Modern Grief by Modj Misme is the #IMBF2023 centercover for collaterals.

The graphic materials of the 6th Iloilo Mega Book Fair that have been flowing on our social media feed for the past few weeks have lured the eyes to take a closer look at the main element, which is the colorful artwork of Modj Misme.

The biggest book fair in this part of the world is happening from April 27 to 30, 2023, at the Festive Walk Mall, Iloilo Business Park of the Megaworld in Mandurriao district.

A cursory look at the work makes it appear like an aquarium filled with different aquatic creatures—swirling, whirling, spinning, floating—all in a spontaneous flow in its given space, very much like what is happening underwater.

The artwork has a rich story, and the play of colors somehow mirrors the colorful personality of Modj Misme. She is a popular artist in the Iloilo art scene: a teacher, digital artist, songwriter, and singer who carries a handy instrument, the ukelele, during art events and creative gigs.

She is now a teacher in Dubai while continuing to make art.

Modern Grief of Modj Misme

The Modern Grief is a 36 x 24 inch digital art piece done by Misme in November 2022.

It was inspired by the famous triptych masterpiece of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch entitled “Garden of Earthly Delights.”

“I wanted to emit a degree of disgust, curiosity, and bewilderment with the artwork,” shared Misme, “while at the same time creating conversations about certain elements that people might find funny, confusing, or odd.”

The artwork is her surrealistic portrayal of the different faces of grief, a state of sorrow, anguish, or sadness.

The composition employs the symbolism of colors, a time-tested approach to highlighting an emotion, message, or meaning. The different colors, or “technicolors” as she emphasized, is like a coding method to describe the various ways that we cope with grief. On one hand, it may be revealing, while on the other, it may be veiled to hide distress.

The sectioning of the work also hints at multiple anxieties and how human senses naturally play when we are in a state of grief: touch, seeing, hearing, smell, and taste. This is depicted by the hands that gesture struggles, calling for rescue or care; the ears to invite listening and appeal to empathy; and the varied expressions of the eyes that show a passive attitude or hyperactive mind at different points in time.

Also read: The Iloilo Critics Circle

All of these elements described Misme’s emotions while grieving from afar after she lost a dear friend whose life was characterized by hardships and grief, a circumstance to which Modern Grief is dedicated.

The colors and style that Misme applied to the work invite the viewer to step inside and allow the artpiece to relay its narrative and commentary, a metaphor to indulge in the unconscious and jolt the viewer to step back and perhaps reflect, “What is going on here?” in order to go deeper behind the symbols of colors to understand the person’s state of mind or level of grief.

The work, however, is not all about anguish. It also portrays the high-spirited, exuberant, and musical character of the artist as she plays up hues that symbolize accents or rhythms in a musical play that she is most familiar with playing the ukelele.

The work of Modj Misme may have captured the “surreality” of the local art environment, which has a diversity of actors at play.