There's hope for Autism!

I remember way back in the mid-1990s when my sister Chato was worried about her daughter. Mrs. Ladron of the toddler school where my niece was enrolled in, found her behavior way too rowdy and too independent for a three year old and recommended that she goes to Cupertino Center instead. At that time, there was only one school for special children and most of the students were autistic.

My niece was enrolled for 3 months or so. until my sister pulled her out when she started copying her classmates and was banging her head against the wall, desk or floor.  Autistic children would display certain behaviors and head banging is the most common. Chato took her  to Berkeley where she, after several tests, was diagnosed with ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It was fairly novel then and since the symptoms were quite similar with autism, the two conditions more often than not, caused confusion and even misdiagnosis.

J.A.  next to his stamp
(photo from facebook.com/artofjatan)

Mayo Clinic defines autism as a "spectrum disorder that affects a child's ability to communicate and interact with others."  According to CDC, autism is now more prevalent than childhood cancer. The rate is rather alarming in the United States, with stats indicating one in 88 children diagnosed with autism versus 16 in 100,000 children with cancer.  In the Philippines, the incidence is still low.  Autismpinoy said that at least one in 150 children is autistic.

That's why I was happy to hear that Jose Antonio "J.A." Tan is back in Manila to open his second one-man exhibit called "On and On... Step by Step" on August 21. He's the inspiration to those with autism and/or other development disabilities.

Like my niece, J.A. was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with autism. His was high functioning autism which literally means he is higher functioning than others with the same affliction.

At 5 years old, he started painting and from then on, has managed to overcome his challenges through his art.  He said "I have come to the realization that I have always used art as a way of  helping myself bring out my thoughts, feelings and ideas. I consider it an integral part of my existence as each work is a personal journey of myself with myself, and myself with the world, bringing a feeling of peace and happiness since things become clearer to me through the images and visual pictures before me."

"Victory" (Photo from straight.com)

Now 25-years old, he has already accomplished quite a lot - -  He graduated from Emily Carr University of Art in 2010, followed by a one-man show in Manila (his first), then participated in group shows in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Last year, his  painting "Victory" (left) was chosen from over 200 submissions to be part of the eight stamp collection of the United Nations Postal Administration's Autism Awareness Campaign. His artwork was issued as a stamp on April 22, 2012. Note that the print is part of the exhibition in Manila.

To those who want to meet the artist who braved all odds, the opening reception  is on August 21 from 6:30 to 9:30pm.  The exhibit will run until September 3, 2013 at the Artist Space, ground floor of the Ayala Museum.

Check out Beat exhibit @ Lopez Museum

Ernest's "Hidalgo, the super multi-dimensional time bandit"

If you want something fresh and different, visit the Lopez Museum at the ground floor of Benpres Building on Exchange Road and check out its current exhibit called Beat.

Husband and wife Chit and Eileen Ramirez curated the exhibit playing with the double entendre of Beat - which can be interpreted as defeat (verb) or rhythm and movement (music).  The exhibit features commissioned works from two contemporary artists Nikki Luna and Ernest Concepcion, juxtaposed against 19th and 20th century masters from Lopez Museum's private collection particularly that of Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo.

Chit said [watch Cityscape clip below] "we wanted to engage the audience to think about what Beat is for them. It is a nice discourse how people would view old masters' works and the contemporary works."  Eileen explains in her curatorial notes  "...By staying on the present tense rather than as the more definitive 'beaten', this exhibition also conscripts the energies of artists Nikki Luna and Ernest Concepcion to effect stagings of confrontation with the difficult the resistant and even the impossible."

Nikki's "Precious and Fertile" installation 

And so Nikki presents her advocacy, her concern for the plight of the farmers of Hacienda Luisita and the various issues faced by indigenous people in their ancestral lands. She said "art should talk about what's happening especially those who are not able to articulate their problem and issues that are usually ignored." For her Precious and Fertile installation, china bone pipes hang atop a mound of soil with a portion of a video documentary on Hacienda Luisita projected on the wall. And for Azucera,  she shaped sugar into diamond resins to represent the value of sugar as produced by farmers.

Spotted Ernest drawing in one of the galleries

Ernest, on the other hand, is creating an epic piece in his Hidalgo, the super mutli-dimensional time bandit installation. He said "I wanted to challenge what the museum has to offer... kind of an action-reaction dynamic."  His artwork is a work-in-progress, spilling out unto the other parts of the museum including the main hallway, unto walls which hang the permanent collection of the museum.

Chit said that at one point their works will connect because of what Ernest is doing. He is hopeful that this will come in to fruition at the end of the six months that Ernest is in Manila (he is based in New York) or at the end of the exhibition run in October. So, if you're lucky like me, you may catch Ernest in action.  

Don't miss Myra Beltran's Mi Ultimo Adios (excerpt from Itim Asu, running time of 5:07) and go all the way down to the Library and view the studies of Hidalgo. The museum is open everyday from 8am to 5pm except Sundays. Tip - do ask for a guided tour and check out their note cards and notebooks for only P100! 

Bravo Emong Borlongan and Plet Bolipata!!

Plet's Le Boudoir Rouge Love Seat and Emong's Escape Artist

When the Earth Smelled of Water is husband and wife team Emong Borlongan and Plet Bolipata's latest show at the Alliance Francaise de Manille. The two have been married for the last twenty years and hied off in Zambales where they actually met.

Most of Emong's artworks depict life in the fishing village of San Antonio while Plet's works are totally new. Well, I haven't seen these seats before.  They are functional sculpture sofa pieces made out of resin, crochet, steel and even broken glass.

Note that she used the same mold for her ongoing show at Bonifacio Global City's offsite gallery called imagiNATION. It is an outdoor installation featuring 7 to 12-foot animal sculptures.

Emong's Dynamite Kid

Here's what Rene Guatio wrote about the couple's latest project:

Based in San Antonio, Zambales, in a seaside mango orchard and art center, the artist couple Elmer Borlongan and Plet Bolipata bring their visions of creation, their celebrations of life to the city: colorful canvases imbued with the refreshing and life-giving blessings of the sea and water, resin vessels that allude to the ark, and the great deluge that drowned the earth, so that life may be renewed.

Emong's Melancholia

Emong highlights various scenes - a 'chicken fight' in the water, a child drawing water from a well, fishermen with their nets, an escape artist in a water container, a woman wading into the ocean, a scene of melancholy in a bath tub - each an allusion to water and the sea, reflecting the artist's signature humor, wit, and deep understanding of the human character. He says: "We are drawn to water because we live close to the sea."

Plet's Le Taxi Sofa

Plet always injects a fresh and playful sensibility to her art, which includes oils, collages, naif figures, and lately, colorful mosaics of animals. Her metal and tile mosaics of zoo animals about to be installed at Global City are complemented by the resin sofas in this show that were inspired by Holly Golightly's bathtub sofa from Breakfast at Tiffany's. 


 The sofas represent vessels that save us from the deluge, their colors reminding us of the rainbow that symbolizes God's promise, and our hope. She hopes that people "can relax as the stresses and strains of their daily lives subside, and take the time to enjoy and appreciate the preciousness of life."



Bravo Plet and Emong! The show will run until May 3, 2012.

With artist Plet setaing on her Le Peacock Sofa

Here's some shots of Plet's gigantic steel animal sculptures at the offsite gallery in Bonifacio Global City, 26th Street corner 7th Ave:

Sculptures all lit up!

Detail of seat of Les Elephants

Detail of seat of Les Octopus

Claro Ramirez's Wanted: Tubero

Kudos to Claro "Chitz" Ramirez's 10th solo exhibition called Wanted: Tubero, which is now ongoing at Finale's video room until October 27, 2011. This is his mini version of what will be exhibited at the Jakarta Biennale this December 2011.

The installation features television monitors depicting works of other artists and including Chitz's; that are connected with the PVC pipes. Wanted Tubero "emphasizes the imporance of engagement, participation and community." Hence, visitors are invited to connect and join the PVC pipes. The involvment process will be documented and become a part of the evolving work.

The show, curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, is the third offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, a project of the non-profit organization "Visual Pond."  The project focuses on the video art practices of selected contemporary artists in the Philippines.  Prior to Chitz, Tad Ermitaño and Manny Montelibano were featured; and will be followed by Kiri Dalena, Yason Banal, Kaloy Olavides and Maria Taniguchi.

Chitz is a consultant for artistic direction of exhibitions and new media projects for the Lopez Memorial Museum since 2005. He was awarded the Cultural Center of the Philippines thirteen Artists Award in 2000. A graduate of UP Diliman and UST, he has exhibited internationally, through grants and invitations in Korea, China, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Romania and USA. Aside from Jakarta, he is the Philippine curator for the Goethe Institut's international project Riverscapes in Flux 2011-12 (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines).

X marks the spot for Zero In

Well, you won't see the X unless you go to the upper level of SM Mall of Asia (main entrance area). X is the symbol for the Roman numeral ten and thus, aptly adopted to represent the tenth anniversary of Zero In. 

Zero In is the annual collaboration of five private museums in Metro Manila - these are, Ateneo Art Gallery, Ayala Museum, Bahay Tsinoy, Lopez Museum and Museo Pambata. 

Since 2001, the five museums have been working together, sharing resources, mounting annual multi-museum exhibitions and including lectures and workshops to reach out and make art more engaging and relevant.

This year, Zero In is quite ambitious and is breaking barriers by literally bringing art closer to the public through a mall exhibit dubbed Open Call Arts Festival. The exhibit is more like a teaser showcasing different forms of art forms: cuisine (Ateneo), Japanese manga and cosplay (Ayala), visual (Bahay Tsinoy), sound art (Lopez) and dance (Museo Pambata).  The event is open to the public free of charge and will run until September 24.

Here's what to expect at the mall:

 Carell Belandres  playing  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman from Ninomiya Tomoko’s Nodame Cantabile, a manga about a gifted pianist

Nyko Maca leading dance of Gumboot group of Museo Pambata Child Advocates

Ateneo's interactive food game called Crafty Critters Munch Up

Tad Ermitaño checking out his sound installation artwork  

Eric Ambata's sound art called Lethe shared via QR code capture

Escola de Samba de Manila performing Afro-Brasilian drums and dance

and here's the Zero In gang at the opening

If you do visit, please check out the trees and touch the planter box. Yes, the metallic planter box! It is part of the sound art installation. You will be amazed with the sounds that will come out.

This Saturday, September 24 - catch the following performances:
1pm - Performance by sound artists E.X.I.S.T.  which stands for Experimentation In Sound Art Tradition: Gentle Universe, Caliph8, Manner Villariba, Elemento and Toshiyuki Seido
2pm - Piano performance of Carell Belandres of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman" from Ninomiya Tomoko's Nodame Cantabile, a manga about a gifted pianist
3pm - Performance by sound artist E.X.I.S.T.
6pm - Gunboot dance of Museo Pambata's child advocates with Nyko Maca

Open Call art festival is just one of the many projects lined up by Zero In this year.  Ongoing onsite at each five museums are exhibitions featuring each genre - in Ateneo (until December 22), an interactive food-themed game called Crafty Critters Munch Up  that takes off from its permanent collection; Ayala Museum (until October 2), the world of manga in Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today; Bahay Tsinoy (until October 23), an art installation by Con Cabrera called Kasama; Lopez Museum (until April 3, 2012), performances and sound/media art installations in Reverb; and, Museo Pambata (until October 6) , performances by Gunboot and Batang RO alongside an exhibiton of National Artist for Dance Ramon Obusan's memorabilia entitled Sayaw!.

Voters Ed: Salingpusa artists interpret Mabini's Decalogue

Kudos to Gigo Alampay of the Center for Art, New Ventures & Sustainable Development (Canvas) for mounting Dekalogo before elections to remind us of our national hero Apolinario Mabini's ten precepts which reads more like commandments called The True Decalogue .

The exhibit features ten Salingpusa artists to represent one commandment - Elmer Borlogan, Manny Garibay, Anthony Palomo, Karen Flores, Jose Santos III, Cris Villanueva, Jim Orencio, Tammy Tan, Neil Manalo, and Ferdie Montemayor.

The choice of Salingpusa is quite apt, the origin of the group quoting from Ronald Hilario: "Easel painting, in the form of large-scale canvases and the social-realist mode of commentary made a comeback in the early 90's with the popularity of Grupong Salingpusa. A collective of young and student artists, the group's initial objective was to break into the field of art discourse which was dominated by a constellation of individual senior artists. They succeeded in getting the art world's attention by introducing the novel method of interactive mural painting. Salingpusa members are known to create large murals in minutes a kind of performance in its own right. Their works are characterized by the representation of negative social emotions such as dread, isolation and disconnectedness in highly surreal urban environments."

Here's Mabini's 10 commandments for Filipinos which was originally written in Spanish and written to accompany his greatest work, the first Philippine Republic Constitution.

"THE TRUE DECALOGUE"
by Apolinario Mabini

by Neil Manalo. First. Thou shalt love God and thy honor above all things: God as the fountain of all truth, of all justice and of all activity; and thy honor, the only power which will oblige thee to be faithful, just and industrious.

[by Anthony Palomo] Second. Thou shalt worship God in the form which thy conscience may deem most righteous and worthy: for in thy conscience, which condemns thy evil deeds and praises thy good ones, speaks thy God.

[by Tammy Tan] Third. Thou shalt cultivate the special gifts which God has granted thee, working and studying according to thy ability, never leaving the path of righteousness and justice, in order to attain thy own perfection, by means whereof thou shalt contribute to the progress of humanity; thus; thou shalt fulfill the mission to which God has appointed thee in this life and by so doing, thou shalt be honored, and being honored, thou shalt glorify thy God.

by Manny Garibay. Fourth. Thou shalt love thy country after God and thy honor and more than thyself: for she is the only Paradise which God has given thee in this life, the only patrimony of thy race, the only inheritance of thy ancestors and the only hope of thy posterity; because of her, thou hast life, love and interests, happiness, honor and God.

by Ferdie Montemayor. Fifth. Thou shalt strive for the happiness of thy country before thy own, making of her the kingdom of reason, of justice and of labor: for if she be happy, thou, together with thy family, shalt likewise be happy.

[by Cris Villanueva, Jr.] Sixth. Thou shalt strive for the independence of thy country: for only thou canst have any real interest in her advancement and exaltation, because her independence constitutes thy own liberty; her advancement, thy perfection; and her exaltation, thy own glory and immortality.

Eclipse by Karen Flores. Seventh. Thou shalt not recognize in thy country the authority of any person who has not been elected by thee and thy countrymen; for authority emanates from God, and as God speaks in the conscience of every man, the person designated and proclaimed by the conscience of a whole people is the only one who can use true authority.

Sulong sa isip at gawa by Jim Orencio. Eighth. Thou shalt strive for a Republic and never for a monarchy in thy country: for the latter exalts one or several families and founds a dynasty; the former makes a people noble and worthy through reason, great through liberty, and prosperous and brilliant through labor.

No Tresspassing by John Santos. Ninth. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: for God has imposed upon him, as well as upon thee, the obligation to help thee and not to do unto thee what he would not have thee do unto him; but if thy neighbor, failing in this sacred duty, attempt against thy life, thy liberty and thy interests, then thou shalt destroy and annihilate him for the supreme law of self-preservation prevails.

Kapit Bisig by Emong Borlongan. Tenth. Thou shalt consider thy countryman more than thy neighbor; thou shalt see him thy friend, thy brother or at least thy comrade, with whom thou art bound by one fate, by the same joys and sorrows and by common aspirations and interests.

Therefore, as long as national frontiers subsist, raised and maintained by the selfishness of race and of family, with thy countryman alone shalt thou unite in a perfect solidarity of purpose and interest, in order to have force, not only to resist the common enemy but also to attain all the aims of human life.


The adjacent exhibit Everyday Filipino Heroes present works of emerging and senior artists "send a collective message about the role of the electorate in free elections, one that is critical and discerning and therefore heroic, never needing to be taken by saviors and messiahs of change." Both exhibits are ongoing at the Vargas Museum in University of the Philippines, Diliman campus until May 31, 2010.

What makes this event unique are the collaterals meant to engage the public. The campus oval is lined with banners representing each Everyday Hero artist while ten 'vote wisely' posters representing the ten dekalogo and artists available online for free. For more info, call Vargas Museum at 928-19-27 or Canvas' Gigo Alampay at (0917) 890-6160.