Jerome C. Destacamento: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

Looking at the works of Jerome C. Destacamento, one becomes aware that this emergent young artist has taken on dynamics outward and inward in a struggle to foster both creative ferment and holistic individuality.

His solo exhibit of acrylic works, enigmatically titled “15778800,” at the Kuta Art Space in Angono, Rizal, consists mainly of portraits in salmon-pink backgrounds and abstract or non-objective pieces of geometric or rhizoidal forms often cast in shades of blue, green and rubicund. The former works reimagine if not reinvent the portrait or perhaps, the self-portrait genre (there is an autobiographical component to the works inasmuch as Destacamento said they are products of his “experiences”); the latter set of works meanwhile attempt to capture certain psychosocial nuances that affect and even afflict the artist’s sensibility.

The numerical titles of the exhibit and some of the works refer to the time meter that’s clicking, measuring one’s existence. In effect the works in the exhibit are a young artist’s recollection if not an aesthetic inventory or revaluation of his life after 30 years of existence.

Standing apart from the numerical titles, “Portrait of the Artist as Filipino” is a literal self-portrait of the quintessential Filipino artist as much as it references of course National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin’s famous drama, arguably the greatest dramatic work in Philippine literature. In fact, Destacamento does not deny that the portrait looks like Joaquin although he’s quick to indicate that there’s also operating here the aesthetic thrust at universality, the artist being every one and no one.

It must be remembered that Joaquin got the title of his drama from James Joyce’s famous novel, “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” In reinventing the portrait genre, Destacamento restores the original spirit of Joyce’s depiction of the artist’s growing-up years, from youthful rebellion to a conciliatory if still proud maturity.

Destacamento’s reinvention of the portrait as both particular and universal, as both every one and no one, could be seen in “Entropic,” in which portraits of the same figure are presented in several variations, so that they are all the same and not the same simultaneously. By the principle of thermodynamics, there is introduced in representation and portrait-making a certain degree of disorder and randomness. Destacamento’s art orders and reorders and even disorders. Despite the artist’s sense of control, he also allows if not enables randomness and unpredictability.

From the start of Destacamento’s artistic career, the content and approach of his art have always been informed by a sensitive awareness of his social and inner geography, the context of the society in which he is situated, and the inimitable inward world from whence derived his essence as an artist.

Growing up in Antipolo and his natural spirit fed by its landscape, its flora and fauna, his art has always been directed towards the land that nurtured and sustained his unique sensibility and social consciousness. An earlier untitled landscape shows an efflorescence of thick green contrasted with the amber sunlight, the rich texture of the former counterpointed by the polish of the latter, nature being pitted against itself, if there was one, and the effect is a sense of both celebration and contemplation. 

In Antipolo, his influences have been Jojo Elmeda and Andy Orencio. Orencio also guides visitors around Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, where Destacamento had his OJT as a fine arts in painting student of the Far Eastern University (FEU).

At FEU, Destacamento’s mentors included John Olivares, Bernard Temporosa, June Concepcion, Candido Manarpiiz and Dexter Sy.

He’s also immersed himself in the arts scene of nearby Angono town, “the art capital of the Philippines,” since it is where the late National Artist and master muralist Carlos “Botong” Francisco hailed from. Kuta Art Space is actually the “kuta” or “hideout” of the Kuta artists group of Angono led by Isidro Santos. The group of course holds its shows, group, duo, or solo, at the art gallery. Destacamento’s frequent collaborator in the exhibits is Lyndon Maglalang.

In 2018, Destacamento helped clean up and restore the paintings of Jose V. Ayala Jr., the fictionist-turned-artist hailing from the Ayalas of Davao; his fantastic colorful abstract works wowed critics at the turn of the 1970’s but he retreated to a hermetic existence in Mindanao where he practiced the esoteric arts while building up a large body of sweeping works that one critic described as “zenscapes.”

The works that Destacamento helped clean up and restore were included later in retrospectives mounted in honor of Ayala by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Gallery in 2018 and by Art Fair Philippines in 2019.

Nowadays, Destacamento declares that because of his exposure to Ayala’s work, he could consider the writer-artist likewise as an influence on his art.

That his art is now influenced by Ayala’s mystical perorations should provide us the emerging trajectory of his artmaking: psychological or even psychic reachouts, assays at inner and even cosmic awareness, and perhaps raids at altered states of consciousness.

With the artistic roadmap he has set for himself, Jerome C. Destacamento sallies forth into the brave and exciting world of inner exploration while mooring himself to the here and now. The viewer is invited to tag along in one exhilarating ride by this exciting artist-journeyman.

Here are some of the old works of Destacamento:

Kuta Art Space is at Apartment Unit 4 at Picones and Guido Streets, Angono, Rizal. Jerome C. Destacamento’s first solo exhibit opened on June 1, 2023, his 30th birthday, and will run until June 10, 2023. 15778800 is 30 years in minutes.

Disclosure: Jerome C. Destacamento is a nephew of The Philippine STAR’s multimedia editor, Aurea L. Calica, who handles OneNews.PH.