“A Remembrance of Rain”
Like the two sides of a coin, there are opposing-but complementary symbolisms associated with rain and rainbows.
In Judeo-Christian tradition, rain and flooding are taken as indicators of the wrath of the Almighty – but the rainbow that comes after a storm is held as a promise of rebirth and renewal. In Norse mythology, there are nefarious views associated with the coming of a rainstorm, but the rainbow that follows after is said to form the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge that connects Midgard (Earth) to Asgard (the realm of the Nordic gods).
Aspects of rain and rainbow’s intertwined symbolisms can be discerned in the exhibit “A Remembrance of Rain,” Qube Gallery’s featured show for May. On display at the gallery’s space at The Crossroads in Banilad, the exhibit features a new series of works by self-taught Metro Manila-based painter Ryan Uy.
Essentially his second solo show with the gallery, the exhibit serves as a follow-through of Uy’s first show with Qube last year, which introduced Cebu to the artist’s sharp attention to detail. Like last year’s show, the current exhibit is modernist in tone but is contemporary in terms of inflections. Unlike last year’s show, though, the current exhibit veers away from grief-laced introspections, focusing instead on the positive frames-of-thought that are tied with rainbows that come after a storm.
The current show counters the weight of Uy’s grief following his father’s demise in 2020, before mounting last year’s exhibit, where he presented depictions of subjects who were looking forward to the promise of a coming day.
In the current exhibit he maintains his keen eye for rendering details (which results in works that are so sharp that they appear as though as they were made digitally), and furnishes scenes that enjoin viewers to think of the scent of petrichor that permeates the air before rain falls heralding rainbows to come.
In a way, the exhibit is reflective of where Cebu now is at this point of the Covid-19 situation, as it metaphorically enthuses that in as much as the past couple of years can be described as disheartening, the peace and healing that comes with the passing of grief is now leading many to a better normal.