The Art of Ruins (Article in Progress)

The Art of Ruins

 Historical Remnants of the Past   

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Even when the magnificent buildings of the past are ruined centuries later, they continue to shine like candle flames that weaken by the wind but never go out!” -  Mehmet Murat Ildan

Part 1 - Ruins of Palacio del Gobernador

San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

 

“The allure of antiquity...
The echoes of bygone eras, where time seems to linger in the aged textures of ancients.
A visceral connection to history, a sense of mystery wrapped in the patina of time, evoking a profound appreciation for the stories embedded in each weathered relic.
I'm in love with the feel of this very feeling.
I belong here. Relics. Ruins.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

   

 

Part 2 - Ruins - Grim Reminders of Civilization

“It seems, in fact, that the more advanced a society is, the greater will be its interest in ruined things, for it will see in them a redemptively sobering reminder of the fragility of its own achievements. Ruins pose a direct challenge to our concern with power and rank, with bustle and fame. They puncture the inflated folly of our exhaustive and frenetic pursuit of wealth.” -  Alain de Botton, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

  Sunken town of Pantabangan Nueva Ecija resurfaces during a extreme drought. Nature is sacrificed to human needs, more so to human wants in pursuit of affluence.  

Sunken pier, Puerto Sto Domingo, Ilocos Sur; Shipwreck, Tacloban, Leyte.

To some scientists the "uselessness" of technology is likened to Lamarck's theory of use and disuse, though biological in perspective. Lamarck believed that disuse would result in a character or feature becoming reduced. 

 

 Ruin of Intramuros, Manila, left by WWII 60 years after. 
Death of cities is on the rise all over the world.

 Berlin wall falls, Germany is re-united in 1989 since end of WWII.
But more walls are built dividing cultures and politics.

 “Maybe there’s something instinctive in us, that we’re drawn to human habitation and can’t resist a ruin, the way newborn babies respond to a crude drawing of a face. These are the rarities in human history, the places from which we’ve retreated. These once-inhabited places play a different air to the uninhabited; they suggest the lost past, the lost Eden, not the Utopia to come.” ― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Part 3 -  Ruins of a Lighthouse

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ruins of a Lighthouse in acrylic by AV Rotor

Painted on August 5, 2023 in Brisbane, Australia, 

It's a song on canvas heard and seen

of an ancient lighthouse ruin;

waves against the rocks still crashing

and the boats gayfully sailing.

Melody I hear in every brush stroke,

like writing pages of a book,

against blue sky and water still alive

 through time that you survive.

Entombed on canvas are your relics,

of history that speaks

of a masterpiece of the imagination

in artistic expression. ~