Where's Bacchus?

A portion of a wall and the ceiling of the formal dining room of Café Ysabel. It is also the room used for large group reservations. There is another, more casual dining area which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a photo of.

Sacred shores

Standing beside the Filipino-Korean Soldier Monument at the Rizal Park is another sculpture created by Filipino artist Juan Sajid Imao. It is titled "Soul Waves" and the plaque in front of it reads in part:

The sculptural waves symbolize Korea and the Philippines' sacred shores which we protected against all forms of oppression. For indeed, our common sacred shore is our love for freedom.

Both sculptures were installed during the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the Republic of Korea on September 6, 2010.

Child King

The Feast of the Child Jesus occurs on the third Sunday of January but so many Filipinos have a devotion to the Santo Niño that January effectively has become his month. Three of the four biggest and most well-known festivals in the Philippines during January are dedicated to the Sto. Niño. He also has his own chapel in the Manila Cathedral.

ART OR VANDALISM ?

Belgian rail strike : art or vandalism ...

Ornate whimsy

With my fascination for lamps and lighting fixtures, a lamp was bound to catch my eye in the 1937 home of Alejandro and Ramona Legarda. I just love the young person with a monkey cavorting all over this particular metal chandelier. • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #6

Pride of place

The interiors of the Legarda ancestral house is a perfect example of American colonial era home design in Manila. I will not be the only Manileño to say that it reminds me of my own grandmother's house. What I find absolutely amazing is how everything—from the furniture to the bric-a-brac—is wonderfully preserved. It is to the Legarda family's credit that the younger generations resisted the urge to modernize the home (well, except for the air-conditioner, that is).




The living room has two sets of seating. The one above flanked by family photographs, and another directly across, above which hangs the centerpiece of the room: a painting by Filipino artist Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo (21 February 1855–13 March 1913), a contemporary and close friend of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal. Titled "La Inocencia," it is still in its original Art Noveau frame and is believed to be a painting of Hidalgo's mistress in France. • LEGARDA ANCESTRAL HOUSE #2

Legacy of resistance

Lapu-Lapu, a Datu of the island of Mactan in the Visayas, is considered the first Philippine national hero for having resisted Spanish colonization back in the 16th century. This statue of him in the Rizal Park, sculpted by Juan Sajid Imao who also created the Filipino-Korean Soldier Monument, stands between the Museum of the Filipino People and the Department of Tourism. He is looking directly towards the monument of that other premier Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, after whom the park is named.

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Reminding all CDP bloggers: our theme for December 1 is Time, and going back to community tradition, that of January 1 is Best Photo of 2010. The February theme poll is up too and will remain active until the end of December. Don't forget to vote!

Golden dragon

The ornate ceiling of the pavilion in the Chinese Garden of the Rizal Park. I apologize for the upside down dragon, but I couldn't cross over to the other side because there was some kind of student workshop going on at the time.

Brothers in arms

Installed on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the Philippines on September 6 of this year, the Filipino-Korean Soldier Monument at the Rizal Park was created by Filipino sculptor Juan Sajid Imao. The text on the plaque in front of the fenced area where it stands reads:

A fitting tribute to the Filipino soldiers who fought side by side with the Korean soldiers during the Korean War (1950–1953). About 7,500 combat troops known as the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea or PEFTOK, the 4th largest force under the United Nations Command, were sent to defend South Korea from a communist invasion by North Korea. The monument shows two Filipino soldiers helping a wounded Korean comrade to symbolize the greatness of the Filipino spirit despite the war and the special camaraderie shared by the two nations.

See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Details

These are the magnificent friezes, columns and chandelier in the main lobby of the National Art Gallery of the Philippines, which used to be the Legislative Building of the country. I know that the architectural details have been there since the early 20th century, when it was built during the American Colonial Era. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about the chandelier, not even whether it is old or new. If I may hazard a guess, I think it's both. The main chandelier looks like an antique but the organic glass shapes and curvy rods with balls at the end are a newer addition. In fact, the addition reminds me so much of Filipino artist Impy Pilapil's work. What do you think?



If I ever find out, I'll let you all know, of course.

Artificial wings

This is the introductory piece of Filipino-German artist Kawayan de Guia's exhibit titled "Bored on the Fourth of July." He was the recipient of the 2008 New York Art Project residency grant which is selected annually by the Omi International Arts Center. "Bored on the Fourth of July" was shown in the Ateneo Art Gallery last year but I forgot to post it back then and just saw it again yesterday when I was cleaning up my iPhoto. From the exhibit notes:

In two sets of images and texts, Kawayan puts forward a critique and commentary on the human propensity to consume that he witnessed in America and rediscovered on his return home. It is a propensity, a hollow greed that America projects on the world. In this world, shopping is the new drug; the source of fleeting mass-produced moments of happiness and artificial healing.

Simple blessing

A relief of the Madonna and Child in the gardens of the Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Way) parish church in Quezon City.

Leaves of rice

The Pahiyas Festival celebrated in Lucban and in other towns in the Philippines is a harvest festival. It is always held on May 15, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer or Farmer). The highlight of the festival is a procession of revered religious icons followed by the town's prettiest girls in fancy gowns, which begins and ends in the parish church. The houses along the roads where the procession goes through—the route is changed every year—are decorated just for the festival and this is what pahiyas (ornaments) refers to. The decorations are composed of the fruits of the harvest and Lucban has a special kind of ornament made of rice, called kiping, which is why the festival attracts thousands of tourists every year. Grains of rice are pounded to a flour and mixed with water and food coloring to form a paste, which is then brushed over leaves and left to dry. The result is thin, translucent, jewel-toned leaves which are used to cover the houses' facades or strung into elaborate designs, like this almost two-story high chandelier which graces the entrance of Buddy's restaurant in Quezon City.




Smaller kiping lanterns are hung all around the restaurant's interiors, and the flower pattern at the building's facade is echoed by the beautiful light fixtures on the ceiling.




A photo collage about Lucban—the higantes, the procession led by the statue of San Isidro, Mount Banahaw, the parish church, and a house richly and colorfully decorated with pahiyas—curves along the wall of the staircase which leads to the second floor.

A simple feast

This stained glass window is located over the door of the chapel of the Loyola Retreat House in the town of Angono in the province of Rizal where we had a spiritual retreat last April. I thought it appropriate to post today because many Filipinos will be attending Mass in celebration of the Nativity of Our Lady. It is not a holiday but it is a holy day in this largely Catholic country.

Pink behemoth

For ten months back in 2008, Filipino artist Impy Pilapil's large, outdoor sculptures for the exhibit titled "Interactive: The 12 Senses" were on display in the gardens of the Ateneo de Manila University. Many of us were very sad when they were dismantled because they added such bright spots of color to the campus. Happily however, two pieces were retained. The bamboo Chime Halo was reinstalled when the new Rizal Library was finished last year and this one, Surge, was never removed. One of the Ateneo Art Gallery curators told me that it weighs a ton, which is probably why the artist decided to keep it in the university.




I'm glad. I think it looks great in the rock garden beside the Manuel V. Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership along my favorite brick path.

Did you see me reflected on the glass window of the first photo? :)
See what's reflecting what at James' Weekend Reflections.

Bloom where you are planted

Of all the colorful sculptures of Joel Ferraris at the Sky Garden of SM City North EDSA mall, Bloom is the only one with a practical application. I've seen people sitting on them, although mostly just to pose for photos. Wouldn't it be fun to have garden chairs like these?

All about Quezon

Here's a closer look at the bas-relief on the oddly-shaped Mid-Century Modern building in Quezon City Hall which I first posted more than one year ago (and before you ask, no, I still don't know what's inside the thing). I can see the Quezon Memorial and the Oblation statue of the University of the Philippines on the relief, and many of the other scenes feature Manuel L. Quezon, the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the man after whom the city is named. One particular scene strikes me the most, the one where he is ankle-deep in mud and planting rice. What I'd like to know is, until what year did the city still have rice fields??

Street whimsy

A very different kind of art from yesterday's post. This motley crew adorns one end of the pedestrian overpass beside Citimall in Quezon City.

Art as activism

Kiri Dalena, here being photographed by Cocoy Sarmenta, is a visual artist and film director.




Her installation Watch History Repeat Itself is on display in the Ateneo Art Gallery until August 16.




This is not art which is meant to decorate a room to make it pretty. It is art that wants to say something. And in Dalena's case, that something is Philippine political commentary, executed ironically in blinking, commercial neon. Below is an excerpt from the essay "History in Translation" written by film maker and writer Adjani Arumpac, and a video tour of the complete exhibit taken by Manila Art Blogger.

A blinking white neon sign screaming Liar! Liar! Liar! randomly illuminates a black room, recalling reactions to statements issued by the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government—from the infamous Hello Garci controversy to over 1,000 alleged extra-judicial killings throughout its nine-year reign. A red neon sign that floods red light in a white vacant area reads Dear activist, write a slogan for me tenderly invites one to contemplate past and ongoing brutalities denounced by various sectors in countless angry statements against the government. 

That neon signs, ubiquitous visual polluters and commercial vendors of the modern world, give light to such provoking statements reveals what the artist sees as a paradox—commercial and political interests of the ruling elite are protected by the state through various mechanisms such as brute armed strength. 

Dalena's aesthetics banks on a pervading sense of terror in real-time, continuing. But this sense of immediacy and urgency, an energy usually taken out in the streets, is forcefully brought to a standstill by the artist. She chooses to show tragedy as history, as clearly advertised by a blinking neon light that spells History. In the same vein, transferred in the Yellow Book of Slogans are rally calls culled from photo-documentation of rallies waged against the nine-year Arroyo regime. Likewise, inscribed in a single funerary slab are the haunting words: Watch History Repeat Itself, an abridged text displayed during Cory Aquino's funeral march. 

Dalena wrests these texts out of the streets and entombs them in forms and mediums that significantly depart from traditional protest art, wherein prime is given to fast production, accessibility and portability, whose end is to provide visual support for street mobilizations. She doubly gives weight to her cause, literally, by trading permanence for transience through writing ephemeral protest call in black and white and in stone.

Rosy moment

The delicate pink stained glass windows of the Chapel of St. Thomas More in the Ateneo Professional Schools do not have obviously religious images unlike those in other Catholic churches and chapels I've seen.

Urban or rural, natural or man-made, take a sightseeing tour of our world's diverse scenery!