1ST NEGROS ARTE KALYE FESTIVAL - SCHEDULE OF FORA

Speaker: Carlos Legaspi, Jr.

Date: February 2, 2009 I 9AM

Venue: NAMITNAMIT Pagkaon kag Taliambong

Topic: Ano ang ARTS Month?

Overview:

National Arts Month has been celebrated for the past 18 years headed by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCAA) and the different local art associations in the different regions of the country. The celebration is empowered by the Presidential Proclamation no. 683. The 2009 Arts Month has been transformed from national scope to international scope. 2009 arts month is tagged as the Philippine International Arts Festival or the PIAF. With the mandate of celebrating February as the Arts Month, the Arts Association of Bacolod – Negros (AAB-Negros), under the leadership of Nunelucio Alvarado will concretize the celebration through the AAB’s Arte Kalye Festival.

The discussion will focus on looking back at the legal mandates of the Protection and development of indigenous culture and arts. These legislations will make clear the history and development of not only NAM but of Philippine arts and culture.

Speaker: Martin Engler

Date: February 2, 2009 I 2PM

Venue: NAMITNAMIT Pagkaon kag Taliambong

Topic: Advancing Artists’ Global Perspective, Renewing Artists’ Cultural Identity

Overview:

Artists live in a fast-changing world. Every artist lives in the real world – a world of globalization, of inventions, of computers, of conflicts, of emotions, of politics, etc. He/she has to emerge in these realities, whereby creating one’s own visual creativity and interpretation in his/her art-making.

It remains a challenge for Filipino artists on how to preserve one’s own cultural identity amidst the many forces of globalized influences. Nonetheless, every creative endeavor of a Filipino artist must go beyond his/her own selfish cultural baggage but should likewise be rooted in his/her authentic identity as a Filipino.

Martin Engler is a noted visual artist from Switzerland.

Speaker: Nunelucio Alvarado

Date: February 3, 2009 I 9AM

Venue: NAMITNAMIT Pagkaon kag Taliambong

Topic: Freedom from Galleries

Overview:

Any promotion of artistic endeavor must not be abused in any possible means. It must be free. Visual artists are at the mercies of art curators, gallery owners, and even by the gallery policies. Established artists, like Nunelucio Alvarado has his own artistic price tag promoted by established galleries in Manila. They promoted his work with a sense of a commercialist attitude. And from this, he realized how business kills the artistic endeavor of artists in the name of commercialism.

Any artist has the right to know who purchased his/her works. Artists have the right where to exhibit his/her works. Artists must be free in all aspects of their creative endeavors.

Speaker: Nonoy Etabag

Date: February 4, 2009 I 9AM

Venue: NAMITNAMIT Pagkaon kag Taliambong

Topic: Art + Revolution

Overview:

At the height of the First Quarter Storm, activists and even party leaders tapped the talents and potentials of visual artists to create Propaganda Art in the promotion of People’s revolutionary struggle.

During the Martial Law period, artists are not merely artists; they are also revolutionaries in the truest sense of the word.

In the level of his own personal journey, Nonoy Etabag will share his artistic pursuits in the field of revolutionary advocacies and commitment.

Speaker: Br. Tagoy Jakosalem, OAR

Date: February 5, 2009 I 2PM

Venue: NAMITNAMIT Pagkaon kag Taliambong

Topic: Art + Faith + Society

Overview:

Art is defined as any creative endeavor that promotes beauty and culture. Faith is understood as our relationship with the Creator – God. And Society is simply our relationship with people or the state.

Often enough, the psyche of artists are all formed in the environment of where they exist. Artists cannot separate their lives from their faith, from their families and from their existence.

The styles, creativity, use of different media are somehow related to the formative character of artists (of beauty that he/she defines; or of his/her faith-experience – even of those without faith; or of his/her political beliefs).

Art is somehow, can be inside or outside the BOX of faith and society.

UNTITLED/AGAIN (MARIENBAD/SINGAPORE)

HOW NOT TO SUCCEED IN THE ART WORLD

HOW NOT TO SUCCEED IN THE ART WORLD

Artists everywhere work hard to sabotage their careers, compromise their reputations, make sure they never get shows, ignore the advice of dealers or advisors or coaches or consultants or anyone else knowledgeable about how the business works, all in order to maintain art world statures of consummate anonymity. In order to help streamline the process of failure, and as a public service to all artists who cherish oblivion, I hereby offer the most expedient means of attaining and solidifying lifelong positions among the ranks of the unknown. So are you ready to go nowhere? Excellent. Here's all you have to do:

* Spontaneously introduce yourself to anyone you think has any standing in the art world and/or any ability-- real or perceived-- to buy, sell, broker, critique, review, advance, or otherwise represent you or your art. Make no attempt to explain why you're introducing yourself, how you know who they are, what the purpose of your introduction is, why you or your art is relevant to what they do, what you expect to accomplish by speaking with them, or what they can expect to accomplish by speaking with you.

* Pay no attention to how disinterested anyone might be in either learning about your art, hearing your life story, or continuing any type of conversation regardless of the content. Just keep talking.

* Whenever and wherever possible say the following: "Hi, I'm an artist. Would you like to see my art?" You can do this in person, by phone, by email, by mail, etc.

* Whenever and wherever possible, ask people to look at your art, and then once they're looking at it, say the following: "So what do you think of my art?" You can do this in person, by phone, by email, by mail, etc.

* In case anyone expresses interest in seeing your art or visiting your studio, make sure you have fewer than twenty pieces of finished work. The less you have, the better.

* Even though you have less than twenty finished works of art, continually contact dealers and galleries everywhere and ask for solo shows.

* Whenever you finish a work of art, wait for at least two weeks before you start a new one. This technique not only keeps your oeuvre low, but also assures that you're continually out of practice.

* Even though you may be relatively early in your career, have had few or no gallery shows, or have not yet established a reputation where you live or make art, email random requests to dealers and galleries all over the world asking them to show, buy, broker, or represent your art.

* Even though you're not yet well known where you live or make art, present your art to the best galleries in your area, or better yet, to the best galleries the world. Make sure these galleries exclusively represent nationally and internationally renowned artists.

* Buy mailing lists of art dealers, collectors, critics, curators, and galleries for hundreds of dollars. Then spend thousands of dollars printing up promotional materials and doing impersonal mass mailings to introduce yourself and your art.

* When you contact a dealer or gallery either in person or by mail or email, simply say you're an artist looking for representation. Make sure they have no idea why you're contacting them (other than that they're an art gallery and you're an artist). Also make sure you have no idea why you're contacting them (other than that they're an art gallery and you're an artist). Have no idea what kind of art they show, whether they sell the kind of art you make, whether your art is priced comparably to the art they sell, or whether your resume compares favorably with those of the artists they represent.

* Send out random emails to galleries, dealers, etc. that contain only the URL of your website and nothing else.

* Send out random emails to galleries, dealers, etc. with nothing but 10 megabytes of images of your art and the text, "If interested, please email me," however to really do this one right, leave out the word "please."

* When you present your art, make sure you have no coherent or unifying explanation for what you do, why you do it, or what your guiding principles are. Also make sure you're totally disorganized. Show everything you've ever made, no matter what it looks like, whether or not you think it’s any good, whether or not it relates to what you're making now-- and make sure it's not in any order. Make no attempt to point out any connections, similarities, or continuities between any examples of your work.

* Even though you're not that well known, spend thousands of dollars building a website. Ignore the fact that finding you, your art, or your website on the Internet will be almost impossible except for people who already know you. As soon as your website is finished and online, believe that sales will just roll in, and make no further attempts to show or sell your art anywhere in the physical world.

* Make sure you provide no contact information for yourself on your website, only one of those forms where you fill in fields and click a "submit" button. The less personal information you provide, the more reluctant people will be to contact you.

* Think that all you have to do to get known is stay in the studio, create art, show that art to no one, and make little or no effort to meet anyone in the local art community. Instead, believe that someday you'll be discovered.

* Make sure you have no artist statement, no explanation for why your art looks like it does, what it represents, how it's evolved over time, or why you make the kind of art you make.

* Make sure you have no idea how to price your art. If someone asks you how much a piece of your art costs, tell them you don't know. Or you can ask them how much they think its worth. If they suggest a dollar amount, stand there and say nothing.

* If your art is priced and for sale and someone asks you why a certain piece costs as much as it does, either tell them that's how much it's worth, that's how much you want for it, or that you don't know.

* Never ask for feedback about your art. If anyone gives you feedback, ignore it. This way, you'll have no idea what people think about your art, whether they understand it, whether they like it, whether it comes across as effectively as you think it does, or why anyone would want to show or own it.

* Complain about dealers, other artists, your lack of being recognized, ignorant collectors, and as many other aspects of the art world as possible.

* Whenever you have an appointment to show your art, make sure you're late. Better yet, cancel the appointment once or twice first; then make sure you're late.

* If you've got a deadline to have your art ready for a show, miss it. If you've got a deadline to have your statement, bio, or resume ready for a show, catalog, or website, miss it.

* Assume that everyone understands your art as well as you do. Assume also that understanding your art is the viewer's responsibility, not yours.

* Answer "no" to as many questions about your art as possible.

* Correct people's "misconceptions" about your art as often as possible.

* When someone asks a question about your art, instead of answering it, ask a question right back.

* If you get a show, contact other "better" galleries as soon as possible and tell them about your show, but then say you'd rather show with them.

* Make sure that dealers who currently represent or show your art have no idea you can hardly wait to blow them off and move on to someone better.

* Make sure not to cultivate or respect any business relationships or agreements, especially ones that work.

* Believe that if one gallery or dealer can sell your art, that all galleries or dealers can sell it.

* Believe that your art sells itself, not the gallery or dealer who's selling it for you.

* Talk about attorneys, suing people, your legal rights as an artist, what happens if someone crosses you, that you don't want anyone reproducing images of your art, that you don't want anyone photographing your art, that you keep names on file of everyone who gets sent images of your art, and so on.

* Try to figure out as fast as possible whether the person you're talking to is worth talking to. If you decide they're not worth talking to, leave immediately.

* Ignore any suggestions anyone makes about any aspect of how you present yourself or your art.

* And last, but certainly not least, never do anything for anybody unless there's something in it for you.

There you go-- your first class ticket to pfffft. Good luck!!

- this article may be found at http://www.artbistr o.com/news_ feeds/visit? uri=http% 3A%2F%2Fwww. artbusiness. com%2Fosoqartwor ld.html

WOVEN TO A FINE ART : PHILIPPINE TEXTILES AT A MARKET ENCOUNTER

Textile collectors, dealers, museum curators, fashion designers and weavers will feast their eyes on a comprehensive range of indigenous textiles at a bazaar to be held from February 1 to 3, 2009 at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Filipino People.

Featuring abaca, cotton inabel, hablon, jusi, piña, silk, and sinamay, Market Encounter will showcase traditional and contemporary fabrics and goods woven to a fine art on backstrap looms, handlooms and floor looms by weaving communities in far-flung provinces. The best the Philippines has to offer will be on sale at the bazaar along with selected pieces from other countries in the Southeast Asia.

The bazaar forms part of the 2nd ASEAN Traditional Textiles Symposium organized by the Museum Foundation of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines, in partnership with the ASEAN Foundation and Japan/ASEAN Solidarity Fund.

"Our varying regional and ethnic cultures, belief, dialects and art woven together in these textiles are reflective of the Filipino workmanship. The intelligence, creativity, and stories of triumph and survival of our ancestors find expression in these unique artworks we produce," bazaar co-chair Cedie Lopez-Vargas says.

Originally made of banana leaf fibers, jusi is constructed in a plain weave with a crisp finish. The silk organza fabric is widely used in manufacturing Barong Tagalogs, evening dresses and trimmings.

Fashion artiste Dita Sandico-Ong will showcase her ingenious use of banana and other indigenous plant fibers imaginatively interwoven with traditional and ethnic Filipino fabrics.

Famous for her finely crafted products made of natural fibers, Soumak-owner Yola Johnson created a line of woven fabrics including sinamay for the home, exclusively designed for the bazaar.

The province of Antique boasts of the versatile patadyong, made of hand-woven textiles called hablon. It comes in muted colors and is sometimes, combined with silk threads. Used as a skirt, hammock, apron, curtain, tablecloth, pillowcase and blanket, the patadyong represents an over-a-century- old weaving tradition in that province and elsewhere on the island of Panay.

Shiny and intricate, handmade t'nalak cloth takes months to accomplish. The T'boli (delete tribal) communities in South Cotabato continue this millennia-old tradition of preparing abaca, repeatedly beating and soaking the fibers to achieve flexibility and higher dye quality.

The designs are handed down from generation to generation or they come to the weaver in a dream from a local deity, who mandates that the weaver include these patterns or suffer the consequences.

Rich black and deep reddish-brown geometric patterns are typical in t'nalak designs. Dyed with herb extracts of permanent colors, the abaca fibers symbolize the people of South Cotabato's fondest aspirations.

"Culturally diverse and economically enterprising, the Philippine textile industry celebrates the continuity of our time-honored tradition and highlights the competence of our weavers in bringing out the intrinsic beauty of our world-class textiles," Armita Rufino, Museum Foundation of the Philippines president, says.

The symposium has been made possible through the auspices of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the Department of Tourism, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, the Filipino Heritage Festival, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade and Industry, and Philippine Airlines.

The bazaar is open to the public for free from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. on February 1, and from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on February 2 and 3. Interested parties are invited to register for the symposium itself at the special discounted registration fee of P5,000 for local residents.

For inquiries, please call the 2nd ASEAN Traditional Textiles Symposium Secretariat at telephone number 404-2685, or visit http://aseantextile s09.museumfounda tionph.org/.

For more Museum Foundation events and activities please visit our website at http://museumfounda tionph.org/ news/

THE 2ND ASEAN TRADITIONAL TEXTILES SYMPOSIUM

From February 1 to 3, the Museum Foundation of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippine People will host a series of talks and demonstrations on traditional Southeast Asian textiles. Specialists and practitioners from four continents will speak on the successes and challenges that face the manufacture, use, and distribution of natural fabrics. Through site visits, the symposium participants will see first-hand the realities of surviving as professional weavers and how some of our best practitioners fulfill orders for the urban market. Outstanding fabrics like piña, hablon, abel, sinamay, and t'nalak that make our country's production unique will be on show and on sale. Philippine representatives will speak on four topics: shared textile traditions in Southeast Asia; piña weaving in an underserved community; and symbols, meaning, and power in local wear today. Other ASEAN presenters will speak on, among other issues, how their communities have addressed textile preservation and sustainability. Together we hope to find useful solutions to common concerns.

In addition, the National Museum will (1) mount T/ISSUE, a textile exhibition curated by Marian Pastor Roces; the Museum Foundation will (2) organize Market Encounter where textile merchants from Abra to Bali will showcase and sell their products; and (3) present Habi: Weaving the Fabric of Life, a special evening featuring designers who have innovated and integrated local fabrics into their creations: Patrice Ramos Diaz, Rhett Eala, Lulu Tan Gan, Randy Ortiz, and Cary Santiago. In addition, the symposium will host the batik designs of Iwan Tirta, one of the most established Indonesian designers, and Suraya Shaari, a young, multi-awarded Malaysian designer.

Looking forward to seeing you at the National Museum February 1-3. Do register now (http://aseantextile s09.museumfounda tionph.org/) and join the Museum Foundation and the National Museum in supporting some our greatest cultural assets: our weavers and our weaving!

We are are also attaching the symposium information and the registration form/payment information along with this letter.

Warmest wishes for a good start to the New Year and looking forward to seeing you at the symposium!

Sincerely yours,

sgd. Corazon S. Alvina, Co-Chair, Second ASEAN Textile Symposium
Director, National Museum of the Philippines

sgd. Maria Isabel G. Ongpin, Co-Chair, Second ASEAN Textile Symposium
Ex-Officio Director, Museum Foundation of the Philippines

For more Museum Foundation events and activities please visit our website at http://museumfounda tionph.org/ news/

OKS-NA-OX

Wednesdays Open Platform celebrates the year of the OX with MARK SALVATUS’ URBAN PLAN, and ANDREA TERAN’S MONTHLY PERIOD READINGS with guest Neo-Urban Planners KRISTOFFER ARDEÑA (photo installation), JAY PACENA (video), MANNET VILLARIBA (video ), and WESLEY VALENZUELA (poster installation), and Writers in Conversation with MABI DAVID and MARK CAYANAN.

Feeble attempts to conjecture cosmic collisions and astrological fluctuations should be shamelessly dismissed as purely superstitious. In no way can the backward movement of Mercury towards the sun affect interpersonal communication, business, travel and the like. Delays and introspection are of course, caused by more sinister emergent events such as a freak road accident, broken alarm clocks, crowded commuter trains, engine trouble, a new US president, police raid or even the partial eclipse of the sun.

Still the only thing that can derail utopian visions of urban life can come from lack of inspiration or sleep, perhaps. So come over this Wednesday as we continue to sketch the cities we love most as Mark.

CONFLUENCE

JIM ORENCIO . JOVEN MANSIT

CONFLUENCE

Opening Thursday 29th January 2009 7 pm

The exhibition runs to Sunday 8th February 2009.

The enduring capacity of art to bridge nations surfaces anew with the exhibition CONFLUENCE. Past meets present in artistic concrescence as Filipino artists Jim Orencio and Joven Mansit use figurative paintings to depict the cultural concourse of Singapore and the Philippines, inspired by venerable chronicles of the nations’ histories.

Referencing notable Singaporean historical figures and using Filipino aesthetics to render his subjects afresh, Jim Orencio creates his layered collages much like the process of nation building that transformed Singapore from a small fishing village into one of the most diverse and successful city states of the world. The artist’s dynamic brushstrokes echo the vitality of a bygone era whose legacy remains tangible to this day. Citing ethnically divergent individual’s fundamental to the development of the Lion City with his palette of sepia hues and warm earth tones, Orencio pays homage to the pioneering efforts of those who envisioned Singapore to be the model metropolis that it is today.

Joven Mansit re-presents the images found in old colonial-era photo portraits of elite Filipinos taken inside the elaborate settings of photo studios, altering their compositions by adding, appropriating and substituting the images with others. These are not simply images of nostalgia and romanticized depictions of bygone days but documents reflecting the power relations of the colonial past. Joven’s Wind Vane series about the Galleon Trade depicts sails on the heads of the indios (natives), as if anticipating the western winds to move them. The Galleon Trade has been a symbol of affluence and abundance as it became the medium for rich economic and cultural exchange, but this series depicts it as probably the most oppressive phase of the colonial domination of the Philippines.

About the artists:

A senior member of the important Salingpusa art group, Jim Orencio graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in Diliman with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. He was a Finalist in the Metrobank Foundation National Painting Competition in 1990 and 1993, and in the AAP-ECCA Semi-Annual Abstract Competition in 2006. In 2006, he was named Most Outstanding Visual Artist of Aklan, Philippines. Having exhibited in France and Papua New Guinea, as well as on innumerable occasions in the Philippines, Jim has already completed 13 solo exhibitions in his career.

Joven Mansit finished his Certificate of Fine Arts (major in Painting) at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in Diliman, Quezon City in 2004. Mansit has been a consistent finalist in annual national art competitions. He was recognized as a 3rd placer and finalist in the oil and acrylic category of the 37th and 35th Shell National Student Art Competitions respectively. He has also been a finalist in the 17th and 18th PLDT-DPC National Painting Competitions. He recently held his first solo exhibition, Camera Obscura, in the Philippines last year.

Utterly Art Exhibition Space

(diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)

229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778

Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg

Mon-Sat 12 noon - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm

Celebrate 40yrs of Singapore-Philippines diplomatic relations with Joven Mansit and Jim Orencio's CONFLUENCE - 29th January to 8th February 2009.

OIDO (PLAY BY EAR II)

Play By Ear II (Oido)

by Alwin Reamillo

12-28 January 2009

Reamillo’s piano wings take flight with songs on Australia Day

The sheer but deceptive randomness of an assemblage of apparently unrelated objects as if fossicked from discards and rubbish, and a kind of low-frequency music vibrating among them maybe used to describe the rush of indefinable propositions/suggestions that make-up installation artist and painter Alwin Reamillo’s Play by Ear II (Oido) exhibition at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring Street in Pasay City.

Music, and the remains of the almost forgotten piano-making industry in the country, and the cultural links between Australia and the Philippines, provides the melodic undertones to Play by Ear (Oido), which is set to close with a concert on 28 January at 6pm as part of the week-long celebration of Australia Day 2009.

Reamillo belongs to family of local piano-makers that manufactured the Wittemberg brand of upright and grand pianos before the industry went into decline partly as a result of globalisation. Included in the exhibition are recently restored art-case Wittemberg Pianos developed from an earlier artist residency project at the UP Vargas Museum called the Nicanor Abelardo Grand Piano Project. Both instrument feature a look-in glass window and transferred images from the Filipino musical film classic “Mutya ng Pasig”.

For the last thirteen years, the internationally renowned installation artist has made the far-off port city of Fremantle in Western Australia his home and base of artistic production. Play by Ear contextualises his transcultural practice between Australia and the Philippines, both as a tribute to his Filipino artistic roots and the Austral-Asian route of his artistic career. He has indicated plans to continue developing future collaborative piano projects between the two countries.

Reamillo, a recipient of the prestigious 2008 ArtsWA Mid-Career Fellowship in Western Australia and the 1994 CCP Thirteen Artists Award, brings together his musician friends from various encounters, having been an alumnus of the Philippine High School for the Arts, the UP College of Fine Arts and the Western Australia School of Visual Arts, Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University.

Australian Folk/Bush Music legend Warren Fahey, and his band the Larrikins, headline the closing concert, performing numbers from his famous collection of Australian Folk/Bush songs, ballads, poems, folklore built over 40 years. Filipino world music band Makiling will perform selections from their recently launched third CD album “ Malakas at Maganda”. Wystan de la Pena and Jose Sarigumba will render a duo-version of Nicanor Abelardo’s “Mutya ng Pasig” with young vocalist Collins Guttierrez singing traditional English and Australian songs, promising a most interesting night of performances with the special participation of Filipino world music advocate Grace Nono.

An open impromptu, improvisational jamming is also expected from other invited musicians and guests. “Our guest musicians for the closing event complete, in a manner, the cultural correspondences between Australia and the Philippines,” Reamillo says.

Play by Ear is a joint initiative of Galleria Duemila and the Australian Embassy Manila.

For enquiries regarding the concert please contact the secretariat at Tel. Numbers +63 833-9815 / +63 831-9990 or email us at duemila@mydestiny.net

JUAN ALCAZAREN BERNARDO PACQUING

JUAN ALCAZAREN BERNARDO PACQUING

January 13 to February 7, 2009

Juan Alcazaren and Bernard Pacquing, two of the most exciting visual artists today, team up for a show on view at the Tall Gallery until Feb. 7. Through his installations, Alcazaren explores the conceptual properties of everyday objects such as used chopping boards and mirrors, creating carefully orchestrated works that feature a definite and palpable symmetry, limned in light. Pacquing, on the other hand, posits a counterpoint with his wildly imaginative canvases steep with his signature child-like strokes in the spirit of Abstract Expressionism, showing the disorder of the inherently tempestuous creative process. Anchoring the exhibit is Pacquing's installation that features an assembly of geometrically-positioned strings bristling with feathers and emerging from a canvas riotous with lines--a metaphorical footnote to what the exhibit represents. Cohesive in their experimental attitude and oppositional in their viewpoints, both works vibrate with conceptual energy and deliver to the onlooker a veritable glimpse of the future of Philippine visual arts.

EXHIBITED WORKS

Tall Gallery

Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound

PLAY BY EAR

A L W I N R E A M I L L O

" P l a y b y E a r "

December 6 - January 29, 2008

Of Butterfly Wings and the Great Barrier Roof

Galleria Duemila presents ‘Play by Ear (Oido)’: a two-part installation work by Western Australia-based artist Alwin Reamillo. The first part of the exhibit opens on 6 December 2008, while the second part starts on 5 January 2009.

‘Play by Ear (Oido)’ is an exploration of the social and cultural landscapes of two cities (Manila and Fremantle) and the movement between them. Seen from a perspective of an artist who is always in transit, it is a poetic reflection on the many contradictions, disjunctions and divisions of urban living.

The central image is a large tarpaulin print called Kakaibang Ilaw II, depicting an aerial view of Santa Cruz, Manila: the part with the bridge connecting LRT1 to LRT2 (Purple Line). It presents a panoramic view of improvised urban architecture, mainly of decayed corrugated roofs from cramped housing, randomly littered with a flotsam of objects and materials and a hodgepodge of interconnecting power lines. Attached to the image surface are detritus of disused piano parts and other found objects. A recent series small, wing-shaped toy piano lids, hinged in pairs, animates the gallery space. These ‘piano wings’ are cross-layered with multiple textual and image appropriations from 1950’s Children’s literature, anatomical illustrations, archival images from Philippine and Australian history.

Hanging opposite Kakaibang Ilaw II, is a 1996 collaborative mixed media work, a deconstructed map of the Philippines (Reamillo + Juliet) called ‘Kakainin ba nila ang mga saging? Created with Australian artist Juliet Lea for the international touring exhibition Traditions/ Tensions: Contemporary Art from Asia, the work renders the Philippine archipelago as a autopsied body, resonating the same social, political and cultural terrain animated in Kakaibang Ilaw II.

Internationally known for his multi-sited, collaborative projects in Australia and Asia, Reamillo’s work is highly experimental/ experiential and often grounded in the relational processes and connections with individuals, communities and institutions in its development. His social sculptures/ installations develop as an expanded translation of ‘creative bayanihan’, thus are often dialogical and improvisational in character. As the title suggest, Play by Ear (Oido) will evolve and develop during the exhibition, ‘animating the piano wings in flights of fancy’ around the space. Two upright artcase pianos, from a recent residency project will also be included in the installation to stage a performance event with musician friends in January.

Reamillo is an alumnus of the Philippine High School for the Arts, where he also taught from 1986-91. He studied painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and the Western Australia School of Visual Arts at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (1997-99). He was a recipient of the 1994 Thirteen Artist Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines and 2004 Award for Continuing Excellence and Service from the Metrobank Foundation of the Philippines. Based in Fremantle, Western Australia for 13 years, he constantly flies back to the Philippines to continue developing cross-cultural exhibition projects between Manila and Fremantle. Reamillo is also currently completing two collaborative projects: a residency project at the UP Vargas Museum called the Nicanor Abelardo Grand Piano Project and the Tutubing Bakal@ Palipalaruan, a developmental peace playground at the Museo Pambata. His collaborative projects has been included in major international exhibitions and residencies including the recent 4 x 4: Hong Kong International Artists Workshop (2007); 2006 Melbourne Artfair; Third Fukuoka Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2005), 2003 National Sculpture Prize, National Gallery of Australia; Sixth Havana Biennale (1997), Freeman Foundation for Asian Artists Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center (1996), Traditions/ Tensions: Contemporary Art from Asia at Asia Society New York (1996) and touring, TransCulture/ Biennale di Venezia 1995; Visions of Happiness, Asia Center, Japan Foundation, Tokyo (1995). His works are represented in various private and museum collection including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Western Australian Museum, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Royal Perth Hospital Art Collection and the Dr. Ian Bernadt Art Collection.

Play by Ear (Oido) will be on view at Galleria Duemilla starting December 7 2008. Galleria Duemilla is located at 210 Loring St, Pasay City near the LRT and MRT stations. Gallery hours: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM from Monday to Saturday. For more information call Galleria Duemila at (632) 833- 9815 & (632) 831-9990 email: duemila@mydestiny.net