HANG-AW 2

Group Show of the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban

November 9 – December 10, 2011

Adamson University Art Gallery

The Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban reprises its show last year, this time through small works done in a variety of art media that bear images, scenes and issues in their culture and community or broadly explore themes that inspire pure creative expression. “Hang-aw” in Waray means to peer from a window, the equivalent of the Tagalog “dungaw.” The exhibit is thus a way of giving the Manila audience a sampling of artworks coming from the province, in this case Leyte. Often overlooked in comparison to their Manila counterparts, province-based artists are nevertheless productive and committed to art and artmaking. They in fact offer something that can be described as more community-specific or local-inspired in contrast to urban artists who generally deal with themes that are more national or universal in scope, outlook and style.

But to make “hang-aw” is a two-way process. While you are the one being viewed, you also view in return, which makes it possible to learn or be influenced in one way or another by what you see.

The exhibiting artists thus hope to enrich their artmaking by selecting the most valuable of what they get from their foray into our country’s most urban environment, Metropolitan Manila.

The participating artists, all members of the KasiKasi Art Association of Tacloban, are:

Rico Palacio Dante Enage Archie Prisno

Crispin Asensi Raul Agner Bebot Flandez

Billy Pomida Ernie Ybañez Jasmine Diaz

The group regularly exhibits in Tacloban and is considered the most active art group in that part of the Visayas. Individually and as a group, the artists have also joined shows in Calbayog, Ormoc, Cebu, Boracay, Iloilo, Bohol, Malaysia, and Japan. -rda

“HULAG”

“HULAG” Group Show of the Kasikasi Art Association of Tacloban

4-18 November 2011

PhilamLife Building Lobby, U.N. Ave., Ermita, Manila

Artists from the provinces remain largely unheard of even if they are just as productive, hardworking and talented as their Manila counterparts. “Hulag,” a Waray word that describes a fish’s splashing movement up to the water surface to take in air, is a modest attempt by a group of Tacloban/Leyte-based artists to make its artmaking efforts felt in the big city. In this show, the artists present works in different media that bear images, scenes and issues in their culture and community or broadly explore themes that inspire pure creative expression.

Surely this exhibit may not produce a big splash in the urban art landscape but it may succeed in issuing a firm statement that art is alive and vibrant even in places far removed from the glare of publicity and big sponsors usually concentrated in urban centers. In those localities – in this particular case Leyte - artists continue to toil, as this show demonstrates, despite the daunting challenges that come with their chosen passion. More than anything else, the pursuit of art has become its own reward. The occasional foray to the big city – their second – is both a chance to share what they have made and a moment to inhale fresh ideas and inspirations from a different environment and heartening encouragement from a metropolitan audience.

The participating artists, all members of the KasiKasi Art Association of Tacloban, are:

Rico Palacio

Dante Enage

Archie Prisno

Crispin Asensi

Raul Agner

Bebot Flandez

Billy Pomida

Ernie Ybañez

Jasmine Diaz

The group regularly exhibits in Tacloban and is considered the most active art group in that part of the Visayas. Individually and as a group, the artists have also joined shows in Calbayog, Ormoc, Cebu, Boracay, Iloilo, Bohol, Malaysia, and Japan. -rda

drawing drawings

mat drawings

AdU Enrolment Campaign Poster

Inspirations

Monuments, statues, portraits, and similar artistic creations are primarily mnemonic tools built lest the community they have been intended for forget the significance of the figure or event they represent. They also give viewers a visual configuration of the person/event. Obviously they add an aesthetic character to any given milieu and eventually, they serve as powerful symbols of the institution they inhabit, resonating profound meanings, core values and convictions among the members of its community.
The man in whose honor the university’s Engineering building was named must be smiling from heaven, happy to know that a bust in his likeness now occupies pride of place at the entrance. Not that he would have wanted it, considering that men of his kind usually go in humility mode all their life. It’s just that the living find him extremely worthy of such an honor. Installed on December 8, 2010, this sculpture of the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP), Blessed Frederic Ozanam, is an icon long overdue. While the building bore his name since its erection in 1979, even just an iota of information about the man was nowhere to be found within the structure.
On the occasion of its 150th anniversary, the SSVP–Philippines came up with this bust project, finally filling the conspicuous vacuum. Mounted on a granite pedestal, it gives everyone an idea of how this charitable Frenchman looked like; the accompanying brief biographical plaque outlines who he was and what he accomplished.
Visual signifiers like Ozanam’s ought to multiply around the campus to honor those who deserve recognition and saturate our vision and memories with images that will articulate our common heritage and identity. The more prominent existing ones to date are St. Vincent’s, George Lucas Adamson’s and Ozanam’s. Surely, there are many more that have made remarkable and historic contributions to the development of the University through their respective fields of expertise. The source of candidates is a vast fertile field: administrators, alumni, former faculty and even former employees. It is only a matter of perspicaciously selecting the most deserving.
The manner of honoring them is not limited to busts alone. Naming hallways, rooms, pathways, gardens and other venues after them is another good option. The most hospitable means, because it can accommodate several names, is an institutional museum. From the most noble to the most unsung, it can provide the appropriate niche for many.
Adamson University is going on 80. About time it morphs into a place where role models and those they are supposed to uplift live and interact in close quotidian association - an environment that gives off a nostalgic, inspiring and artistic vibe.

"Tagay, Sangkay"

Acrylic, 2011