Added Aug 3, 2006
To believe in evolution, one has to be an evolutionist. He then is a person required to be evolutionary in thinking, open to changes and who isn’t stuck and asleep in a Procrustean bed. When working out art theories and picturing personal historiographies the artist will devise plans for an evolutionary exhibit of art works because this comes naturally in his maturation. Sio Montera, the art practitioner becomes a visionary as well but by not being messianic because he is not forsaking his roots and by acknowledging his beginnings, the show is very much autobiographical using the philosophy of experience in the context of his inner-self unfolding in material production in the form of art works. This opening out then is the true expression of the intellect and from his heart’s passion. Prodigious in the presentation of both fibrous/organic/indigenous materials suspended in time by an industrial method of encapsulation. These labor-intensive presentations represent such themes as spiritual awakening given concrete/tangible visual forms of the almost omnipresent and in the mandala, which are universal in the cultures of people displaced by geographic boundaries. Such evident commonality asserts the theory of our equal origins as human beings. It is inevitable that when one aspires to fathom his roots, naturally the best place and way to explore is to make an introspect into the self as we are created in our Creator’s image and likeness. The exhibition on the other hand is filled with ironies and contradictions, as evolution per se is incongruous with the Christian faith in creation. Thus in his art, Montera reconstructs and somehow reconciles the two opposing concepts. It’s a show that’s mythical and mystical in concept welding into a scientific approach in production process while the artist provides the artistry. Hence in a quaint road less traveled, Montera’s activities are clouded in mystique. In knowing the self, he ultimately looks beyond unto the less understood supernatural forces like those that give life. Evolution is the embracing of constant changes without it there can be no growth and progression. Development in art will depend on how an artist will push himself to attain his full human potential by using the resources around him to its full creative capacity. *END