MEDIUM AND TECHNQUE

na general sense, medium: is the material, or the substance out

of which a work is made. The choice of medium is part of the
meaning of the work. It is a
signifier of meaning in the context of the work's total
meaning. Thus, it is not neutral nor merely incidental to the work.
Medium in contemporary art has be come increasingly
independent of academic convention and has become a raatter
of artistic choice, conscious or intuitive, according to the concepts,
values, feelings that the artist conveys in the work. In fact, art
today involves the invention and exploration of new media and
techniques, thereby expanding the range of artistic resources.

TWO-DIMENSIONAL
EXPRESSION

In the two-dimensional arts, medium includes

the surface or ground and the marking or coloring
substances applied to it.

Practically all surfaces can be used as painting ground The

first paintings done by people were colored figures of animals of
the hunt on the walls of caves. Since then, people have been
painting on a wide variety of surfaces with the use of sticks,
brushes, their own fingers; and applying dyes and
pigments of different sources and manufactures.

For easel paintings which are portable paintings usually

hung on walls, the traditional surface is canvas, cotton or linen,
stretched on a frame and primed with a white or lightly tinted
base. Most contemporary artists paint in the direct method or alla
prima, in which paint is applied directly on the surface with a brush as it
would look in the finished picture. The indirect or traditional
method, on the other hand, consists in applying the paint in thin
layers of transparent color. It includes

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the technique of glazing in which a transparent layer of oil paint is
applied over a solid one so that the color of the first is significantly
modified. Another technique of the indirect method is scumbling in
which an opaque layer of oil paint is worked over another layer in such a
way that small areas of the under color show through in an uneven,
broken manner. While Impresconists and most contemporary artists
paint alla prima, glazing was the technique commonly used ty the
Oh Masters. Aside from oil, acrylic painting - or acrylic vinyl polymer
emulsion paint - can also be used ori canvas. Quick drying and
water soluble, it can be applied in thin, transparent washes, as
in watercolor or direct in alla prima painting with a thick impasto or
piled-up texture.

Paper, of course, is readily available, and the artists can use

paper un hard to capt mo their insights into the passing
moment. Paper is found in different thicknesses (measured in
pounds), textures, and tones, qualities which are taken into
consideration by artists in the kind of the work they want to
do.

The first paper was produced by the Egyptians in the

third millenium from papurus, a marsh plant. This became the
standard writing material in ancient Greece
and Rome up to the
4th c. A.D. when it was replaced by parchment. During the
Middle Ages, the beautifully painted illuminated manuscripts
were done on skin, parchment, or vellum, and from the
14th century, on paper.

For untercolor, the paper is first soaked and stretched so

that it will keep flat during the painting proc255. The
water based pigments are applied to fine
.
wiki
SAT

Steresantcs. "Pillow," 1982, watercolor

paper as layers of transparent color stains. The wet on-wet technique
creates atmospheric effects in landscapes in which the white
ground of paper is made to show through to provide the
highlights. The dry brush technique is used to bring out fine details
as in still lifes and portraits. Gouache is opaque watercolor or poster paint
in which the pigments are mixed with zinc white to create a more solid
efíect.

For Chinese watercolor and calligraphy, rice paper has been

used in the long tradition of scroll painting. Recently, a number of
our artists have engaged in the production of handmade paper
from common plants in the environment. such as cogon and
banuna. Handmade paper has a particular organic quality that
comes from its slightly uneven and fibrous texture. Likewise, its
deckle edge adds to its personal and non-mechanical significations.

Cheesecloth or katsa is a common substitute for canvas,

especiall: for large murals for public gatherings which can be
rolled up after dispiay. Katsa is also the material used for painting with
dyes in a dye-resist technique similar to handmade batik. In fact, butik,
which is a Southeast Asiar artistic tradition, is a painting
technique. it is, of course, associated with textiles, but these have
a fively style of design with a range of folk motifs in the particular
coloration of organic dyes that give them a character distinct
from that of industrial prints. Furthermore, artists in the
Philippines and other Asian countries are beginning to use batik
for land-capes and genre.

Paintings are likewise dore on wooden surfaces. Plywood,

especially ma rine plywood which does not warp, is commonly
used. Tempera painting, which was the most common
technique of Easel painting until the late 15th century, is
traditionally done on a wooden panel. The panel is prepared by
coating it with gesso, which is, in general, any white substance sich
as plaster of paris mixed with with size or glue, to provide a smooth
ground. To this surface is applied tempera which consists of pigments
ground with egg yolk, producing a greco luminosity of tone. The
medium requires precision of style and thus lends itself well to
detailed representation.

A mural is a large-scale painting in contrast to the relatively

small and portable easel painting. A fresco is a kind of mural
painting on a wall, which, to ensure durability, must first be prepared
by a coat of damp plaster. In true fresco painting, the artist works while
the plaster is damp using water-based pigments which become
incorporated into the wall itself. Michelangelo's monumental
work on the vault, upper walls, and altar of the Sistine Chapel
is an example of a fresco.

Another two dimensional medium is glass or stained

glass. The latter consists of designs made from pieces of
colored glass forming figures held together by strips of lead
which themselves constitute independent design. Stained glass is primarily
associated with the Gothic cathedrals of the 12th-13th centuries
with their rose windows and walls of stained glass narrating
religious episodes. How's

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ever, the medium has been taken up by some contemporary
artists with innova tions, such as setting the glass in concrete or
some material other than lead. In 1956, Galo B. Ocampo, afier
studies in the liturgical arts in Rome, finished 73 stained glass
windows for the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral. Tausug artist
Abdulmari Imao has also worked in the inedium in his sarimanok
design for the Philamlife Building. Stained glass with secular
designs of fruits and flowers to adorn residen tial architecture
was a vogue introduced by turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau.
 Mosaic, another two dimensional art, goes back to early Rome
and to the
· Ezantine and Early Christian times when it adorned the churches and
the cata
combs. Its technique is simple but painstaking: small units called tesserae -
origi rally these were chips from slabs of colored stone, marble, or
glass - are embedded on a wall or a floor prepared with wet cement in
such a way that their tiny facets reflect the light. While mosi mosaics
had a religious or royal subject such as the Byzantine Empress Theodora
anu her retinue, some early examples had secular subjects. A villa in
Pompeii (1st-2nd c. B.C.) has a large floor mosaic of a chained
dog guarding the entrance. A mosaic meant to fool the eye is the
"unswept dining room in which morsels of bone and half-eaten fruits
and nuts are scattered on the floor - complete with nibbling mice. In
our time, mosaics are made from a large variety of materials:
bits of colored paper. postage starnfs, eggshells, and even
butterfly wings. A line example of contemporary Philippine mosaic is
a chapel in Bacolod made entirely of different kinds of shells with
Our Lady of the Barangay as the principal image.

Tapestry became an important art in Europe in the 15th

century. In the great medieval palaces, tapestries did not only
adorn the walls but also served as a warm buffer against the winter
coki. Nowadays, tapestry as the medium of a number of young
artists belongs to the category of fiber arts. Some tapesties
incorporate different indigenous weaving techniques and
combine different fibers for textural interesi. Others use heavy
material such as burlap dyed and sewn in layers with abaca
thread. Still, others create new fibers from local plants such as
banana and saluyut and weave landscape and bird motifs into the
fabric. Other tapestries do not have woven designs but are
embroidered pieces or quilted trapunto.
 Collages are also a form of two dimensional expression.
Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso did the first collages by
pasting printed texts from newspapers on the painting
surface. Later, they also collaged rope and pieces of oilcloth
to incorporate actual textures as well as to initiate a play
between the simulated and the "real." Artists have made
collages with bus tickets and bottiecaps, with maps and
photographs, Imelda Cappe-Endaya creates large
expressionist paintings with sawali panels, old crocheted
curtains, towels and denim pants to bring out a sense of familiar
environment and cultural identity.

There is no end to the experimentation of materials to

enlarge artistic resources and the vocabulary of form, as well
as to get away from the dependence on imported materials.
There is painting on tile with colored glazes, as well as

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painting and sewing on tree bark. Pig ment is not always applied with a
brush or palette knife; some artists paint with a spray gun for a
softly modulated ethe rcal effect. For texture, some artists in corporate
passages of frottage done by rubbing pencil over a piece of paper
which is placed on a textured surface such as a floorboard or cement
wall to get its particular character. Another technique,
decalcomania, is done by applying pigilent on two sheets of ma
terial such as paper, pressing them to gether to obtain random
shapes, then drawing out their figurative potentials by enchancing
them and creating rec ognizabie figures. The same effect can be
obtained by pressing sponges or crurnpled cloth on the painted
surface. Today, many artists prefer to work in mixed media,
combining oil, acrylic, pastel with printmaking techniques and Rod Paras
Perez, "Tantric Suite: collage in one work. This flexibility of- Yantrc
Odalisque I," 1979, woodcut. ten leads to the blurring of distinctions
between painting and sculpture, between two-dimensional and
three-dimensional expressions.

But whatever the medium or technique, the important

question is how it forms part of the meaning of the work.

The graphic arts belong to two dimensional expressions. The

term is used to refer to "those arts which depend for their effect
on drawing and not on color; in other words the arts of drawing
and engraving in all its forms." In a more limited sense, graphic
arts refer to printmaking and illustration.

There are four main engraving processes or

graphic art techniques:

1. Relief. The sections of the woodblock or metal plate to

be printed black are left untouched and those meant to be white are
cut away. A single black line has the wood on both sides of it cut
away by engraving knives and gouges. For color prints, a block
must be made for each color along with a key block which
carries the overall linear design. To relief belong woodcuts,
linocuts, rubbercuts, and simple potato cuts. A Philippine artist
who has done outstanding woodcuts is Rodolfo Paras-Perez.

2. Intaglio. The relief process is reversed, for here the

surface does not print but the ink is held in the engraved grooves
of the metal plate. Intaglio includes

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 M
e
tching. mezzotint, and
aquatint - the

R
A
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forth over the metal
plate. This pro
etching. mezzotint, and aquatint - the most commoniy used of techniques. In
etching, the copper plate is covered
with a resinous coating impervious
to acid Lines are then etched or
drawn with needles into the plate,
thus expos ing the metal underneath.
The plate is then immersed in an
acid bath which eats away the
exposed parts. In mezzotint, deep
tones and shadows are achieved by
means of a "rocker," which is a
blade with a curved edge composed
of fine, sharp points rocked back
and íorth over the metal plate. This
 pro cess leaves a mesh of small
blurred dots which are scraped
off to obtain half tones and lighi.
Like mezzotint, aqua tint is tonal
in effect rather than linear. In
aquatint, the metal plate is
prepared by dusting its surface
evenly with pow
dered rosin which, when
heated, inelts Africa
and adheres to the plate.
When etched, Manue! Rodrigues Sr. Mother and Child. the rosin
particles protect the plate 1960. woodcut.
while the acid bites into the
exposed areas. The Philippines has a sizeable number of
practising printmakers using the incaglio processes. Among
the artists working in etching and aquatint are Brenda
Fajardo, Cape-Endaya, Ben Cabrera, and Orlando Castillo.
Artists into mezzotint include il de la Cruz and Manuel Rodriguez,
Sr., a pioneer of printmaking in the Philippines who has worked
in all engraving processes.
tint is tonal in effect rather than linear. dered rosin
which when heated,
inelts

3. Surface or Planographic Methods. These are different from the

 above two methods because they do not involve carving in
relief or incising into plates. Instead, printing is done on a
perfectly flat slab of stone, such as limestone, or a prepared
metal plate. Lithography, which is a planographic method, is
based on the antipathy of grease and water, effecting the
separation of areas receiving and areas rejecting the
printing ink. Glenn Bautista is one Philippine artist who
has 1 mastered lithography.

4. Serigraphy or Silkscreen. This process widely used

for posters and t shirt designs requires a screen of fine silk and
masks of paper or lacquer. Paint is brushed over the sections
which have not been masked, and different colors are possible
by the use of sur cessive masks. Likewise, color mixtures
can be obtained by printing one color over another.

Recently, new printmaking processes have been

evolved, thereby adding more challenge to the graphic arts.
Among these are collography which collages

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elements such as different textured materials, leaves, and so on on the
surface to be printed; plantigraphy using stencils; thermography or
embossing; xerography or photocopy. Another new technique
introduced by Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi is viscos ity printing which
allows the application of several colors simultaneously on a metal plate
while color separation is achieved by a chemical method.

Paper quality is particularly important in printmaking. Thus, a

number of artists use handmade paper which they produce
themselves. It is known fact that the art of engraving forges the
mysterious marriage of ink and paper."

THREE-DIMENSIONAL
EXPRESSION

The term "three dimensionai expression" inciudes

sculpture done by the conventonal methods of carving,
modelling, and casting, as well as other forms which extend
the range of sculpture in terms of new artistic concepts, media,
and techniques. One of the oldest arts, sculpture has
been done in a wide variety of media.

The first sculptures were made of stone. These were

engraved male and female figures on large pieces of
stone caled menhirs which had the religious function of
serving as receptacles for disembodied souls. Other
artifacts of the Stone Age were the fertility statuettes, stone
figures called "venuses such as the Venus of Willendorf and the
Venus of Laussel. In the Philippines, artifacts called likha,
blocklike human figures with lightly incised features, v'ere
excavated in Calatagan, Batangas. Stone continues to be used
as a sculptural medium. A large adobe sculpture by Ildefonso
Macelo marks the entrance to the U.P. Library, while along the
University Avenue is a similar work, together with the relicfs
on massive stone blocks by Napoleon Abuera.

While the Egyptians made their statues of granite

and limestone, the an cient Greeks used marble for their
statuary, and their achievements in the art led marble to be
regarded as the "noble mecium." Marble continued to be
 the prime sculptural medium in the Renaissance with the
sculptures of Michelangelo, in the Baroque Period with the works
of Gianlorenzo Bernini, and in later works of clas sical inspiration.
Some forms of sculpture are also made out of alabaster, a bans
lucent stone. The Chinese have a long tradition of jade
carving.

Clay is the medium of pottery, a three-dimensional

form. Al pottery can be divided into three categories:
earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Earthen ware is the most
commom of these - the ordinary palayok is an example; it can be
sun-dried or kiln-baked. Stoneware goes through much highe: firing
which vitrifies the clay so that it becomes close-grained and
non-porous. In porcelain, a Chinese invention, the body of the
vessel is hard, white, and translucent. An important technique in
pottery is glazing, which imparts a smooth finish, color, and decora
tive effects. Figurative sculpture made of baked clay is called
terracotta, which is realized by modelling or shaping the soft
clay material.

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Metal has been used as a sculptural medium
from ancient times to the present. Many Greek sculptures
were in bronze, of which Zeus Hurling a Thun derbolt is a fine
example. Polycleitos executed the Doryphoros or Lance-bearer, a
model of classical Hellenic sculpture, in bronze. The traditional method
for bronze sculpture is sardcasting which involves making a
mould of special sand from an original model of plaster of paris,
inserting a core and pouring in the molten bronze.

For small bronze pieces, the cire perdue or "lost wax"

method is com monly used. In de perdue, the space between the
model and the enclosing mould, both often made of clay, is filled
with wax fashioned with the desired design, while the soft outer
mould assumes its shape as it hardens. When the mould has suffi
ciently hardened, the wax is melted and bronze is poured in its
place, which when cool bears the desired design and shape. The
cire perdue method is an impor tant part of the Malay
metalworking tradition. The T'boli use it for their figurines and
jewelry made of alloys of bronze, brass, and copper; and the
Maranao around Lake Tugaya useit for their brassware. With time
and exposure to weather, bronze acquires a greenish patina
which has an artistic value.

Aside from traditional casting, there is a process

developed by the Caedo father and son sculptors (the
sons did the sculptures for Himlayang Pilipino) in
which the figure is built iron bronze shavirgs pulverized and
passed through a sieve until they have the fineness of talcum
powder. These are then combined in excci proportions with
chemicals possessing binding properties. The bronze sub
stance is poured into a mould where it subsequently hardens.

Contemporary sculptors have male use of different

kinds of metal in dif ferent ways. Unlike other media, metals
have the properties of ductility, that is, they can be dravn out
into wires; and malleability, that is they can shaped by
hammering or melted, cast, moulded, or pressed into
predetermined shapes. In contemporary sculpture, metals such
as bronze, steel, iron, and aluminum have been aut, welded, cast,
moulded, polished or patinated, producing durable and
permanent results. While Alberto Giacometti did wiry, nervous,
attenuated figures in bronze interading across an open space,
Constantin Brancusi used the same material to convey grace
and harmony. Among our sculptors, Eduardo Castrillo uses
metal sheets with verve and dynarnism whether in the abstract or
figurative mode; Solomon Saprid creates out of welded pleces
craggy, expressive figures in ection, while Virginia Ty Navarro
builds her figures with a "pointillist technique." Conrado
Mercado does open cage constructions with steel rods.

All cultures have used wood as sculptural medium. And

the Philippine hardwoods, narra and molave, are among the best
in the world. Aside from their extreme durability, they have a
warmth of tone and a natural coloration, which ranges from dark
brown to yellow and reddish hues; as well as a fine-grained
tex ture: Woods evoke the forests from which they came, as
well as the atmosphere of the human dwelling. Abueva, while he
our foremost
has also sculpted in stone and inetal, is still
sculptor in wood. He has done large figures in wood,
abstract pieces,
O

retablos for a chapel, and imaginative wood furniture. The two-sided crucifix
Sus pended at the center of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice at
U.P. Diliman is his work. Another sculptor in wood, J. Elizalde
Navarro, has done expressionisic masks and figures with a strong,
"primitive" quality. In the dearth of wood for sculpture, some young
artists have turned to other sources such as the heavy, weathered
wood from railroad tracks or the stairs and veams of deniolished
houses. Not to be acrlooked is the bamboo, the ubiquitous plant of
the tropics. Francisco Verano has done bamboo sculpture to
suggest indigenous music making. Junyee, a Los Bañue
artist, has discovered his materials in forest vine, seed pods,
 and tree tks for his hangings, installation, and scatterworks.

A number of regions in the country have woodcarving

traditions that go back to pre-colonial times. The Ifugaos and
Kalingas of the Cordilleras carve the bulol, male and female
guardians of the granary and the househoid. The fearsome bihang
figure meant to drive away evil spirits is made of the root of giant fern.
In the South, the Maranao have their okir and the Tausug ukkil
woodcarving tradi cions. The sarimanok and naga designs of the
male okir are found as three dimen sional forms or as ornaments
of musical instrument such as the kulintang of various household
utensils; or of the torogan, the datu's house which features the
panolong, an extended beam intricately carved in open work
okir.

In inany parts of the country, the woodcarver's art finds

expression in furniture making. Betis furniture features floral and
curling vine designs in open work with miniature finely turned
balusters. In Paete, Laguna, however, the woodcarver is very
often a santero or maker of santos. Paete, since the time of Jose
Rizal who was visited in Dapitan by two Paete wood carvers,
has remained an important center of religious images; the town's
sec ondary occupation is the making of takas, brightly colored paper
maché animals. A neighboring town, Pakil, is known for its fili gree
sculpture of toothpick trees and fan tasy
fans, fiesta ornaments they call
the pahiyas-tambng made from the cayetana and matang-araw
woods of the Sierra Madre.

For the woodcarvers of

Paete, the best wood for santos is
batikuling because it is tough and
repels termites, although other
 woods such as narra, kamagong,
langka, and marang are also used. An
encarnador is one who has mastered
the technique of coloring the face,
hands, and body parts of the
wooden Image with flesh tone. In
the traditional process, the carved
figure is twice
Poete wood
carving.

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coated with a native gesso made of a mixture of fine white clay or kesong
puti mixed with glue made from boiled cow or carabao hide. This is
to provide a solid and non-porous surface for the paint is applied
over it. In the estofado technique used for the area of the robes,
the gesso is giided and paint is applied over the gilt. The gilt
undercoat lends a warm luminous toile, and ornamental motifs are ex
ecuted by lightly scratching away the paint with a fine instrument to
bring out the gold underneath.

In the 19th century, Filipino sculptors, such as Leoncio

Asuncion of the well-known family of artists, also worked in ivory
and perfected a technique of painting on the material in such a
way which renders the color permanent.

With the Industrial Revolution new materials were produced

which had lasting effects on the medium and techniques, if not also
on the concept of sculp ture. Aside from industria! materials such as
glass, chromium, and aluminum, there appeared synthetic materials
such as plastics. In the 50s, Steuben Glass invited Philippine artists to
execute designs on crystal, thus bringing to the fore the artistic potential
of the medium. Today, the glass medium is associated primarily
with Ramon Oltina who fashions it into free standing sculptures or
integrates it into a structural component. As for plastics, the
Constructivists were the first to use them. Naum Gabo used plexiglass
celluloid, nylon, and lucite with stainless thread-like stec! springs to
create sculptures in which space seems to flow through the trans
parent materials. Luminal sculpture which makes use of light
bulbs is a marriage of art and modern technology.

The use of non-traditional and non-academic materials

thus led to con cepts of soutpture which went beyond its original
definition as solid mass and actual volume. Kinetic art introdiced
the element of actual movement: Three-dimensional collage
consists of pasted materials of all kinds, mostly paper, formed
into a solid bulk (although there is also sculpture in the form of
origami). I large pieces such as rubber tires or mattresses are
brought together, then it is an assemblage, as in the aggressive
compositions of American artist Robert Rauschenberg. There are
like wis a collages or assemblages made of discarded junk,
metal and machine parts, as well as those made from "found
objects. ' Driftwood, shells, tough forest trinos, stones, and
detritus from the sea are called "found objects when
brought into an art content. Their shapes, textures, emotional
and literary associations enter into the meaning of the work.

Among new forms of three-dimensional expression

are box sculptures in which the work is composed of boxes of
different sizes, with each compartment an object of particular
context and meaning. Another form is empaquetage or wrap
ping objects or even parts of buildings in sheets, opaque or
transparent. The social realist Edgar Fernandez tightly
wrapped a jumble of mannequins with a blanket to convey the
effect of figures smothered and suppressed, thus articulating
certain political connotations. Then there are also forms which
seek to make a mark or modify the environment, such as
earthworks which modify the natural landscape

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by making large depressions in the ground or building structures in the water
such as a spiral jetty, or scatterworks which set figures randomly in an
exhibit hall or in the open air: stabiles which are large figures: or
constructions, and installations. hangings or environmental art, in
general, such as the Czech artist Christo's Valley Curtain consisting
of an orange sheet of nylon polyamide and steel cables span ning 391
meters along the U.S. West Coast.

Taking off from three dimensional expression is conceptual art which

stresses primacy of the underlying concept or principle in a work. This may
involve "Formalization in which a fa.niliar object or "redy-made" is removed
from its original context, such as the kitchen or bathroom, and brought into
an art context. the gallery; it may involve time or process as when a work is
accomplished through a series of telephoned instructions through a period
of time; it may entail audience participation as when the visitors are enjoined
to act upon or make a mark on an object
so as to coinplete its
meaning. It is here, too, that three dinensional art links up with
theater in the happening" or performance art. The most successful of
these often express social protest, especially since the art forms being
fluid and ever-charging always remain outside the established norms.

For the two dimensional and three rimensional arts, there are in
addition three properties that belong to medium in general: size or
scale, format and frame. Except for the cases in which they are
decreed by convention, size, format, and frame belong to the realm of
artistic choice which conforms to the meaning or content of the work.

Scale can be very large or very small. At one end is the

bronze Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient
 world, which stood over one hundred feet high in the Greek harbor; at the
other end is a painting on a single grain of rice as Hokusai is said to have
done.

Murals are large-scale because they are meant to address a large

open-airpublic, such as the portable murals paraded in the
parliament of the streets during the anti-Marcos rallies in Manila
in the 80s. When painted on walls, they belong to the life of
community and usually crystallize in visual symbols the
concerns and aspirations of the people. Because of their
communal character, outdoor murals. which are done by
collective interaction, often bear a political content
synthezising the community's history, issues, concerns, and
interests with which the ordinary members can identify. Murals
are not meant to be outdoor decorations which a small minority
foists on the community. Neither should they be magnified versions of
easel paintings because size, especially in the case of large-scale or
miniature works, is part of the meaning of the work. Artists, for
instance, may work in large scale in order to draw the spectator into the
dynamism of the painting. Some abstract artists do large paintings to
create an environment of colors and shapes or to saturate the
viewers in color fields. But a common motive for large scale
works is to be able to unfold a panorama of history or to
convey the sweeping impulse of a people's movement for
change. Examples for these are the Mexican murals of Jose

41
Clemente Crozco, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Diego Rivera. In the
Bulwagang Katipunan of Manila City Hall is Carlos
Francisco's History of Manila.
Certainly, size is part of the meaning of sculpture. For one
thing, there are subjects and themes that are not appropriate for
small-table sculpture. Among these are historical figures or, possibly,
themes such as anti-nuclear protest, be cause small size will tend to
diminish their full import or domest.cate their emo tional energies in
a way that heroic figures and potent popular symbols become
reduced to figurines on a coffee table. On the other hand, sculptures for
a house interior or table sculptures, because they are of human
scale and are accessible to touch, are best when the; invite
thoughtful reflections, possess an integral aes thetic form, and
a degree of complexity to sustain inierest.

In sculpture, too, size is described not only in terms of

length and width, but also in terms of mass or volume.
Because sculpture is three dimensional, its size should be
proportionate to its setting, as well as to proximate figures and
objects. Thus, the size of a public sculpture or monument in an open
space should be in proportion to its environment. A small
sculpture, no matter how well-made, Icses much of a large open
space. It can also be dwarfed by adjacent buildings.

Format can also enter into consideration ir.

understanding a work of art. While most paintings have
rectangular format, there are not a few paintings which
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UT

Carlos "Botong" Francisco, "Filipino Struggles

 Through History" (detall), 1964, oll on canvas.
are in square or circular form. Their departure from the traditional
format points to intentionality on the part of the artist. In Raphael's
tondo or circular painting of Madonna and Child, the format brings
out their integral self-contained relation ship For the abstractionist
Piet Mondrian, the square symbolizes intellectual orde: and for
Kasimir Malevich. the assertion of the people's supremacy over nature.
American artist Frank Stella created shaped canvases with geometric
figures. Some young Philippine artists have made paintings which
join together panels of ply wood of unequal shapes and lengths,
each with its own figurative episode as in a spatial montage or
juxtaposition of images to create meaningful synthesis.

There is nc traditional format in freestanding sculpture, but in a low

or high relief, the format may be determined as a part of the building.
The format can be a rectangular pediment or the horizonta! section of the
frieze in Classical or Neoclassical architecture. As in the relief figures of
the Parthenon, it is not only the high aesthetic quality of the figures
themselves that counts but the graceful ease and naturalness in which
they accommodate to the formai.

The frame can also affect or modify the meaning of a painting. The
style of frame, whether of wood, gilded or elaborately handcarved and
polished, or of plain aluminum, iinplies a social and cultural context
with various associations which lends meanings to the work. Mondrian,
for instarce, refused to frame his work in the traditional manner because
the surrounding frame would affect the spatial equi librium of his
composition. Artists prefer either to have an unobtrusive frame
which does not interfere with the meaning of the work or to make it
participate with its own design as an active element in the
significations of the painting

The frame, however, is essentially a Western invention that came

 with the development of portable easel paintings in oil on canvas. In
Classical Chinese paint ing, paintings are done on vertical or
horizontal scroll, the exquisite clasp and lining of which are part
of the visual art. Spreading a horizontal scroll is like gradually
unfolding a winding landscape continually revealing new elements
and surprises.

Architectural Materials and

Methods

In general, architectural materials are of five kinds: rock such

as stone and clay; organic, such as wood; metal, such as
steel; synthetic, such as glass and plastics; and hybrid, such
as concrete. Materials are chosen according to their availability
and according to the building design which requires the selection of
materials of particular qualities. According to Paul Jacques Grillo, three qualities
of material are considered in the selection of material for the building:
structure, which determines the particular way it reacts under stress, and will
tural design and form directly; texture, which directs
determine struc
the choice of tools to use, that
ord with its internal structure; aspect. which tags its particular color and
outside skin after tooling." Furthermore, architectural materials
are also chosen in terms of their character that signifies social
values. Thus, stone denotes strength;

43
marble, power and permanence; wood, warmth; brick, practicality:
and metal, lightness and impersonality.

In architecture, materials are used for structure or for

vencer. Contempo rary architecture, however, is far more concerned with
structure than with veneer and surface orientation. New industrial materials, such as
structural steel and rein forced concrete, have placed the emphasis on
structure.

Five methods or systems of architectural

constructions can be distinguished:
1. Lashed construction. This kind of construction
prevalent in the trop ics is assembled by manual skill alone,
without the aid of fabricated tools for sawing, mortising, and so on.
According to Grillo, the method of lashed construction is also the
most wholesome, as the material is used in its natural state, each
piece being juxtaposed next to the other, without wounding its
structure. The structural members may le bamboo, twigs, posts, and
the fies may be made of willow shoots, rattan, rope, and so on. As a
result, extremely light structures are created that can withstand
cyclcnic storms by offering the least resistance and by being able to
bend easily. The whole structure is articulated on quantities of joints
that never can be absolutely rigid, and insure to the whole work a
great suppleness."

In this method, the roof and sidings are fashioned

separately then ficted together ty !ashing. This is true or the bahay
kubo, the root of which can be assembled on the ground then
mounted and lashed on tightly to the posts by means of strong
tigaments" made of flexible roots or stems of raitan. Wall
sidings, vhich are light windscreens usually made of split bamboo
woven in herringbone patterns to the form sawali, are also
assembled on the ground separately. Fernando Zialcita points
out: "What keeps the sidings firmly in place is not the house
post. With the help of rattan lashings, horizontal bamboo studs clamp
the sidings to gether on both sides; at the same time these studs enter
through holes into the sidings's vertical support: bamboo poles
that stand between the roof beams and the floor sill."

2 Post-and-lintel construction. This simple method of

construction is as old as the pre-historic Stonehenge in England. This
circular megalithic structure consists of trilithons (three stones) in
which two upright stones support a third stone spanning the two.
The early Egyptians and the Greeks used this method of
construction which is practised till today.

The basic structural elements of the post-and-lintel

construction are the two vertical posts and the spanning
horizontal lintel or beam forming a right angle where they
meet.

It can be used for stone, wood, and metal.

According to Taylor, two related requirements must be
met: "the lintel must be sufficiently strong in both compres
sion and tension to span the space and support the
required load without breaking;

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the support, must be rigid and sufficiently strong under compression to
bear the weight of the lintel and its load without crumbling.

The bahay-na-bato made of stone, wood, and tile is an

example of post and-lirtel costruction. Its massive wooden posts, haligi,
staked into the ground about three meters deep, rise from ground to
the ceiling to support the floor, trusses, and a sloping tile roof. The
posts of unhewn tree trunk often stand clear of the walls to leave a
free space for the structure to move in case of earthquake.
 3. Arch and Vault Construction. Construction in stone
based on the arch permits a greater span between the supporting
posts or columns than that afforded by the post-and-lintel system. This
is because, according to Taylor, the arch "trans mits the pressure of
weight above the opening downward through the columns to the ground,
mainly as compression, with a minimum of tension against which
most materials are weaker."

Holding the stove units of arch in place is the

keystone, the wedge-shaped piece at the summit of an arch.
While the round arch is the most common, other arch types are the
pointed arch, the ogee, and the horse-shoe arch favored in Islamic
architecture, among many others.

Arches of the same size laid together consecutively form a vault. The
most common kind is the barrel vault, which as an extension of the
rounded arch in depth has the appearance of a tunneled roof and
may be as long as desired, form ing an arcade. Wien two
barrel vaults intersect at a right angie, they form a groined
vauit.

The dome is a hemispherical vault which, when

supported by a circular wall, transmits its weight to the base
evenly along the entire wall. Its weight over openings can be
carried by four arches and four interventing pendentives -
triangu lar segments of a sphere - at right angles to each other
which further distribute the weight among four piers or columns foi
ning a square base.

The Son Agustin Church in intramuros built in 1804

has a barrel vault and a media naranja dome made of solid stone
 over the crossing.

4. Skeleton construction. This type of construction was made

possible by the development of two modern materials: structural steel
and reinforced concrete or ferroconcrete which combines the
strength of concrete under compression.

Since the skeletons made of slender beams of steel are strong and
light, high-rise buildings such as skycrapers are structurally
possible. Thick, solid walls of stone are no longer necessary for
structural support; instead, the new building itself can be raised
above the ground on stilt-like posts, leaving the ground area free for
garages and driveways. Doors and windows can be of any size.
Because con crete is a fluid material which can be molded
into a shell-like structure, buildings in

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45
this material can be of any shape, thus opening the way to
greater creativity in architectural design.

In Manila, the Philamlife Building on U.N. Avenue and the

ivational Press Club near Liwasang Bonifacio are constructed in
light structural steel with a framework enveloped by a glass skin.
At the U.P. Diliman campus, the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice
designed by Leandro Locsin exemplifies concrete shell
constriction. Nicholas Polites describes the structure as
follows: "The 3- inch thick concrete shell spans 29.26 meters
and is supported by a ring beam that in turn is supported by
32 reinforced columns measuring 1.06 by .36 meters. The
shell ends at a smaller ring beam at the top center of the
dome. This ring beam forms a skytight through which the
triangular-frame beli tower pierces dramatically to a point
 from which the central cross hangs over the altar. The total
span of the structure from the bottom of the curved columns
is 36 meters."

5. Cantilever construction. This iype of

construction also makes use of steei and reinforced
concrete but is particularly characterized by the projection of a unit
of the architecural design beyond its support. The cantilever
principally re quires that the tensile strength of the material be
enough to withstand the load on the other side of the point of
support. The latter may be a column or pier defined in
architecture as a store for sustaining vertical pressure.

The cantilever principle is seen in bridges where the

two halves are sup parted anly on both ends or in buildings in
which elements jut out considerably beyond their points of support.

An example of the cantilever construction is the

Cultural Center of the " Philippines building on Rooxas Boulevard.
Its principal feature is a massive block of
travertine marble which is cantilevered 12 meters over the base of
the building. Supported by strongly arched beams, it seems
to float above the sculpted podium.
A G.
G)
 es
L
Regino Building,
Escol
ta.

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