Exhibit shows uses of wood in Philippine culture and the arts
‘Kwentong Kahoy: Selections from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection’ explores the multifaceted roles of wood in Philippine culture and the arts as well as makes manifest the patience and creativity involved in making the wooden objects.
Wood has played an essential and indispensable role in the growth of human civilization, being the primary material for innumerable things such as for starting and keeping fire and for building houses and functional objects. It has also been a cornerstone of art and creative expressions, celebrated for its versatility, beauty, and connection to nature across cultures and eras and transformed into objects of beauty as well as utility and vessels of spirituality by the human imagination.
This is true in the Philippines, and the new exhibit of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Kwentong Kahoy: Selections from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection, explores the multifaceted roles of wood in Philippine culture and the arts as well as makes manifest the patience and creativity involved in making the wooden objects.
The exhibit features 73 artworks, artefacts, crafts and other objects. The crafts came from different ethnolinguistic groups including the Blaan, the Ibanag, the Ifugao, the Meranaw, the Pala’wan, the Tagalog and the Tboli. Additionally, traditional musical instruments from other countries — China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand — are also included.
Kuwentong Kahoy exhibit at the Pavilion at Sevina Park in Biñan, Laguna.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROEL HOANG MANIPON FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
Panolong or Meranaw ornamental beam end from Lanao del Sur.
Strewn among the folk and traditional crafts are 14 modern works by artists, created in different forms and techniques — paintings, prints, sculptures, and mixed-media works — but bound together by the use of wood, showing the development of wood in artmaking as well as how the imagination shaped wood and how wood shaped the imagination. The featured works are by National Artist Ang Kiukok, National Artist Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, Felix Abesamis, Lee Aguinaldo, Antonio Austria, Santiago “Santi” Bose, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Nonoy Ferrarez, Rodolfo Gan, Rodolfo Roa, Pablo Mahinay, Soler Santos, Manuel Soriano, and Roberto Villanueva.
“This exhibit hopefully will remind us of the important role that the arts play in shaping the world around us,” said CCP vice president and artistic director Dennis Marasigan during the opening reception of exhibit at the Pavilion at Sevina Park in Biñan, Laguna, on 7 November.
He also pointed out the state of the environment, wood being an in-demand natural resource.
“In a time when sustainability and environmental awareness are more important than ever, Kwentong Kahoy invites us to reflect on our relationship with the natural world and the materials that we use,” he said.
