Apertures of the Bakunawa: Ornament as Cosmology in Philippine Visual Thought
Apertures of the Bakunawa: Ornament as Cosmology in Philippine Visual Thought
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
This curatorial frame situates Lorenz Lasco’s “Otherworldly Ornamentation” as a corrective to canonical art histories by foregrounding Philippine animistic semiotics—solar, avian, serpentine, vegetal, and anthropomorphic motifs—as active epistemologies that mediate cosmology, materiality, and regional identity. The following synthesis, critique, and narrative mobilize that claim while testing and disconfirming a rival, market‑centric account that would subsume these motifs under commodified aesthetics.
Curatorial Frame
Lorenz Lasco’s taxonomy—Sun, Bird, Vegetation, Serpent, Squatting Figure—is not a decorative lexicon but a procedural grammar for reading precolonial and vernacular visual thought. These motifs operate as semiotic technologies: they map the tripartite cosmos (Kaitaasan; Kalupaan; Kailaliman), encode ritual efficacy on blades and shields, and index regional cosmographies (Cordillera, Luzon, Visayas, Panay, Mindanao).
As curator‑gatekeeper I argue for three curatorial imperatives:
- Recover the ritual logic embedded in ornamentation, resisting purely formalist readings.
- Recontextualize objects within living cosmologies rather than museum vitrines alone.
- Reparative display that privileges community voice and ritual provenance.
Disconfirming the Alternative
The alternative premise—that these motifs are best understood through market valuation, provenance chains, and aesthetic novelty—fails on two counts. First, it erases ritual agency: ornamentation’s efficacy is performative, not merely collectible. Second, it misreads regional variation as stylistic variance rather than as cosmological dialects. Market metrics flatten ontologies into price tags; Lasco’s evidence shows ornamentation functions as theology and social technology, not as mere commodity.
Curatorial Narrative Critique
A curatorial narrative must be both hospitable and interrogative. Imagine a blade whose mirror‑inset catches sunlight: to a collector it is a lustrous surface; to a ritual specialist it is an oracular aperture. My narrative recounts a field anecdote—an elder in Panay tapping a scabbard and naming the bakunawa—then pivots to institutional irony: museums often privilege conservation over conversation. The critique insists on dialogic display—labels that host testimony, not only taxonomy—and on interpretive humility that resists the museum’s sovereign voice.
Expanded Summative
Lasco’s project compels curators and cultural workers to treat ornamentation as epistemic practice: motifs are mnemonic devices, cosmological maps, and social contracts. The corrective to canonical art history is not merely additive (include more objects) but methodological: center indigenous ontologies, enable community co‑curation, and refuse commodification as the primary evaluative lens.
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Selected sources & references
- Lasco, Lorenz. Otherworldly Ornamentation: The Symbolic Meanings Embedded in Bladed Weapons. Bayanihan Center program notes, 26 March 2026.
- Lasco, Lorenz. Research profile and essays on Kapilipinuhan cosmology. Bahay Saliksikan ng Kasaysayan (BAKAS).
- Event listing and commentary: Museo ng Kaalamang Katutubo program, March 27, 2026.
Footnotes
1. Lasco frames ornamentation as theological practice; see program notes.
2. The tripartite cosmos (Kaitaasan/Kalupaan/Kailaliman) is discussed in Lasco’s research profile.
3. Public programming and exhibition contexts referenced in Museo ng Kaalamang Katutubo listings.
Bibliography
Lasco, Lorenz. Otherworldly Ornamentation: The Symbolic Meanings Embedded in Bladed Weapons. Program notes, Bayanihan Center, Mandaluyong, March 26, 2026.
Lasco, Lorenz. “Ang Kosmolohiya at Simbolismo ng mga Sandatang Pilipino.” Bahay Saliksikan ng Kasaysayan (BAKAS) profile and essays.
Museo ng Kaalamang Katutubo. “Otherworldly Ornamentations” event listing, March 27, 2026.
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A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
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