VILLANUEVA, Juan Miguel R.

/ 185946 September 23, 2019

Art Appreciation 10 – Section V Module #1 Synthesis Project

An Analysis of Ronyel Compra’s

Lutâ: Imprint of Lola Masyang’s House

Lutâ: Imprint of Lola Masyang’s House

Forest for the Trees
Ronyel Compra
2017-2018
Termite soil, Rafia fabric, Adhesive, Emulsion

When first viewed, the piece entitled “Lutâ: Imprint of Lola Masyang’s House” is
simply a bunch of huge beige-colored cloth connected to each other pasted onto three long
walls with brown lines on it. There is a variety in the lines: isolated and intersecting, and thick
and thin. These lines also have varying value, from dark to faded. Some lines form square
shapes. No other colors present aside from brown and its different shades. There is not much
distinction between the positive and negative space as there are spaces wherein there is a faded
positive space, with the negative space peeking through.
There does not seem to be a subject matter -- no point of emphasis. Some spaces on the
piece show patterns through repetition of lines. There is balance in some spaces as well, shown
through the symmetry of different lines, but some spaces appear erratic and imbalanced.
Despite this, one can say that the piece is very harmonious as nothing seems out of place.
 It is a very simple piece of work at a physical standpoint. There is no apparent meaning
explicitly evident in the piece. It really is just a bunch of lines. However, of course, there is
more to it than meets the eye once the context is understood. The artist, Ronyel Compra, is a
Filipino visual artist based in Cebu City. In 2008, he graduated from the University of the
Philippines - Cebu with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and majored in painting (Bellas Artes
Projects). As much as possible, Compra avoids using conventional materials such as brushes
and canvasses. He stated that new environments and resources excite him, which allows him
to easily create anything in any given space (Diapana).
Compra’s most recent works involve a relief print technique of rubbing, a process called
lutâ or frottage, wherein imprints of different objects are created using a cloth material and
soil. He used this process in creating the piece, which reveals that the lines were not just painted
onto the cloth, but rather an imprint of an actual, physical, and existing subject. The subject
imprinted is actually his grandmother’s house, which was made of Amakan bamboo, sawali,
coconut lumber, and GI sheets. Compra says that the house was actually getting infested by
termites. It was only a matter of time before it gets completely destroyed by the termites. He
grew up in that small bamboo house. There are many memories attached to that structure.
Compra said in an interview with Street Konnect that one of the themes he that he loves to
tackle is nostalgia. There is something special with remembering the past, as it gives off this
surreal feeling -- the feeling of knowing what was while knowing that it is no more. Because
of his personal attachment to it and the desire for its immortality, Compra decided to make a
lutâ of the house.
He easily could have just taken a photo of the house or used a brush and canvas to
depict the structure, but the way he decided to immortalize it makes the piece a lot more
personal and emotional. The piece is not just rays of light and color captured by a lens nor is it
an interpretation of the eyes translated by the hand, but rather an extension of the subject. It is
the actuality of the house extended onto a cloth through the lutâ process. Not only that, but he
actually used the soil the house is standing on, the very soil that the termites live in, to depict
the lines on the piece. We come to realize that there is a play on the concept of the cycle of life
in his choice of using the soil -- the very thing helping the house’s death will be also be the
very thing immortalizing it.
When I first understood the piece and what it truly was, I was emotional. It opened up
a longing that I believe everyone has: the desire to have a personal and intimate connection to
the actualities we hold dearly in our hearts, may it be objects or people or experiences.
Sometimes, we wish we could hold them forever, but we are constantly reminded by life itself
that life does not work that way. Things fall apart, deteriorate, die, and it sucks. Thankfully, art
allows us to have a channel to these things forever in some way. We have paintings, pictures,
films, songs, and as Ronyel Compra shows us, a lutâ. These forms will never be enough to
replicate the things we’ve lost along the way, but they will be enough to make us remember of
how life was, and what it could be.

Bibliography
Diapana, Tiny. Digging Deeper: Ronyel Compra. October 2017. 21 September 2019.
Bellas Artes Projects. Ronyel Compra. n.d. 21 September 2019.
Rappler. Visayan artists explore importance of physical spaces in 'Place Attachment'. 29
Januart 2019. 21 September 2019.
Diapana, Tiny. In Perspective: a closer look at Ronyel Compra and ‘Selface’. 7 August 2016.
21 September 2019.