Lecture on the Concept of PAIN in Local Art, Performance Ritual and Belief (Nov 24, 2007), an Abstract

PAIN is that we perceive such as a bodily sensation that varies in volume, intensity, locale, duration, etc., then we know that there is more to it that meets the WHACK. Philosophers have “rhapsodized” on the the nature of this sensation and labeled it as the most prominent amongst other physical sensations and the most controversial. Scientists and Medical care go into the dissection of it thru its physical pathology, but a more holistic perception include psychosocial, biologic, emotional and belief structures.

Thus, the recreation of PAIN comes in two conceptual threads: Pain as a Physical Condition and Pain as a Subjective Experience. Granting that this dual thread exists, there must be an existing ramified relationship in tension.

But this is not the marrow of this paper, since pain in the common sense is utterly an unpleasant and uncomfortable stimuli, the individual in PAIN’s main concern is its alleviation or outward elimination.

Artists identify PAIN in concrete metaphors, since expression of it dwells mostly in the visages or imagery of their creative products. In this lecture, we try to “divine” pain as found in local art, as expressions of purging or catharsis of some randomly chosen local painters, sculptors, performance artists, and find PAIN in their conscious or subconscious meanings. And also, perhaps, we may delve on the deeper realms of Art in our common turf of Pain, may it be therapeutic or propadeutic…or otherwise.

Prof. Dulz Cuna

Lecture Presentor

MAHARLIKA Artists and Writers Federation

The 4^th SUNRISE Festival, Baguio City

http://maharlikasunrisefest.com/index.html

November 23-25, 2007

(Painting above: "Salva Me Corazon" by Nunelucio Alvarado)