Santiago Bose

(1949-2002)

Contemplating Infinito Dios and Vermeer

Footnotes

Provenance
Hiraya Gallery, Manila, The Philippines
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, At Home & Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists, 1998

Literature
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, At Home & Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists, San Francisco, 1998, p. 71, illustrated in colour

山提亞哥·波斯
默觀上帝與維梅爾
一九九七年作

簽名：Santiago Bose 1997
木 窗框 貓骨 迴紋針 蠟 環氧樹脂 金漆木板

來源
菲律賓馬尼拉Hiraya畫廊
現藏家得自上述畫廊

展覽
「At Home & Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists」，舊金山亞洲藝術博物館，1998年

出版
舊金山亞洲藝術博物館，《At Home & Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists》，舊金山，1998年，第71頁，彩圖

Santiago Bose was born to working-class parents in Baguio City in 1949, a few years after the end of American colonial rule in the Philippines. Like most Filipinos, he was acutely aware of the effects of imperialism on his fellow countrymen, and it was one of the major themes that fuelled his exploration of the Filipino national identity.

Bose's painting, Contemplating Infinito Dios and Vermeer, employs rich native imagery in depicting Infinito Dios, an indigenous figure known to protect souls in the afterlife. He juxtaposed traditional elements such as feathers, beads, bones, bamboo reeds and volcanic ash against a vanitas still-life, a Judeo-Christian symbol of the transience of earthly existence.

The eye is drawn immediately to the skull, surrounded by still-life elements like a flute, books and a basket of fruit, while tucked away in the right corner of the painting is a small figure of a woman seated alone at a table, with a glass of wine before her. Each of these elements serves as point and counterpoint, a commentary that despite the impermanence of material things and the impossibility of acquiring and holding on to them forever, we still try to do so – one sip at a time.

Bose fused these seemingly disparate elements by painting them with the colours of the Filipino national flag. It is through this unexpected composition that he introduces a thoughtful and poignant discourse on the Filipino identity.

The icon of Infinito Dios, which syncretises elements of Catholicism and Filipino folk beliefs, dominates the painting with its simplicity. It appears to beckon and call, and draws one to contemplate what it is trying to tell us. In contrast to the solid but impermanent objects in the vanitas, the Infinito Dios is a material representation of the ephemeral, an icon that appeals for its representation of timeless infinity. The notion of unconditional sacrifice is vividly portrayed by the blood splattered over the Infinito Dios, leaving us to wonder about the conditions we impose upon ourselves when choosing the present over the eternal.