Lot 5: Salvation mind blast

WIRE TUAZON (b. The Philippines 1973)
Salvation mind blast
oil on canvas
72 x 48 in. (183 x 122 cm.)

The works of Wire Tuazon continuously evoke a sense of surrealism and wonderment as to their exact meaning by bringing up feelings of nostalgia, of childhood memories and even the trauma of history. Wire explains that his works attempt to make the viewer rethink the other possibilities of historical accounts and to speculate the truth behind the images. Words play an integral part in the reading of the artist's paintings and he also speaks eloquently of his oeuvres.

"You can return to the moment of the biggest mistake of your life and, without changing the events, you can change their meaning - and then make a new life for yourself.

The work is an attempt to portray a mindset, a critical passage of lived time and painful experiences of dislocation. I've been searching for disturbing images that convey a quiet tension that's about to explode, images that could trigger separate yet parallel levels of anxiety and impending exile.

In a curious state of lightness, I find myself in a rocket made of paper cartons. Propelled by my hopes, I shoot straight up and the earth gets farther and further away. I catch a glimpse of a world set in a subtle equilibrium between fantasy and reality, concealment and revelation.

And like a humble pilgrim, I remember the failures of my youth

"Salvation Mindblast" arises out of exploring and dreaming of worlds, flying to distant landscapes, like a child longing for inspiration, protection, and direction in life. It also relates the looming presence of death and destruction, a circularity of space and time wherein gravity gravitates. But beyond the flat surface of the commonplace, there are dimensions that may be filled with ever-present danger, yet pregnant with hope.

Meanwhile, I keep looking out the window. Now the storm has ended, the sky is a bright blue, preserved for and against eternity.

I remain reflecting for a moment, because time does not exist."

- Wire Tuazon, artist's statement, October 2007