AETERNUM DOLOREM, the 13th solo exhibition of Melvin Guirhem, invites you to comprehend pain—that mysterious ‘frenemy’ who indiscreetly lurks in the shadows—as authentic, constant, indestructible, and, in a sense, eternal.

A Latin phrase that means “eternal pain,” AETERNUM DOLOREM presents a collection of handcrafted textile art that instantly draws attention to Guirhem’s semiotic perspective on family and kinship. Appropriately rendered in the horror vacui idiom are allegorical depictions of his own malignant familial narrative, conjuring images of chaos, anguish, and pain. 

Blurring the boundaries between the personal and societal, and fading the divide between despair and hope, are the surrealist characters in distorted forms with vibrant swatches of fabric cutouts highlighting hostile temperaments as normalized domestic affectations.

Guirhem’s sharp visual prose seizes the eye, powerfully conveying pain as an embodied experience.

Revisit his 11th solo exhibition: Sentience, the continuing journey of Melvin Guirhem to selfhood

Throughout his artistic career, Guirhem has portrayed the family as a powerful symbol of social exclusion and political tension, forces that have shaped the world across generations. In his work, the family becomes a microcosm of inequities that demand recognition and intentional action, not only to alleviate but also, if possible, to free future generations from potential suffering.

This notion of cross-generational stewardship (or the lack thereof) within the fundamental social institution is the focus of Guirhem’s art for the most part of three decades, in which he depicted pain as a cyclical struggle, transcending both time and place.

Drawn from lived experience, AETERNUM DOLOREM represents the culmination of the Guirhem narrative—an opus that serves not as an affront to the traditions, values, and religious faith of the family to which he belongs, nor to the community with which they have evolved across generations, but rather as a timed series exploration of the stages of his deeply personal feelings and emotions. 

The Guirhem appliqué, with its ornate stitchery and delicate embellishments, stands out among a vast array of artistic styles. Notably, the artist dissects pain through a blended composition of social and psychological realism, forming a visual repertoire that explores bloodlines, patrimony, and legacy, guiding the artist toward a retrospective examination of life’s philosophies.

Evident in the work is the Guirhem trademark of existential symbols drawn from his experiences: chains, thorns, and sharp edges representing physical, emotional, and psychological entrapment; deformities and distorted bodies symbolizing prolonged suffering and agony; blooming flowers reflecting love and productivity; and colorful butterflies signifying hope and metamorphosis.

At the heart of the collection lies LIWANAG SA DILIM, a striking portrait that weaves a nuanced depiction of family, framing inheritance as a bitter-sweet paradox, bearing the weight of both blessing and burden, forever etched in the artist’s soul.

It portrays the couple’s bodies suspended in a horseback in an uncanny state of equilibrium, bridging the figurative and metaphorical representations of paternal and maternal figures, demonstrating breadwinners as workhorses, embodying the idea of tireless humans, their strength likened to ‘horsepower’ and machines.

Contrasting affection and intimacy is the visceral tension that blends agony with desire, the sacred with the profane, within a family in flux. Here lies the fated life of the artist, shaped by the bones of their elders, nailed to a crucifix and chained to a karosa—a carabao-or horse-drawn farm cart, equivocal of daily burdens and a lifetime of misery. It is a precarious household, set ablaze by the evils of society, sending kin floundering in diverging directions—an allegory of hell wrought from deficient intellectual capital and squandered patrimony.

Enriched with semantic potential, it personifies the Guirhem couple engaged in an intimate act, with Melvin embodying the ethereal bloodline and Recheal perpetually in bloom—a dialectic of fertility and reproduction. This coagulates the shared roles of spouses in nurturing the family’s well-being, spotlighting Recheal as a moral and spiritual character in an iconographic portrayal of the Reyna de las Flores de Mayo—the Queen of Flowers—a central figure in the Santacruzan procession during May—highlighting the peculiar burden associated with her meaningful role, as reflected in the biblical scripture: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

In LIWANAG SA DILIM, Guirhem synthesizes the historical roots of pain within the family, honoring his wife as a source of light throughout his journey into the dark landscape of his life, offering a profound understanding of the nature of pain.

Overlapping with the narratives of LIWANAG SA DILIM are a series of thought-provoking portraits that deconstruct the experiences of pain and family dysfunction. These portraits serve as a visual chronicle of major episodes in the artist’s life, presented aesthetically through a contrast of gloom and bloom to convey meaning.

Illustrating a family plagued by gloom and torment, KOMUSYON captures the artist’s memory, portraying Guirhem as an observer, shocked by the incivilities within his family. In this setting, the dining table becomes a battleground for real-life conflict, where enduring disagreements and anger unfold in verbal commotion. Food, instead of being seen as a grace and blessing, is reduced to symbols of ingratitude, leading to misfortunes.

The work epitomizes the fading emotional connection and spiritual hypocrisies within a conflicted family, as emphasized by the crucifix, further intensifying the emotional impact of pain on the artist.

Exacerbating the gloom of suffering is ETERNAL PAIN, a deeply emotional and personal confession from the Guirhem couple, who faced the agonizing loss of an unborn child. This tragedy left them with a profound sense of emptiness and caused them to question their roles in life.

The portrait idealizes the family as a monarchial unit in an ironic display of crowns and thorns, emblematic of their intense struggle to conceive. It depicts children as precious yet elusive gold, supposedly their birth symbolic of dignity, hope, completeness, and continuity.

The piece serves as a remnant of lost aspirations, while also sparking the process of personal purification that brings emotional balance and peace to the couple’s hearts, from which the blooming of flowers and butterflies emanates.

From bloom and gloom are dissonances between personal and social norms and these are exemplified by KABALIKAT (partner) and HAPIS (sorrow and grief). These pieces continue the narrative of survival highlighting the important role of partners in life as a support system and sources of joy and inspiration, easing sorrow and grief. 

From the internal world of the family, the artist steps into the social milieu in HUKOM, confronting its dissociative tendencies, especially when faced with ‘know-it-all’ characters. In this piece, the artist critiques the notion inscribed on the canvas: ‘Na ang talino at kabutihang loob ay batay lamang sa galing ng pananalita at hindi sa gawa???‘ By doing so, the artist reframes the idea that those who are articulate in speech should also be judged by their actions.

HUKOM serves as a caveat for those who rely solely on sweet words, reminding them that they too will encounter pain.

Completing the narrative is ELUXOROMA, a work that embodies the virtue of positive spiritual growth amidst chaos and pain. It serves as a composite representation of Guirhem’s past, present, and future. The artist, moving forward with cane and butterfly, is gently nudged by the hypnotic slithering motion of a serpent’s undulating body. This evokes a return to his past, with claws representing unforgettable memories, cells symbolizing a lifetime of imprisonment from old beliefs and inadequacies, and insurgents whose ideology continues to undermine community peace and harmony.

AETERNUM DOLOREM captures the power of art to facilitate acceptance of the coexistence of life and pain, an epigram of the artist’s cathartic journey to healing and self-understanding—mirroring our own experiences—evoking the universality of this profound human condition—a coming of age of the artist.

– Ted Aldwin Ong