Heads

In Heads, (2011), Mariano Ching looks at religion and the transformation of doctrine into belief. One of the most enduring legacies of Spanish colonial rule is undoubtedly religion, with more than 80% of Filipinos today professing to be Roman Catholic. The rituals, symbols, and traditions of Catholicism permeate so much of daily life in the Philippines.

In this work, Ching divides two wooden heads of religious statues into sections, and fills their surfaces with images in his characteristic surreal style. Influenced by science fiction and fantasy, Ching’s narratives suggest perhaps that belief flows out of neurological pathways or is passed from one believer to another, like an infectious spore. His depictions of the Christian ideas of God, heaven, and the devil (represented as plants with diabolical names) highlight the absurdity of such concepts when viewed from a purely rational lens. The work reminds us that belief occurs in the in-between spaces, when the gap between what is on the surface is bridged by that which cannot be seen.

The artist was invited to a residency in Japan in 2002 where he learned the technique of pyrography, in which images are first burned onto wood and then painted. This work is one of the best examples of Ching’s early pyrographs. Interestingly, the work was originally meant to be mounted on the wall but issues with the wall bracket caused the sections to tilt over time. It was later encased in a vitrine, although the metal rods of the wall hanging system were retained.