Visual Arts Notes
By by Pablo A. Tariman
Manila
Fri 29th April 2011
Photo credit: Babeth Lolargas collection
The woman who wrote prize-winning short stories during her early housewife years (1952 1970) remains young looking as she attends to guests gracing her exhibit called Claiming A Piece of Paradise and Facebook.
Writer-Painter Gilda Cordero Fernando
Her latest exhibit features 41 new aquarelles and their titles (Sosi Buddies, Attitude, Your Majesties, etc.) are virtual invitation to the artists personal and literary facebook.
[c]1[c]
One could sense a hint of frozen humor and a hint of satire in the faces of Gildas artistic Facebook entries.
Like one painting of two ladies the title of which goes
Hi I heard you are Papas Girl
So are you.
With those well-shaped mouths with veiled sarcasm, this painting reveal characters from Gildas short stories. It was like a scene from a diplomatic reception in Gildas High Fashion a scene from which goes
The loveliest women were present at all his parties each fashion had all the extravagance of a bacchanalian feast and a fashion opening each beauty trying to out-do the next in the way she tilted her head to show off an expensive tiara or cut a figure against the light of the willowy wand of a dance dress, laughing throatily in the approved pagan manner.
Gilda Cordero Fernando (left) with Rita Ledesma and Chit Roces
Gilda Cordero Fernando and Rita Ledesma
By coincidence, I find myself laughing throatily with guests Vergel Santos and Chit Roces as I dissect Gildas all-too familiar aquarelles.
When my chance came, I told Gilda her painting entitled School Administrators looked like characters from her short story, The Visitation of the Gods.
There is a hint if wickedness and civility in her Cinderellas Stepsisters and layers of emotional tableaux in her Memory of Cruel Love and Love Is Also Precious.
The women in Gildas Aquarelles remind me of how early in her literary career women figure in her artistic canvass.
Feminist professor Thelma E. Arambulo in the book A Literary Journey with Gilda Cordero-Fernando -- describe women in the artists literary aquarelle thus:
One type is, at the very least, pathetic, at the worst obnoxious. To this type belongs the bubblehead social climber in High Fashion, the harassed housewife in The Level of Each Days Need, the young executives wife in Magnanimity, as well as the little girls mother in Hunger.
Lately, I can add her series on The Senyoras Strike Again in a lifestyle page of a national daily.
Moreover, Gildas artistic palette covers a lot of grounds both social and slightly political.
Her painting The Battle Between Good and Evil is a case in point and so is her Mutya ng Pasig which is a funny commentary on the state of pollution of Philippine rivers.
One left the exhibit after an instant heavy rain poured in the surroundings of Silverlens Gallery and couldnt help recalling Gildas past aquarelles.
The last time I saw her, she was in tears hearing baritone Andrew Fernando in the last Kiss The Cook Gourmet concert and noticed she wasnt comfortable being labeled national treasure which she is -- whether she likes it or not. She is still apt to dismiss profundity and signs of idolatry the moment she smells them.
In the past, she is also not inclined to recall the early writing years. Gosh, I was an oppressed housewife then, she mused then in my first and last visit to her Panay Avenue abode. I could never do anything I wanted and I couldnt do anything else. That period I was writing fiction was a substitute for the things I wanted to do but couldnt. When I started living them, I dropped fiction.
Looking at her intently as she greets her exhibit guests, I can say the writer-painter has aged gracefully. I remember her love affair with the saya the result of which was a CCP extravaganza that had the late National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag doing rap in a Gilda Cordero-Fernando theater, music and fashion spectacle.
Jamming on The Saya Gilda qualified then was not a comment on the fashion scene.
Explained Gilda before that unique CCP production: Its more an explanation on why people dress the way they do and what we can do with relics from the past.
Indeed, she considered her saya trip as her way of returning to her roots. More than any other garment, the saya has been a sensitive barometer of the times. When virginity was a prime virtue, the saya had a high neckline, embroidered sleeves and a voluminous skirt that hardly afforded a peek of ones heels. From this European shape, it evolved into a gossamer lantern-like tropical Maria Clara with wide sleeves and yoke-like panuelo made of the filmiest pia. After World War II, Ramon Valera edited out the by-then impractical panuelo, provoking a fashion war, and the saya became a one-piece thing, much like the American evening dress.
The way Gilda described those saya appurtenances reminded me of a passage from her short story High Fashion, that part where the couturier was describing the materials he had in mind for his client.
It goes: To compliment your naked beauty, I must have silk of a most fantastic shade that plays on the undiscovered tones of in between reds and greens and yellows. It must have the translucent amber of centuries-old Amontillado, the ephemeral glitter of green in the wingtips of dragon-flies, the elusive wisp of gray in the sulphurous smoke of a dying volcano.
Gilda pointed out the short story was remote in her mind when she thought of Jamming on the Saya.
Gilda Cordero Fernando with painting from past exhibit, "Philippines, My Philippines
In that story, Gilda said she was dealing with traditional people and her present team is anything but traditional. We always try to do something different. If our minds were run of the mill, we will probably produce a TV show with its conventional formula. There are good people I cannot work because they are too conservative. I prefer something untried, something novel coming from people na medyo baluktot ang utak and I guess that along with good taste, that is the binding factor. If you dont have good taste, you dont get to where we hang out and you dont even get to be my friend.
Having a last look at Gildas 41 Aquarelles, I remember what our common friend, Odette Alcantara said about collaborating with the writer
Said Odette then of the authors foray into publishing and doing fashion-theater production: Working with Gilda is exciting because she is one person who will not repeat herself. I will not miss a chance collaborating with her because her ideas are like perfect setting for a grand opera.
Like it or not, Gildas Aquarelles and Facebook -- which will run at Silverlens SLAB Gallery along Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City until May 28-- are like present-day social villains and heroines in Puccinis La Boheme.
By then, you can translate the poignant Puccini aria as Gildas Memory of Cruel Love.
Reflections on Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s Past and Present Aquarelles and Facebook
Manila
Fri 29th April 2011
Photo credit: Babeth Lolargas collection
The woman who wrote prize-winning short stories during her early housewife years (1952 1970) remains young looking as she attends to guests gracing her exhibit called Claiming A Piece of Paradise and Facebook.
Writer-Painter Gilda Cordero Fernando
Her latest exhibit features 41 new aquarelles and their titles (Sosi Buddies, Attitude, Your Majesties, etc.) are virtual invitation to the artists personal and literary facebook.
[c]1[c]
One could sense a hint of frozen humor and a hint of satire in the faces of Gildas artistic Facebook entries.
Like one painting of two ladies the title of which goes
Hi I heard you are Papas Girl
So are you.
With those well-shaped mouths with veiled sarcasm, this painting reveal characters from Gildas short stories. It was like a scene from a diplomatic reception in Gildas High Fashion a scene from which goes
The loveliest women were present at all his parties each fashion had all the extravagance of a bacchanalian feast and a fashion opening each beauty trying to out-do the next in the way she tilted her head to show off an expensive tiara or cut a figure against the light of the willowy wand of a dance dress, laughing throatily in the approved pagan manner.
Gilda Cordero Fernando (left) with Rita Ledesma and Chit Roces
Gilda Cordero Fernando and Rita Ledesma
By coincidence, I find myself laughing throatily with guests Vergel Santos and Chit Roces as I dissect Gildas all-too familiar aquarelles.
When my chance came, I told Gilda her painting entitled School Administrators looked like characters from her short story, The Visitation of the Gods.
There is a hint if wickedness and civility in her Cinderellas Stepsisters and layers of emotional tableaux in her Memory of Cruel Love and Love Is Also Precious.
The women in Gildas Aquarelles remind me of how early in her literary career women figure in her artistic canvass.
Feminist professor Thelma E. Arambulo in the book A Literary Journey with Gilda Cordero-Fernando -- describe women in the artists literary aquarelle thus:
One type is, at the very least, pathetic, at the worst obnoxious. To this type belongs the bubblehead social climber in High Fashion, the harassed housewife in The Level of Each Days Need, the young executives wife in Magnanimity, as well as the little girls mother in Hunger.
Lately, I can add her series on The Senyoras Strike Again in a lifestyle page of a national daily.
Moreover, Gildas artistic palette covers a lot of grounds both social and slightly political.
Her painting The Battle Between Good and Evil is a case in point and so is her Mutya ng Pasig which is a funny commentary on the state of pollution of Philippine rivers.
One left the exhibit after an instant heavy rain poured in the surroundings of Silverlens Gallery and couldnt help recalling Gildas past aquarelles.
The last time I saw her, she was in tears hearing baritone Andrew Fernando in the last Kiss The Cook Gourmet concert and noticed she wasnt comfortable being labeled national treasure which she is -- whether she likes it or not. She is still apt to dismiss profundity and signs of idolatry the moment she smells them.
In the past, she is also not inclined to recall the early writing years. Gosh, I was an oppressed housewife then, she mused then in my first and last visit to her Panay Avenue abode. I could never do anything I wanted and I couldnt do anything else. That period I was writing fiction was a substitute for the things I wanted to do but couldnt. When I started living them, I dropped fiction.
Looking at her intently as she greets her exhibit guests, I can say the writer-painter has aged gracefully. I remember her love affair with the saya the result of which was a CCP extravaganza that had the late National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag doing rap in a Gilda Cordero-Fernando theater, music and fashion spectacle.
Jamming on The Saya Gilda qualified then was not a comment on the fashion scene.
Explained Gilda before that unique CCP production: Its more an explanation on why people dress the way they do and what we can do with relics from the past.
Indeed, she considered her saya trip as her way of returning to her roots. More than any other garment, the saya has been a sensitive barometer of the times. When virginity was a prime virtue, the saya had a high neckline, embroidered sleeves and a voluminous skirt that hardly afforded a peek of ones heels. From this European shape, it evolved into a gossamer lantern-like tropical Maria Clara with wide sleeves and yoke-like panuelo made of the filmiest pia. After World War II, Ramon Valera edited out the by-then impractical panuelo, provoking a fashion war, and the saya became a one-piece thing, much like the American evening dress.
The way Gilda described those saya appurtenances reminded me of a passage from her short story High Fashion, that part where the couturier was describing the materials he had in mind for his client.
It goes: To compliment your naked beauty, I must have silk of a most fantastic shade that plays on the undiscovered tones of in between reds and greens and yellows. It must have the translucent amber of centuries-old Amontillado, the ephemeral glitter of green in the wingtips of dragon-flies, the elusive wisp of gray in the sulphurous smoke of a dying volcano.
Gilda pointed out the short story was remote in her mind when she thought of Jamming on the Saya.
Gilda Cordero Fernando with painting from past exhibit, "Philippines, My Philippines
In that story, Gilda said she was dealing with traditional people and her present team is anything but traditional. We always try to do something different. If our minds were run of the mill, we will probably produce a TV show with its conventional formula. There are good people I cannot work because they are too conservative. I prefer something untried, something novel coming from people na medyo baluktot ang utak and I guess that along with good taste, that is the binding factor. If you dont have good taste, you dont get to where we hang out and you dont even get to be my friend.
Having a last look at Gildas 41 Aquarelles, I remember what our common friend, Odette Alcantara said about collaborating with the writer
Said Odette then of the authors foray into publishing and doing fashion-theater production: Working with Gilda is exciting because she is one person who will not repeat herself. I will not miss a chance collaborating with her because her ideas are like perfect setting for a grand opera.
Like it or not, Gildas Aquarelles and Facebook -- which will run at Silverlens SLAB Gallery along Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City until May 28-- are like present-day social villains and heroines in Puccinis La Boheme.
By then, you can translate the poignant Puccini aria as Gildas Memory of Cruel Love.