“Senyor High” Art Nouveau style poster demonstration artwork
2024
Acrylic on Board
I created this artwork to demonstrate the okkir of the Maranao people / ukkil of the Tausūg people floral style as applied in an Art Nouveau styled poster.
I had given my students an assignment to create an Art Nouveau styled poster, featuring a Philippine festival. And I made my own version to demonstrate that I am also capable of the assignments that I have given them.
My poster is a play of the Cebúano festival of the Sinulog, and the senior high school of the Southwestern University in where I teach.
The Sinulog is held every third week of January, and celebrates the arrival of Christianity to the Philippines in 1521. The central image of the Sinulog is the Reyna Humanay (Queen Humanay) holding the Christ Child, the Santo Niño. The cheer of the Sinulog is “Pit Senyor!”, which can be loosely translated as “We call to thee, Lord Child Jesus!”.
Hence I created a variance of the female senior high school uniform and rendered it into a festival queen’s gown and played with the title of “Senyor High”.
I rendered the okkir / ukkil to create a burdado (embroidered) effect on the gown of the Reyna Humanay and the Santo Niño. And if you look closely, I created bird, fish and octopus motif into the burdado patterns.
