Exhibit shows uses of wood in Philippine culture and the arts

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.

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.

On the other hand, CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division officer-in-charge Rica Estrada Uson said, “The irony of celebrating wood — an increasingly depleting natural resource — amidst the recent devastation caused by typhoon Kristine is not lost on us. However, this exhibition is proof of the resilience of the human spirit, the enduring power of art, and its role in advocacy and environmental activism. We hope that Kwentong Kahoy inspires stories of how Filipinos can weather the storm of climate change together through compassionate policymaking and collaboration among different sectors of society for the good of many.”

Kwentong Kahoy presents the objects in five thematic sections: “Wood in Music,” “Wood as Ceremonial Object,” “Wood in Play,” “Wood in Everyday Life,” and “Wood in Artistic Practice.”

“Wood in Music” displays musical instruments — membranophones, chordophones, and idiophones — made of wood, showing how the material is important in the making of music. Examples include bangibang, or a percussion bar, and a kustapig, a boat-shaped, two-stringed lute of the Pala’wan of Palawan, which were once on exhibit at CCP’s Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino, which closed on 2017.

“Wood as Ceremonial Object” affords viewers a glimpse of precolonial belief systems in the Philippines through paraphernalia used in rituals and everyday life such as the punamhan or ritual box and the bulol, images of spirits used as granary guardians, of the Ifugao people of the Cordillera region. Shown as well as are objects associated with Christian and Islamic religions such as an urna, a niche for religious images, and a pairaan or container, of the Meranaw people of Lanao del Sur.

The “Wood in Play” section spotlights the craft of taka or papier mache, which was brought in by the Spaniards and is practiced until today by the Tagalog people in the town of Paete, Laguna. On display are takaan or wooden molds of different images such as the popular horse and other animals as well as women. Accompanying the takaan are paintings showing scenes in the province such as Laguna de Bay (oil on canvas mounted on wood, 1982) by Rodolfo Roa.

In “Wood in Everyday Life,” household items as well as implements used in agriculture, hunting and other means of food production are on display such as knives — gonong of the Tboli people of South Cotabato, the banyal of the Blaan people of Davao del Sur, and the barung from Mindanao. Also of interest are the parts of houses or other structures such as the door of a granary, carved with an anthropomorphic image, of the Ifugao people, and an intricate panolong, a decorative beam extension that juts out of the torogan, the traditional residence of a Meranaw person with high status.

Kwentong Kahoy is the third collaborative project between CCP and real-estate developer Arthaland Corporation. With the ongoing rehabilitation of its Main Building, which began in 2023, CCP lacks spaces to showcase items from its 21AM Collection. The partnership enables CCP to showcase its visual arts and ethnographic collections to the public through Arthaland properties.

“We’re delighted to partner with the Cultural Center of the Philippines for Kwentong Kahoy. It has found, we believe, a perfect home here in Sevina Park. This collaboration is a testament to the vital role that art plays in advancing Arthaland’s vision to create unique, sustainable, and exceptional developments that enhance the quality of life at home, at work, and within the community. Through art, we have fostered deeper connections with nature, emphasizing the beauty and significance of trees and plants in our everyday life,” said Arthaland Corporation vice chairman and president Jaime Gonzales.

The partnership was forged in 2022, producing the exhibits Details and Abstractions: Selections from the Cultural Center of the Philippines 21AM Collection, mounted in 2022 at Arthaland Century Pacific Tower in Taguig City, and Udtong Tutok: Art at High Noon, mounted in 2023 at the Cebu Exchange in Cebu City, Cebu. It was renewed recently, producing Kuwentong Kahoy, which also a way for Arthaland to showcase Sevina Park, an 8.1-hectare, master-planned residential development near the Cavite-Laguna Expressway.

Aside from the items on display, guided tours and a taka-making workshop were conducted by the CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division on 24 November. Kwentong Kahoy is open to the public and on view from 30 October to 2 December, from Monday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Sevina Park, located along Cecilia Araneta Parkway, right beside the De La Salle University Laguna Campus.