire the works of Alwin Reamillo, Norberto Roldan, and Roberto Feleo,” he says. “I also like the intricate details and craftsmanship of the sculptures of Daniel
Dela Cruz and the drawings of Mike Adrao.” While his current works reveal his admiration for Kris Kuksi, Sicuya admits that, of late, he is making a conscious effort to incorporate fewer found objects in his works. “One reason is that I am running out of objects,” he says. “But also because I personally feel I can only do so much with them.” While he still uses assemblage in the composition and juxtaposition of the elements in his work, he makes it a point to fabricate every form from scratch. “I am currently fascinated by detail work like those in highly-detailed action figures and dioramas,” he beams.
Sicuya’s evolution as an artist, however, is not only confined to his medium. It is revealed in his artistic approach as well. While lauded for his technical skill and expertise that he gained from his rigorous studies in art school, his training and works imbued with sophistication and finesse, in theory, led him to create works that were deeply intellectual. “I developed a mindset that an artist has to know his artwork front and back even before he begins the actual process of creating it,” he says. “This approach has led me to overthink my initial concepts and caused a sort of creative paralysis for fear that my work would not be ‘logical’ from a conceptual standpoint. It took me a while before I realized that, one, this isn’t necessarily true for every art practice and two, it does not fit my natural tendencies as far as my creative process is concerned.”
It was during this time that Sicuya aimed to strike the balance between the planned and unplanned aspects of his work. “Once I know the imagery that I would like to execute, I start production even if the concept is not 100 percent whole in my head,” he said. “I partly let the work tell me where to go next. It even became somewhat of a signal for me that I made a wrong turn somewhere when I am stressing out and overthinking during the conceptualization stage.”
This process paved the way for Sicuya’s latest exhibition, “Encroaching Behavior,” recently showcased at Eskinita Gallery. Featuring several pieces that are awe-inspiring for their meticulous details, the collection reflects Sicuya’s longstanding fascination with the natural world, particularly its variety of textures and forms, which he has been substantially incorporating into his works.
Molded by his very hands from epoxy, Sicuya admitted to favoring the medium and being drawn to its peculiar properties. “I like the fact that there are certain manipulation processes that can only be used at certain times during its curing period,” he says, adding that it is more odor-friendly and readily available in large hardware stores compared to polymer resin.
Currently, he is more concerned with the imagery and forms that he wants to create than the message or the narrative that he has to relay. “In this process the concerns or the themes of an exhibition I’m working on are in flux up until I have produced a substantial body of work that points to a more concrete direction for the exhibition.”
In his latest collection, Sicuya draws parallels between the termites that infected his home and the destructive impact of human beings on the environment. The seed of the idea was cultivated following his contemplations and observations on industrialization, a subject of particular interest following reports that agrarian lands surrounding the artist’s home were slowly being converted into a residential subdivisions.
“I arrived at this conclusion simply because of my observation of the consequences of the actions of both species,” says Sicuya. “For me, destructive does not directly equate to a negative attribute. Nature, and in fact the entire universe, undergoes entropy that is neutral of any moral classification. I am also of the position, however, that as a sentient species, we humans can choose not to be destructive, not only for the sake of the planet but, to put it bluntly, for our own self-preservation.”
In his latest collection, Sicuya draws parallels between the termites that infected his home and the destructive impact of human beings on the environment.