Kim Oliveros
Neil de la Cruz
Rocelie Delfin
Kim Oliveros
Neil de la Cruz
Rocelie Delfin
TIFFANY LAFUENTE
Human Nature
In Human Nature, Tiffany Lafuente brings a fresh, provocative perspective to the portrayal of nature, deviating from its usual sacred or benevolent renderings. Here, nature is neither a passive background nor a gentle muse; it is a loud, uncouth force, teeming with agency and alive with critique. Lafuente’s latest suite of works interrogates the human-nature relationship, suggesting that it is our collective ego that blinds us to nature’s intrinsic power—a power indifferent to human history.
During the pandemic, many transformed fragments of nature into ornamental elements within their homes and offices. Rather than honoring nature’s sustenance, these gestures merely symbolized it, reinforcing a divide we have imposed between ourselves and the natural world. In critiquing this commodification, Lafuente also exposes the fallacies of the wellness movement, which treats nature as a balm for restoring a lost innocence. Yet, her works remind us that nature is anything but innocent. It is forceful, wild, and unabashedly indifferent to the human need for validation.
With her unmistakable blend of figuration and satire, Lafuente makes us the unwitting jesters in a grander narrative. Despite our attempts to distance ourselves from the wild, it exists within us—an untamable essence that cannot be subdued by modernity. In a world where we are tempted to see ourselves as nature’s saviors, Lafuente’s work declares the opposite: nature will flourish without us, and perhaps, in the end, that is its greatest power.
Carlomar Arcangel Daoana
GARRYLOID POMOY
Painting Patterns
During Finale Art File’s 2019 Christmas show, Garryloid Pomoy’s work titled “Single thread” was a painting of a sewing machine. Then, he placed an actual red thread where it would normally be placed on the machine. His current exhibit, painting patterns, is related to this work. In the show, he fuses his artworks with different working techniques from a non art process. He creates a new perspective.
Pins sticking out from a gingham cushion, discolored scissors with cloth wrapped around its handles and a few threads sticking out from the cloth, old sewing patterns with folds and tape on them, and the only new objects are colorful threads used for sewing machines. These are Garryloid’s subject matters in his current artworks. All of these sewing objects show signs of aging and are kept with care.
In painting patterns, his works are a continuation about a conversation between his mother and him. She was a sewer. While she was working and making patterns for his uniform, which were shorts and pants, she told him he should “keep these patterns for the future.” At the time he didn’t understand what she meant. Did she mean he would become a sewer someday too? But these days he thought, what if he incorporated her process as a sewer to his own creative process as an artist.
These sewer’s materials became the subject matter in his artworks. He uses old patterns and brings them into life as a piece of art. He saves these patterns and preserves them again for future use, as a pattern of a pattern. In his current exhibit, he wants to put his own experience and feelings to the artworks. By using these patterns in his own way as an artist, he gives a new perspective to the old patterns passed down by his mother. (Mica Sarenas)
TEKLA TAMORIA
For the Love of Art, and Art is Labour
In Tekla Tamoria’s current show, For the Love of Art, and Art is Labour, she shows her love for her work, the repetitive aspect of making art, and the routine of working as an artist. In the exhibit, Tekla wanted to show her current state and make use of her embroidery skills. Embroidery is her first skill and she has been proficient with it for a long time. For the first time, she also makes use of rotoscoping animation.
Her works are hand stitched and machine-made. She uses used and donated fabrics that show change in the works, from old fabrics into fabrics with big flowers. The threads also change colors, from red to yellow. 80 pieces of embroidery are involved in the exhibit. She hangs these embroideries in a circle around the room, and these same pieces are shown as a loop in a video.
Tekla thought the best way to show the process and how art is work is through animation. Animation involves repetition, and it also shows how art making is labour intensive. Her animation involves six frames per second and she uses 80 pieces of frames. These pieces of frames are fabrics that have her embroideries. The animation is short and looped, and shows repetition.
People tend to judge the exhibit when it finishes, but Tekla shows that after all the glitz and glam, even with or without the opening, artists have routines. The process and how art is made is important for her to show in the exhibit. Making art may be work and maybe repetitive, but Tekla continues to love it. It is through work that she finds a vulnerable state. A state that is comforting, trusting, and where she can be herself.
As we grow and evolve, may we hope to encounter and choose work that we like to do. May we also be able to sacrifice time for the work we choose. Tekla chose to be an artist, and this choice may be forever or may be not. But since she loves it, she is ready to work for it. (Mica Sarenas)
