The life aesthetic: Reading Tariman’s ‘Encounters in the Arts’

By John Anthony S. Estolloso

TRULY YOURS first ‘encountered’ Mr. Pablo Tariman in 2022; it was through Messenger, asking permission to tag him in a review of an operatic concert he arranged at the University of the Philippines – Visayas. I was sick that time from the rather overwrought pace of hybrid classes, but I could not afford to waste my time wallowing in bed. The result was a well-received article and the acquaintance of one of the capital’s most respected art writers and impresarios.

The same musical event witnessed his conferment as an honorary Ilonggo citizen by Mayor Jerry Treñas, an occasion that deepened the association of Tariman’s name with classical music performances here in Iloilo City. Granted, his past involvements in Philippine arts and culture were both prolific and intimate: he followed the art scene with spaniel-heart devotion and beyond that, he maintained deeply personal relationships with its players, those that provided him with insights rarely shared to the ordinary art connoisseur.

Just last year, he encapsulated these experiences in a single volume.

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Spanning several decades of the life aesthetic, Tariman’s ‘Encounters in the Arts’ is a collection of artistic vignettes in essays and profiles. It abounds with a plethora of detail: curious episodes and ephemera about performers and performances punctuate reviews of concerts, recitals, films, dramatic productions, and literature. Unsurprisingly, the tang of appreciation is different when one can smirk while reading about which conductor or danseuse truly enjoyed a performance – or which presidents have the penchant for the music of the masters.

Stellar names surface in his reportage. Interviews and conversations with Filipino musicians like Cecile Licad, Arthur Espiritu, and Gerald Salonga run alongside anecdotes about international virtuosos with the likes of Van Cliburn, Gary Graffman, Jose Carreras, and Claude-Michel Schönberg, among others. Poignant recollections of ballerinas and dancers permeate his stories – like Nonoy Froilan’s farewell to the ballet stage and Lisa Macuja-Elizalde’s encores. Tales of the screen and stage bring to life the eclectic range of Philippine cinema and theatre, gleaned from Ishmael Bernal, Peque Gallaga, Nora Aunor, Cherie Gil, Ricky Lee, and Joel Lamangan.

Likewise, literature – as poetry, prose, or criticism – is framed reflectively through the poets and writers: Pete Lacaba and Kerima Polotan, among others, transcend their poems and prose in Tariman’s narrative, the same way that the criticism of the arts is provocatively examined by telling the narratives of the critics.

Tidbits of the personal and the professional: these are what Tariman’s book has to offer. Comprehensiveness is put on the sidelines and what we unpack in the compendium of articles are both revealing and adulatory, with hints of the jocund on certain occasions. While we can snidely comment about digging up the artistic obscura of the nation, would these not be the stuff that good historical readings are made of?

We read of artistes and the Artist – not simply about those who delve into the praxis of art but also the familiarly creative practice reaching beyond the masterpiece or the performance. It is a veritable goldmine of glimpses to what goes on backstage, on the drawing board, or in the dance studio, even as it doubles as an introspective record of the country’s aesthetic and cultural Sturm und Drang. In Tariman’s articles, musicians, ballerinas, filmmakers, writers, and architects become principal players in the drama of the nation’s story.

Admittedly, the recurrent theme is the creative process, one that crisscrosses from the purely performative or visual to curiously socio-political involvements. Beyond the artistic is the artist: human and flawed as we are – and their stories make for a good biographical read. It gives credence to how historian Daniel J. Boorstin finds biography – and autobiography, for that matter – as literature ‘that engages the self in its vagrancy… the wilderness within [that] is not only a jungle of hopes and frustrations, but a place of mystery and beauty, of epic memories, bitter struggles and exhilaration, where the whole history of the human race is reenacted.’

While ‘Encounters in the Arts’ assumes a biographical stance in its exposition of artists, it nonetheless takes on a more autobiographical quality for Mr. Tariman: here is the writer-impresario insisting upon the audience’s share of the spotlight in the artistic experience. And for that, we salute the author for his brave essays into art [pun intended]: we wish him more years in the life aesthetic.

[The writer is the subject area coordinator for Social Studies in one of the private schools of the city. Mr. Tariman’s portrait was taken by Elizabeth Lolarga.]