Pacita Abad: Sharing all heart and art
By Ruben Defeo
Philippine Star
October 2004

Pacita Abad’s ‘Circles in My Mind’ continues to draw [a good crowd of viewers] at the Main Gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The CCP show comes after Abad’s critically acclaimed exhibition at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, following her residency at the Institute – the first time that a Filipino artist has ever been invited to the prestigious program.

The Manila show is quite important for the artist, who is now based in Singapore, as it affords her [the opportunity] to share her success with her countrymen. Coincidentally, this happened during her birth month. She celebrated her birthday last October 6. Singapore Airlines, in expressing its support for the arts in general, flew in Pacita’s works.

“We are proud to have been instrumental in presenting Miss Abad’s works to her numerous admirers in the Philippines and helping to strengthen cultural relations between the Philippines and Singapore,” said SIA Philippines general manager Eugene Lee.

The homecoming exhibit also enabled her to meet and thank members of the media for their continued patronage, via a luncheon courtesy of the Singapore Embassy, hosted by Ambassador Lim Kheng Hua.

The audience turnout that continues to come in droves to view the exhibition is attributable to the generous corporate support extended to the undertaking,” said CCP’s Sid Hildawa. “Circles in my mind” has been ably organized by the CCP, STPI, ArtPostAsia Pte. Ltd., and Galleria Duemila, with generous sponsorships coming from Singapore Airlines, ING Private Banking Philippines, Globe Platinum and Globe Quest, The Embassy of Singapore in the Philippines, Fraser Place and CarePak.

Nineteen years separate the ongoing show from the first time Abad [held] her solo exhibition at the CCP in 1985. CCP president Nestor O. Jardin considers the current exhibition an affirmation of her stature as a world-class Filipino artist. In his remarks during the exhibition opening, he said that “CCP takes pride in bringing the works of Pacita to the Philippines and presenting them to a whole new generation of audiences who grew up in the psychedelic world of video games, computer animation and fast-paced music television.”

To fully maximize her visit to Manila, several art workshops were lined up, as a significant part of the exhibition. Like special offerings, they served as the educational and hands-on component of the exhibition, providing a unique art experience for [the] participants.

In a way, Abad was not breaking [with] tradition. Every time she visited Manila for a show, she would make it a point to hold workshops for the students at the UP College of Fine Arts. This time, she brought STPI’s master papermaker, Richard Hungerford and program director Martin Tran to facilitate the workshops.

Papermaking and print workshops were recently held for two days at the UP CFA print shop. Creative energy was, to say the least, abuzz with artists like Raul Isidro, Pandy Aviado, Fil dela Cruz and Ambie Abano from the Philippine Association of Printmakers in attendance; together with UP CFA faculty artists, led by Nestor Olarte Vinluan, Ginny Dandan, Mark Malto, Jamel Obnamia, Daki Fernando, Ernie Enrique, May Tobias and Aman Santos – and students in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. UP Chancellor Emerlinda R. Roman was around to welcome the artist and greet guest workshop facilitators from STPI and the artist participants.

The idea behind the workshops was to make people aware of STPI’s mission concerning the educational direction of printmaking in the region. As Hungerford puts it, “I enjoyed the opportunity to provide an educational aspect for Pacita’s work. This provides [the] ground work for introducing printed artwork to the general public. It enables STPI to enrich lives beyond the idea of printed matter as posters or advertising. STPI is dedicated to hand painting processes and hand papermaking process.”

Hungerford noted that “South East Asia has an enormous wealth of Asian-based art process that is integrated in the western creative process. Teaching printmaking as a common denominator of connected experience expands a greater understanding of the world.”

He also cited the existence of contemporary hand papermaking in the Philippines enabling visual artists working with paper pulp fibers to produce high quality paper. “Abaca, salago and China grass produce some of the nicest paper,” Hungerford states. “Traveling to the source of such material provided me with a greater understanding of the mysteries of Asia. I had the opportunity to place a product with a territory. A first hand glimpse at where the material originates. But only a person involved with papermaking would find such things fascinating. All in all, this is a great trip for me.”

Two additional workshops were conducted by Hungerford and Tran at the CCP, which attracted a broad mix of participants like children, artists, investment bankers and executives, who joined in for a group collorgraph activity that brought out the artist in everyone.

Some of the participants were art critic Cid Reyes, gallery owner Silvana Diaz, ING Private Banking head Maite Gallego and her staff assistant Gigi Diaz de Rivera, SIA PR boss Rita Dy and her assistant, Clarissa Morelos, Kraft executive Edgar Tindoy and his family, ADB’s Madeline Varkay, Mr. and Mrs. David Ong, Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Chilip, Rosette Uy and other guests from ADB, SIA, ING and the Waldorf School.

Participants were exposed to collaborative work [in order] to develop an artwork that emphasizes the elemental structure of lines. The teams created printing plates using hot glue guns, inked the surface with rubber rollers and hand printed the plate on kozo paper using a barren.

Singapore Airlines’ Rita Dy sums up the experience thus: “I enjoyed the workshop tremendously and, like the rest of the participants, I really got involved with the techniques and the print making processes, which were totally new for most of us. Our Singapore Airlines priority passengers, whom we also invited to attend the workshops, also had a great time.”

Pacita’s “Circles in My Mind” runs until the end of the month [October, 2004] at the CCP. Featuring selected works from the artist’s show at the STPI and an array of new works made specifically for the Manila audience, the exhibition foregrounds Pacita’s engaging way with paper as both ground and material in art making.

For comments, send an e-mail to ruben_david.defeo@up.edu.ph