“Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;

your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;

you know the deep essence of water and the earth,

conjoined in you like a formula for clay.”

– XXXIV (You are the daughter of the sea) Pablo Neruda

“Daughters of the sea” takes its name from a poem by Pablo Neruda’s “You are the daughter of the sea”. The poem provides rich imagery using metaphors that allude to the poet’s lover. Inspired by the words of Neruda, Chinnich Candao and Bea Policarpio transforms literary art into a visual excursion that takes one’s senses on a trip to the sea.

In Daughters of the Sea, both artists respond to lines from the poem that resonated with them the most.

Vignettes of The Maguindanaoan Sea

Candao’s creative direction is informed by vignettes of her dreams that remind her of her childhood days and on her Abu’s (father’s) farm. She recalls swimming in the river and beaches in Mindanao. Her works which are titled in Maguindanaoan are translations of the specific elements in the poem that struck her. 

Candao groups her pieces according to the stanzas in the poem and they are distinguishable by their color motifs. 

The line “Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth” is comprised of four pieces that illustrate the sea with gold reflections; “Your eyes go out toward the water and the wave rise,” for this stanza Candao focus on the power and movement of waves as seen in the pieces “Pagkaslan su ngyawa nenka” (Let Your Soul Thrive), “Suti a kalintad” (Pure serenity), and “Suti a kalilintad” (Sacred bliss). And for the line “You know the deep essence of water and the earth,” Candao frames the delineation between land and sea in these pieces.

A close inspection of the works reveals the Maguindanaonan roots of the artist. She incorporates Inaul patterns within the waves on the canvas to pay tribute to her identity as a descendant of Sultan Kudarat. “Throughout painting the pieces, I understood that my art is a conduit of love that must be remembered by its viewer much like the sea, with its power and beauty, you find love in yourself, and you become it, you are the statement of that love” Candao shares.

Bea Policarpio’s pieces are a love letter to the sea just as Neruda expresses deeply impassioned feelings for his lover. Her signature impasto technique allows her to visually mimic the motions of seawater ꟷ powerful and moving.

Her works offer views of the sunsets and sunrises along the southern coast of France, drawing as well from her memories of tropical living in Siargao Island. Her expressive sweeps of paint and choice of colors work like a visual diary that chronicles the changes between the sky and the sea as light bounces off them at different times of the day. 

“I’ve always felt and mused about how the ocean has such divine feminine energy. She is both powerful & vulnerable. She is raw, wild, and unpredictable. She can hold both the calm and the storm at once. [The works in] Daughters of the Sea have a depth and intuition about them, they flow with life’s seasons and are more intimately in tune with nature’s emotional cycles.” Policarpio shares.

Her piece de resistance titled La Méditerranée is an abstract seascape that is hinged on the artist’s memory of her trip where she had a renewed perspective of the ocean. Witnessing the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea along the French commune Palavas les Flots in autumn, offered her a very different sight of colors and ambiance that contrast the tropical seascapes we are used to.

“Touching Heaven ” which is a piece she painted on a mirror, gives the viewer a glimpse of their reflection on the ocean’s surface as if to allude the reciprocation of love the ocean gives to those who look at it adoringly. It reminds us of the themes of love for the sea and Neruda’s poem as a romantic gesture to his lover. Like La Méditerranée, this piece is also inspired by a similar yet warmer pastel palette.

She contrasts these pastel-colored pieces with works painted in a darker hue of sea green. This adds a variety of depth in her depictions of the ocean. Looking at the darker colored piece is almost as if one was staring at the depths of the poet’s endless well of admiration for his lover.

Text by Marz Aglipay