Art in the Park

Anyone should be able to own art. But prices of artworks nowadays are too prohibitive for common folks like me. The Art in the Park event organized by the Museum Foundation of the Philippines solves the challenge of making art by Filipino artists ‘affordable’ and reachable in a venue where there is a great amount of access.

Jaime Velasquez Park in Salcedo Village Makati is popular for its weekend market. But once a year, the regular food vendors give way to a gathering of selected art galleries and art groups for this annual celebration of Pinoy art.

Blending together with the lush greenery were large scale sculptural installations that transformed Salcedo Park as an exhibition of contemporary art.  Each sculptural installation was creatively placed in the flower beds along the walkway or were hanged or coiled on tree branches.

Greeting spectators is the happy-looking sculptural painting by Dex Fernandez. In the central walkway, we passed under Mac Valdezco whimsical plastic sculpture. Then there is the installation by Pete Jimenez that invites spectators to interact with his assemblage of found metal objects.

Off course, the happiness is in seeing the enormous array of artworks on sale. Browsing at the original paintings, prints, pottery, sculptures, collectible toys, jewelry, wearable and useful art showcased in each booth has been an exciting learning experience.

In the process of looking at the works of young artists alongside with some of the established names in Philippine art, we are learning more about the current art scene. Events like this provide an opportunity to prepare and educate new generation of collectors who will perhaps together with our young, emerging artists be the key players of our future local art industry.

We also enjoyed most of the side activities. We watched Neil Arvin Javier performed his on-the-spot graffiti mural by the playground and the fishballs and fruit drinks at the food strip. Talk about multi-sensory impact!

To be immersed in trove of art is overwhelming. But given the relax atmosphere, we find it easy to ask about the art pieces that interest us and find out more about artists who created them from the artists themselves and the friendliest gallery owners present at the 2013 edition of Art in the Park.

Escolta Saturday Market

It must be the history, the remaining turn-of-the-twentieth century architecture, or the dusty bits and pieces of memories romanticized by great grandparents that led a group of artists into reviving the vibrancy of Escolta, not as the country’s premier high street as it was in the 1900s but this time as an accessible and popular cultural and artsy center in good old downtown Manila.

The recent staging of the Escolta Saturday Market where vintage items were sold in what used to be the site of the fashionable Berg’s Department Store in the 1930s is an attempt to bring back old world Escolta in its heyday and perhaps the first step in making generations familiar of that forgotten place and time.

But to say that we have forgotten about Escolta is an understatement. For one thing, our generation is not fortunate enough to live in that era when Escolta became the country’s classiest shopping destination. That’s why it is not surprising to learn from some people that they do not feel any connection or relevance when passing by this short thoroughfare in Manila today.

However, nostalgia can strike us when looking at old photos of Escolta. Its rows of opulent shops, which were actually traditional bahay-na-bato with sliding panels of capiz windows on the second floor and huge glass display windows at street level where all conceivable caprichos and overpriced imported luxuries were sold.

The famous emporium La Estrella del Norte and La Puerta del Sol which marked the east and west entrances of the narrow thoroughfare, introduced the first bicycles, cameras, phonographs and the trendiest and most fashionable home furnishings to the biggest spenders of that time.

A good find in the Saturday market were the mugs with images of vintage cars and bicycles printed on them. This fittingly recalls when La Estrella del Norte brought in the first automobile in the country called a Richard, which was bought by a certain
Dr. Miciano –an affluent physician.

La Puerta del Sol is said to have sold the finest European décor and household ware. In 1875, it introduced the term tulipan referring to gas lamps with tulip-shaped glass chimneys. In the 1920s and 1930s, Escolta shops selling all kinds of gas lamps made of glass were generically called tulipan. Just like in the Saturday market, everything for sale has been generically called pre-loved vintage items.

Other high end stores like H.E. Heacocks and Oceanic were known for the exquisite household items. While Fashionable clothes were displayed at Berg’s, quality leather and shoes were stocked at Hamilton Brown or Walkover Shoes.

It was also in the twenties and the thirties when art nouveau and art deco design elements were incorporated in the architecture of Escolta’s landmark buildings like the Crystal Arcade, Capitol and Lyric Theaters, Calvo, Natividad, Burke, Regina, and Perez-Samanillo (First United Building). Some of these buildings are now gone and only be seen in old photos and in miniature models at the Calvo Museum.

Pre-war Escolta only reigns in the memory of those who were fascinated by its grandeur. With the old glamor gone, the Escolta we know today is just a narrow street in Manila with decrepit art deco and art nouveau structures just waiting to be revitalized for adaptive reuse as cafés, restaurants, wineries, art galleries, art schools, culinary schools, creative workshop venues, exhibition spaces for art fairs and trade shows, boutiques, vintage and antique shops, bookstores, music stores, graphic design studios, photography studios, band rehearsal studios, etc. etc.

The successful staging of the Escolta Saturday Market is an inspiration to those who have all of the above in mind. Our generation can now start looking forward to a time and period when an accessible and popular, still old world yet artsy Escolta is thriving and pulsating once again in good old downtown Manila just like during its ‘forgotten’ heyday.

Don Santana’s Unseen Heritage

Don Santana’s paintings open our eyes into the often unseen heritage of the Badjao, T’boli, Manobo, and to the rich and colorful cultures of our indigenous peoples. For this interview, Don, a full-time math professor shares how a trip in an art town inspired him to enter a life-journey into becoming an artist.  

Traveler on Foot: Your art is about the different faces of ethnic groups in the Philippines. Please tell us about your art?

Don Santana: Let me explain it this way. I love my culture. I think I’m doing this art greatly because I want people, especially Filipinos to see the beauty of my culture.

TOF: Where did you have your formal art lessons? What is the most important lesson did you learn from your teacher?

Don Santana: First, I came from a family of comics illustrators. Mar T. Santana and associates is my first orientation in art. My father was also part of that associate. That is where I’ve learned drawing.

I’ve learned colors and painting thru the workshop of Fernando Sena then most of them are from small talks with fellow artists, watching documentary, and reading books especially (about) Philippine art.

TOF:  Artists’ blood runs in you. Tell us something about your childhood, a time when you were discovering about art.

Don Santana: The craving for art I think really started when I joined the art club in high school then we had an art field trip in Angono. I saw the works of Botong (Carlos Francisco) and Aban (Salvador Juban), and the family of artist (Pitok Blanco?) I forgot the name. I think that was the time I said to myself I wanted to be an artist.

The problem was my father doesn’t want me to get fine arts. That was a big blow to me. The worst years of my life was not doing art.

TOF: A part of the idea of becoming an artist was inspired by a travel to Angono. What subjects or themes did you start drawing then?

Don Santana: Philippine history until I enrolled in Sena. I have to do still life, landscapes. etc. Kasi he told me that I need to refine first my talent before doing other things or finding my identity in art.

There was a time also I did abstract after reading and watching the documentary of (Jackson) Pollock but after watching the documentary of American art, that changed my philosophy.

TOF: You were in Fernando Sena’s art class. What is the most important lesson did you learn from him?

Don Santana: Color theory and combination and humility (smiles).

TOF: What is like being in Sena’s class?

Don Santana: A start of a dream and a journey. (He) will teach you the very basic. (He) will make your foundation solid.

TOF: In art classes with Sena you learned about color theory, you painting still life and landscape. How did it lead to the subjects we see now? Ethnic groups.

Don Santana: How to use color combinations. It is still my basis but the subjects are more on research and reading.

TOF: Before you got into painting ethnic groups? Have your tried other styles like cubism, abstract, or other styles?

Don Santana: Abstract. Only abstract.

TOF: Who are your favorite artists?

Don Santana: Local of course my mentor Sena, Nune (Nunelucio Alvarado), and Fil dela Cruz. Foreign Pollock,  (Gustav) Klimt, and (Daniel) Ambross. Classic, Rembrandt.

TOF: Let’s talk about the current art scene. They say that the artists today are luckier because anyone can be an artist. Can you comment on this?

Don Santana: I think every artist in his era have issues. Art has no end. That is why there are certainties and uncertainties. Law of nature.

TOF: How do you see yourself in the years to come as an artist and your art?

Don Santana: Doing the same advocacy. Promote the color of my culture. I hope to live for the next 30 years but I want my art and its mission to live for centuries.

Art Fair Philippines

Artworks are beautiful objects that strike us in an emotional way. The experience when  viewing at a remarkable piece of art is comparable to the rhapsody felt when a symphony orchestra performs its high finale or that natural high we get from grooving our way to a shindig or in a rowdy street dancing parade to the beat of deafening tribal drums.

But having to talk about art or even walking into art fairs and art galleries can be intimidating because for the longest time our local art scene has been packaged as an exclusive realm belonging only to the elite. Somehow, the recently held  Art Fair Philippines broke this delusion and has allowed local spectators to see up close selected pieces created by intrepid Filipino artists who found their spot in the international contemporary art scene.

While most people find typical art exhibits staged in exclusive venues, congenial only to the sophisticated and culturally educated, the art fair was unconventionally set in a parking space of a commercial building in Makati where 24 influential galleries and art groups showcased outstanding pieces from which the local audience can easily identify and connect with.

As a regular traveler who has been exposed to our heritage and cultural icons, I found a surreal twist in the Ronald Ventura’s bulols and a familiar part of an urban streetscape in Dexter Fernandez’s wall art. As if intentionally made to be a showstopper, Gabby Barredo’s Asphalt pleasantly surprises spectators as they enter a darkroom to be mesmerized by the artist’s symphony of moving objects.

It is overwhelming to take in every beautiful piece in just one visit. But the one hundred pesos entrance fee cannot equal the fascination, bewilderment, and fixation I had that Friday afternoon with particular works of art.

A non-expert in art will immediately surrender in the masterful works of Romulo Olazo, Ramon Orlina and Jason Montinola.

While the exhibit proves no doubt of the unpredictability and progressive art practice of our local contemporary artists, timeless themes and folkloric colors we find in traditionally Filipino artworks are represented in the paintings of Mario de Rivera, Pablo Baens Santos, Don Salubayba and the great Onib Olmedo.

A work of art in itself is the way each participating gallery set their booth. Altro Mondo, Avellana Art Gallery, and The Drawing Room has put up casual yet tasteful settings that genuinely reflect the kind of atmosphere visitors and clients experienced when going into their actual galleries –unpretentious, relax, and most important of all friendly.

Moving around the art fair has been pleasurable because it lacked the usual come-on and sales pitch from the dealers and the chatter among collectors and gallerists of the who bought the what piece for the price of.

While I completely agree that art can never be for art’s sake alone because our artists need to survive for all kinds of art expressions to flourish. However, this idea developed into a common impression that art thrives on elitist grounds, that art is inaccessible and can be intimidating. Perhaps it is the commercial side and intellectual dimensions of art that scares off a lot of us into visiting art galleries and going to art fairs.

But we have to give it to the private art groups and generous collectors who made used of their resources and influence in promoting our local art to make it relevant and available for the public to see. To the organizers of Art Fair Philippines, thank you.

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Related story: Art Now For Everyone at the SM MOA

Corregidor Historical Walking Tour with Ivan Dy

Some years ago, I joined the typical tram tour that is taking tourists to the different historical landmarks and memorial shrines at the Topside, Middleside, and Bottomside of Corregidor Island. War stories narrated during that guided tour were unimaginable, making me feel grateful that our generation is fortunate to have not experienced the horrors of World War II.

As if time has stood still upon seeing the intact ruins in Corregidor again. This time I joined the launch of Ivan Dy’s Corregidor Historical Walking Tour.

Corregidor is one of the four islands that guard the narrow opening of Manila Bay. In different occassions, it has been used as a pirate’s lair, a customs checkpoint, and a military base called Fort Mills. It was the Americans who put up the big guns and built the modern buildings like the Mile Long Barracks and Cine Corregidor.

All these grand structures were blasted away during the war. What remains today are the intact ruins that serve as monuments to a time in our history at its most gruesome and bloodiest.

Unlike the tramvia tour that rolls from the head down to the tail of the tadpole-shaped island, the walking tour focuses on the Memorial Zone at the Topside where much of the architectural ruins are concentrated.

The sight and feel of the collapsed and charred structures,  twisted metal, and the thought that many have perished here fighting provide a potent setting for Ivan’s stories not only about the Pacific War but also the  infamous cover up like the Jabidah Massacre.

Ivan fittingly shared the island’s history during the colonial era and how it got its name at the quadrangle below the Spanish lighthouse, which is the oldest structure in Corregidor. He then led us to the mast of the Spanish battleship Maria Cristina that was turned  by the victorious American forces into a flag pole for their stars and stripes –a Spanish-American war booty as Ivan describes.

Our tour continued at the Mile-Long Barracks then down the slope to the big guns of Battery Way.

The four massive guns of Battery Way are capable of firing in any direction. However, only three of the four big guns were actually used against the invading Japanese forces in 1942. Two were later damaged beyond repair by Japanese artillery and like most of the other big guns in Corregidor, they were all permanently damaged during the retaking of the island in 1945.

Blood were spilled on the island not only during World War II but also as recent as 1968 when around sixty Tausug and Sama youths, recruited for a top secret training program to attack the disputed Sabah, Borneo staged a mutiny on the island after finding out that they will be asked to kill fellow Muslims. The training officers mowed down  the recruits in the airfield with gunfire. These killings would have remain undisclosed to the public if not for a survivor who revealed the massacre.

From Battery Way, we walked through a dirt path to reach the abandoned hospital. The ruins once served as the living quarters of the recurits  known as the Jabidah unit. Ivan pointed at the graffiti left by the disgruntled recruits on the hospital walls.  Howcome nobody erased them? Perhaps those graffiti were left to serve as memorial or as morbid reminders of the carnage that took place in Corregidor, infamously known as the Jabidah Massacre.

The tour concluded at the Pacific War Memorial. We had lunch at the only hotel in island. After lunch, we joined the optional tour to the Malinta Tunnel for an afternoon ghost hunting.

Anyone can do a walking tour. For countless of times I’ve completed hiking and historic trails without a tour guide. But the experience is rather different when walking with Ivan who takes people to the same old places, sharing stories that can inspire new thoughts about how we conclude our history and how we describe our concept of freedom.

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For information about the Corregidor Historical Walking Tour, check them out at www.oldmanilawalks.com.
Reach Ivan Dy at fun@oldmanilawalks.com or at 0918.962.64.52 (that’s 0918.9MANILA) and (landline no.) 632. 711.38.23