Design and Art Australia Online

Ronell Catulong was born in the Philippines in 1987; his family moved to Australia five years later (1992). He comes from a creative background in which many of his aunts and uncles have a background in music and art. Catulong’s biggest influences came from observing the deft use of precise line work in cartoons and comic books, inspiring him to perfect his own illustrations and artwork. Catulong is fascinated by dark poetries, crows and ravens; he occasionally enjoys listening to “mellow and somber” music which involves “pain and loss”, and the eerie “silence of cemeteries” (pers. comm.).

Catulong’s artistic talent was noticed at Fairfield High School by his teachers, enabling him to participate in the Gifted and Talented Visual Arts Program from 2001 to 2004, when he was permitted to use professional equipment under the guidance of a teacher, and exhibit his work in the 'Fairfield City Library Youth Week Art Exhibition’ – for which he received a certificate of appreciation in 2002. His Lost Anatomical Drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci , a series of illustrations on watercolour paper, was preselected for the 2004 Art Express but was actually shown at Art Mania: Fairfield HSC Artwork exhibition in early 2005, held at Fairfield Museum (Fairfield, NSW).

Catulong then chose to study art at the School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney, completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008. 'The Twenty-Seventh Letter’, the graduation exhibition curated by Caleb Kelly, included Catulong’s Little Thoughts (2008), a series of plaster and clay mouldings and illustrations on paper examining the cycle of life and death.

In 2008 a series of three digital prints titled Colour Less , was part of the 'Untitled Exhibition’ held at the Vanishing Point Gallery, Newtown (Sydney) and curated by Yang En Hume and Geoffrey Wong. On a stark white background, the slightly red-tinged black on white image of a face is shown three times, once with the basic facial features presented, the other two times with variations on alarmingly enlarged “veins” extending from the right eye. For Catulong these “veins” indicate that there is: “only one colour of blood among the human race. The work as a whole sought to question “prejudice and racial discrimination” that “segregates people”“ (online artist’s statement). Catulong believes that everyone should be viewed and seen as one: “I want to show we’re all the same and we shouldn’t classify or judge people as separatists” because there is “only one colour of blood among the human race” (ibid). Catulong hopes that such issues are not forgotten.

In September 2009 he installed various decorative art pieces for the Sydney staging of a global dance festival, Defqon. Artworks for Defqon were made from recycled industrial materials sourced from Reverse Garbage in Marrickville, NSW. Catulong made various “rockets” out of assorted materials, although his key piece was a surreal sculpture of Medusa out of whose skull protrudes the snake-like forms of a garden hose, resting on a body made of foam squares and old metal frames.

His physically dark works also explore the darker side of life, what he calls “the realm of death, loss and suffering through the human psyche and soul” (pers. comm.). Having lost a few relatives in recent years, Catulong has come to accept that death can take away someone close. But he hopes that perhaps “someone can really live on” through the artwork that he has created. Catulong’s work on the website deviantArt shows a series of digital images in which he conveys his “feelings and moods” through sinuous lines and a sometimes startling use of colour (pers. comm.).

Using a number of media – painting, clay mouldings, drawing, photography and digital mixed media – Catulong explores cultural contexts, behaviours and emotional characteristics. These explorations afford him a sense of “refuge”, whereby his art practice becomes “a therapeutic experience and a form of catharsis” (pers. comm.). He remains fascinated by the beauty of nature, from a “perfect, lush green [leaf]” to a slow winding process in which the “[leaf] turns brown, withers and shrivels [with] decay” (pers. comm.). Catulong finds the contrast between life and death important in his work, as it shows that not everything is perfect and all things have two or more sides to the story. Through his personal investigations, he feels his art becomes inclusive of a wider audience.

Writers:

Halim, Angelina Note: Angelina is a final year Commerce student at UNSW, and a student in Dr De Lorenzo's course on Public Art.
De Lorenzo, Catherine

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011