Edd Aragon's 'Under a Different Light'

"You won't regret it," I was told when I was trying to decide whether or not I should attend the opening of Edd Aragon's homecoming exhibit, "Under a Different Light." I'm not difficult to convince so last weekend I headed to the Yuchengco museum where Aragon, the Sydney-based editorial cartoonist, was holding his homecoming exhibit of paintings of human figures. Aragon has been creating cartoons, caricaturesm and comics for more than three decades now, first with the Philippine Daily Express and currently for The Sydney Morning Herald. What intrigued me was the fact that the paintings were made with ultraviolet light-reactive paint. This paint is not visible under normal light. It's the Emperor's New Exhibit, reminiscent of the children's story "The Emperor's New Clothes" where the emperor turned out to be wearing nothing. Aragon jests that in normal light, the paintings look like nothing. "Nobody would even attempt to steal it, because there's nothing on it," he laughs. Although they look like nothing, they are in fact worth a lot, as Aragon has spent years developing the unusual medium. "When I was sending the box of paintings to Manila, I had a nightmare. 'Your paintings were stolen!' and then I'll be trying to catch this tricycle driver using it as a tarpaulin," he laughs during the exhibit opening.

He has worked on the medium for six years in his Sydney studio. "It's fun because I can work in the dark. It has a bit of novelty in it, but not gimmickry because all my paintings are permanent," he says in an interview. He added that he tested all the materials "for four years under the sun just to tell me which kind of pigments will fade, which one will yellow, and just deteriorate easily... I'm confident that it will last forever just so long as you don't put them under direct sunlight, or the rain, the elements." At the Yuchengco Museum, his paintings are safe indoors, in a dark room with rotating UV lights that reveal the human figures carefully depicted on seemingly blank canvas by applying the UV light-reactive pigments with a dry brush. Interestingly, the main pigment that Aragon uses is called Aragonite, from a mineral first discovered in Aragon, Spain. Before finally settling on his pigment of choice, Aragon tried and tested several UV-reactive pigments, optical brighteners, binders, polymers, varnish, retardants and other fluorescent and phosphorescent pigments, which he was able to access with the help of a friend who works for the pigment industry. Through Internet research, Aragon learned about UV professional lighting as well as how to work safely under UV light conditions. Working in the dark was not just something Aragon decided to do on a whim. It all began in 2001, when he was commissioned to create art for a Sydney restaurant and disco, which challenged him to find a way for his paintings to be viewed in blacklight conditions. Aragon had a similar exhibit in 2008 at Banyuhay ni Heber Arts & Music Center featuring legendary musicians, nudes, and allegorical images. The paintings included a life-size portrait of Tandang Sora aka Melchora Aquino, Mother of the Katipunan, who was born in Banilad (Banlat) where the exhibit was launched. Aragon also exhibited his UV light-reactive paintings in Sydney in 2007. While this isn't the first exhibit of UV light paintings, "Under a Different Light" is as refreshing as the artist himself. "He was a breath of fresh air. His house was full of paintings. Some people would say it's a mess, I call it a delight," says the musician and artist Jim Paredes, who met Aragon in Australia. Paredes says he admires Aragon because he likes "artists who surprise and delight their audience and themselves. There was never a time that I sat down with Edd and talked about his work and he wasn't excited. And that to me is a mark of an artist who has a lot to give and a lot to offer." True enough, Aragon showed his guests around the exhibit with contagious enthusiasm, sharing bits and pieces about each painting. "She's just proud of being half-naked, and the absence of malice is there, it's just the purity and the joy of being a woman, and I was so mesmerized by it... I just went along and filled in the blanks, the texture," says Aragon, showing the first painting of a woman to the guests. Mesmerizing is the word to describe the paintings. Slightly eerie, the bluish glow brings the images to life. Walking around the exhibit was a dreamlike experience, the rotating lamp illuminating each painting only for a moment before drawing attention to the next. – VVP, GMA News The Yuchengco Museum is located at RCBC Plaza, at the corner of Ayala and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenues, Makati City. Museum hours are from Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For more information, call 889-1234 or e-mail info@yuchengcomuseum.org.