Noreen M. Flores, Contributor, Jakarta
One look at a Christian Tamondong painting and you know you are being led into a ""world of children"". His canvasses are filled with images associated with childhood, such as playgrounds and playthings, the colors of which compel you to investigate closely. The atmosphere is fun, friendly and playful.
In his solo exhibition Haven, which runs from Feb. 24 to March 5 at Audi Showroom on Jl. MT Haryono, Filipino artist Tamondong employed a lot of forms representative of childhood, which tend to tell individual stories. Seemingly unrelated to one another, the artist has masterfully put the stories together as one integrated composition, making use of much discipline and restraint to achieve overall harmony.
On the whole, his paintings are reminiscent of Miro, whose works do not fail to awaken some of the inner child in you, although that might not be his original intention. Like the Spanish maestro, Tamondong used childlike forms as tools for exploration and expression.
In Flying with Friends (acrylic and oil on canvas), Tamondong celebrates man's dream of flying. The picture clearly tells the inner longing of man to travel far and wide, to fly, as represented by childlike shapes of railway tracks, helicopters, airplanes and balloons.
However, Tamondong's works are not at all naive nor are they spontaneous. It may look like he happily and randomly scatters shapes of objects associated with childhood in his paintings, but his technique is well defined and consistent, something not expected of children, and his color combinations are mature and agreeable. His kind of art definitely commands minute planning and well-studied execution.
Tamondong, an art graduate from the Philippines and a multi-awarded artist, courageously uses oils, crayons and acrylic in almost all his pieces, a technique which he has skillfully used to heighten the effect of playfulness. His paintings are decidedly busy pictures, but joyful and refreshing.
