Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices on an Art Collection
The University of the Philippines Department of Art Studies in partnership with the Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, Inc. is pleased to present Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices on an Art Collection. It is a series of recordings by UP Diliman faculty who discuss a work of art from the collection of art patron and UP alumna Purita Kalaw-Ledesma (1914-2005). Gathering viewers from different sensibilities and expertise, the program hopes to encourage slow looking, or a prolonged encounter with the work, as well as to exemplify the broad possibilities of viewing art through interdisciplinal lenses.
Bridging the Gap is titled after a chapter in Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Ma. Guerrero’s book The Struggle for Philippine Art (1974). It annotates the public outreach efforts of the Art Association of the Philippines, an organization of artists founded by Kalaw-Ledesma in 1948. The title resounds at present, where remote teaching and learning continue to be observed. Educators have emphasized the importance of “bridging the gap,” or compensating for the challenges posed by distance education in the time of a pandemic. Offering voices and views, the program is an attempt to ease transactional distance by establishing presence and connectivity, in the midst of our virtual encounters with art and others.
Bridging the Gap: Views and Voices from an Art Collection can be accessed through the official YouTube and Facebook accounts of the Department of Art Studies and KLFI. There will be 10 episodes presented from 18 January to 28 February 2021 on the works of artists Nena Saguil, Julie Lluch, Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, and Napoleon Abueva. The speakers are Patrick Flores, Flaudette May Datuin, Charla Rochella Saamong, Mark Louie Lugue, Ma. Rita Gudino, Maricor Soriano, Eufracio Abaya, Tessa Maria Guazon, Angela Baguilat, and Norma Respicio.
This initiative is made possible through the support of the UP Diliman Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts.
Ep. 1: Prof. Patrick Flores on Nena Saguil’s Untitled (Abstract)
Patrick Flores is Professor of Art Studies at the Department of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman, which he chaired from 1997 to 2003, and Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila. He is the Director of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network. Among his publications are Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Colonial Art (1999); Remarkable Collection: Art, History, and the National Museum (2006); and Past Peripheral: Curation in Southeast Asia (2008). He was a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council (2010) and a member of the Advisory Board of the exhibition The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989 (2011) organized by the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and member of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council (2011 and 2014). He co-edited the Southeast Asian issue with Joan Kee for Third Text (2011). He convened in 2013 on behalf of the Clark Institute and the Department of Art Studies of the University of the Philippines the conference “Histories of Art History in Southeast Asia” in Manila. He curated an exhibition of contemporary art from Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe titled South by Southeast and the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2015. He was the Artistic Director of Singapore Biennale 2019 and is the Curator of the Taiwan Pavilion for Venice Biennale in 2022.
Ep. 2: Prof. Flaudette May V. Datuin on Julie Lluch’s Bust of Purita Kalaw-Ledesma
Flaudette May V. Datuin, PhD is Professor of the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman. Aside from courses on art and society, art theory and aesthetics, art history, and art criticism, she teaches an interdisciplinary course on Disaster Risk Mitigation, Adaptation and Preparedness Strategies (DRMAPS) based at the UP College of Engineering. Her current research interests include gender issues in the arts, art and ecology, and art and healing.
Ep. 3: Prof. Charla Rochella Santiago-Saamong on Napoleon Abueva’s Play Sculpture
Charla Rochella Santiago-Saamong is an Assistant Professor at the UP College of Home Economics Department of Family Life and Child Development and an early childhood teacher in the UP CDC under the same Department. Asst. Prof. Saamong obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Family Life and Child Development in 2008 and her Master’s Degree in Psychology in 2013, both from the University of the Philippines. She has been in the teaching profession for 13 years and has worked with both government and private institutions on projects about children and families.
Ep. 4: Mr. Mark Louie L. Lugue on Ofelia Gelvezon-Téqui’s Untitled (Anting-anting)
Mark Louie L. Lugue studies and teaches art history at the Department of Art Studies of the University of the Philippines Diliman. He served as Program Development Associate for collections mapping at the university’s Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts. He was managing editor of ??????: ?????? & ?????? – ??? ?????????? ?? ??? ??????????? ??????? ???????????, and its accompanying 35-volume digital catalog. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science degree at Ateneo de Manila University in 2013.
Ep. 5: Prof. Ma. Rita B. Gudiño on Julie Lluch’s Bust of Purita Kalaw-Ledesma
Ma. Rita B. Gudiño started her academic career at the UP College of Fine Arts (CFA) in 1993, while working as a designer for a ceramic manufacturing and exporting company. In 2000, she participated in the longest-running Ceramic Arts Workshop in Tokoname, Japan. She helped establish the UPCFA Ceramic Studio in 2008 and directs its programs and operations. She is the recipient of several Professorial Chair Awards including the Tolentino Professorial Chair, UP Centennial Professorial Chair Awards, ONE UP Professorial Chair Awards, and the UP Artist Award 2013-2015 and 2016-2018. The International Ceramic Art Conference, ?????????, which she organizes for the UPCFA Ceramic Studio, won the UP Chancellor’s Award for the Most Outstanding Extension Program in 2018. Prof. Rita is recognized for her work Lual, a kiln art that associated firing and art as a metaphor for birthing.
Ep. 6: Prof. Maricor Soriano on Nena Saguil’s Untitled (Abstract)
Maricor Soriano is a professor of physics specializing in the application of image processing to multidisciplinary problems such as cultural heritage conservation, coral reef imaging, sports analysis, and public health, to name a few. She currently heads the DOST-funded project Optical Payload Technology, In-depth Knowledge Acquisition and Localization (OPTIKAL) where they develop space cameras for a Diwata-class satellite. Prof. Soriano also heads the Video and Image Processing (VIP) research group in the National Institute of Physics.
Ep. 7: Prof. Norma A. Respicio on Nena Saguil’s Untitled (Abstract)
Norma A. Respicio is a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Art Studies, UP Diliman. She received her BFA in Advertising and Editorial Design (1971), MA Art History (1988), and PhD in Philippine Studies (1999) from UPD. She has served the university for three decades and in various capacities, among them, as Chair of the Department of Art Studies (1994-1997) and the Coordinator of College of Arts and Letters Graduate Studies Office. Dr. Respicio is an authority on the traditional arts, particularly textiles of the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. She has authored numerous publications, among them, ?? ?????????? ??????? ?? ???? (2003); ???????? ?????? ????????? ????? (2005); “Abel Iloco” in ??? ? ??????, ? ???????? ??????? ?? ?????? ????? (2007); and “Affinities in the Material Cultures of Philippines and Japan,” in ??????????? ???????? ??? ?????????????, ????????? ??????? ??????????? ??? ???????? (2007). One of her recent publications, ??????? ?? ? ???????? ????????, won the National Book Award in 2015.
Ep. 8: Prof. Eufracio Abaya on Ofelia Gelvezon-Téqui’s Untitled (Anting-anting)
Eufracio C. Abaya (Ph.D. Anthropology, Michigan State University, 1994) currently teaches at the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman. Professor Abaya was previously a member of the faculty of the University’s College of Education, and College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. He has conducted ethnographic studies on a wide range of topics: including emotional capital and caregiving, gender and sexuality politics, spirituality and artisanship, mobility and place making, disaster and resettlement, cultural politics of disease control, personhood and mental illness, and ethnomusicology. A former president of the Anthropological Association of the Philippines, Professor Abaya is currently a member of the Ethics Task Force of the World Council of Anthropological Associations, and the Chair of the Technical Committee for Cultural Education of the Commission for Higher Education (CHED). He served as president of the UGAT, Inc (Ugnayang Pang-Aghamtao) or the Anthropological Association of the Philippines and as vice-president of the Philippine Studies Association. He is the founding president of the Society for Strategic Education Studies.
Ep. 9: Prof. Tessa Maria Guazon on Napoleon Abueva’s Play Sculpture
Tessa Maria Guazon is a contemporary art curator and assistant professor at the Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines Diliman. Her curatorial and research interests center on contemporary art, culture-led urban development campaigns, and art’s mediation of the public sphere. Her most recent research and curatorial projects include the Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET) organized by the IIAS (International Institute of Asian Studies) Leiden, the Netherlands and funded by The Luce Foundation New York; and the travelling exhibition Notes for Tomorrow organized by the ICI International (Independent Curators International) New York. She has been invited to the Interlocutors Program of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial organized by the QAGOMA (Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art) Brisbane, Australia; and to the curatorial team of the forthcoming Asian Art Biennial at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, Taiwan. She received the University of the Philippines Artist Award (2016 to 2019, 2013 to 2015) and the Nippon Foundation Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowship from 2013 to 2014. She was a researcher in residence at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Japan in 2017. Her essays and reviews have been published in anthologies, academic journals, and exhibition catalogues. Her recent writings include chapters for the book Adhika on the University of the Philippines Diliman art collections, a film review for the Young Critics Circle Film Desk, and a forthcoming chapter for an anthology on vernacular resilience to be published by the Amsterdam University Press.
Stay tuned for the next episodes.
ARTS 1 Musical Organization
These are video materials prepared by Prof. Robin Daniel Rivera, PhD of the Department of Art Studies particular for use in ARTS 1: Critical Perspectives in the Arts and other related courses.