• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO

A group art exhibition celebrating the Chinese New Year that ushered in the Year of the Wood Snake opened at the Dana Art Space, FGS Yuan Thong Buddhist Temple along Burgos Street, Bacolod City on January 28, which will run until March.
Rebirth is an art exhibition, which features works of local Negrense artists, and also serves as a launching event for the Dana Art Space as a venue for contemporary art in Negros. Leading the ribbon-cutting rites were Corazon Romero of the Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) and Bacolod visual artist Patty Jane Ong.
According to the organizers, the word rebirth could mean many things: a new beginning, a second birth, a renewed existence, comeback, recovery, rehabilitation, rejuvenation, etc.





Many festivals around the world are celebrations of new beginnings, such as the Chinese New Year, which marks the end of winter and the start of the Spring Festival.
This year is the year of the wood snake in the Chinese calendar which represents wisdom, intelligence, and intuition.
The snake in Filipino culture is represented by the Bakunawa, a serpent that looks like a dragon in Philippine mythology, inhabiting the underworld and the skies and is believed to be the source of eclipses, earthquakes, rains, and wind.
The artwork in the exhibition also reveals an obvious cultural difference between the Filipino and Chinese in the way they perceive, do, and express themselves, particularly in the way each artist portrays the image of a snake.
Rebirth is an opportunity for local artist in Negros to pay homage to the celebration of the Chinese New Year, which they also hope serves as a platform for a new beginning.*