A Peek in Lola Edeng’s Closet: A Spectacle of The Past
Today at EdTech, a group reported about instructional materials and display. A type of an instructional material is a Realia. If a teacher is planning to use a realia, it must be considered that it should be easy to control and is portable. But there is also another way of showing the students real objects. Through out of school activities such as trips to museums and exhibits. This topic reminded me a lot about an exhibit which I attended last July 2009 at the Ateneo Art Gallery. The exhibit was named "UN/FOLD" by Marina Cruz.
Who knew a closet of dresses would hold a key to unfold the past? Well, Marina Cruz does. Not only did she open the closet for the world to see, but also dug up each intricate detail for the world to know and understand. The artist’s work revolved around almost a hundred pieces of clothes, mostly dresses, found inside her grandmother’s old closet, which dates back at around the year 1954 up until around 1978. She had each of the garments displayed and well-organized, photographed and catalogued, and most importantly, exposed of the stories they have to tell.
The artist showcased a whole bunch of dresses. It is really amazing how every piece conveys its own story. The most striking among the pieces were the ones made in duplicate, telling that they were made especially for the twin daughters of Edilberta and Gregorio Rubio, Elisa (the artist’s mother) and Laura. It was remarkably pleasurable noticing the timeline as the twins grow from their pre-school days until they finish college and start to work. Through observation of the dresses, and from the notes of the artist, I knew the changes that took place in the physical figure of the twins, like the time when Laura was healthier than Elisa and when Elisa eventually grew fatter than Laura. Also, I saw the changes in fashion and styles, like different patterns, cuts and other accessories in the dresses. I saw first-hand the kind of material the garments were made of. Most of the dresses, especially the ones made by the artist’s grandmother, if not all, were made from cloth, which was before used to package chicken food. Incredibly, these beautiful dresses were made from recycled materials like ‘katsa’ and small excess pieces of cloth sold at the market, ‘retaso’. Some of the dresses were really gifts and bought done. Down with the photographs, I knew somehow a biography of the Rubio family, the twins in particular and their other siblings, Helen, Sonia, and Boy. Seeing and knowing all of these, I had the sensations of my childhood and my elementary days. I was overwhelmed of how skilled the artist’s grandmother was in making dresses, and how the artist herself came up with the idea of producing art such as this. Practically this art by Marina Cruz is well elaborated and methodical. It is very spontaneous yet perfectly controlled. A work which appeals to the audience not solely by the upshot but mostly by the course of action the artist has done. To describe it to a person who could not see it would be hard, but through thinking like the artist, it is possible. The work is about the logical gathering of data about every piece of garment in the artist’s grandmother’s closet from the ones who wore the dresses themselves. As mentioned, the exhibit comprises the garments, their photographs and their description.
The most important part of the work would be the line of investigations the artist did about the garments, leading to the surfacing of the series of events that took place in the lives of those who wore the dresses, those who sewed them and those who has relations to the family, present in the time being. She made interviews and further analysis corresponding to the interviews she made. The actual uncovering of the past concealed in those dresses is essentially the heart of this work of art. I think the artist made this work like a spur-of-the-moment. It was unplanned, plainly unstructured. It was born through actual curiosity. And much sooner in the process, the artist transformed this spontaneous act to a more planned manner, thereby producing such a work that is well thought-out. If I had a chance, I would ask the artist how she thought of an efficient kind of presentation to exhibit the garments. Another question would be, did the idea of making a plain old wardrobe as a work of art, as seen today, come to you with no doubt regarding the possibility of making it happen? Have you had any doubts, that the data gathered might be insufficient?
“Un/fold” reminds me of the past. It reveals how the people before have their clothes uniquely designed and made for them, unlike today, people already buy ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes, except by some circumstances given. Another would be the passing on of clothes to younger siblings. I remember that one of the dresses the twins had had patches. And the artist noted that it was most probably worn by Sonia or Helen, the younger daughters. It also reminds me of early superstitions and beliefs. Lolo Goryo strictly instructs his children to wear white dresses when attending to the church. Ironically, little children are allowed to wear colorful clothes, for the bare reason that it is good to look at. This clearly suggests the early transition from ancient cultural beliefs to modern thinking.
The exhibit by Marina Cruz reminds me of an exhibit in the National Museum about early settlers in the Philippines, particularly the Muslims. There, the clothes and accessories of these early Muslim settlers were displayed. Both exhibits tell a story about those who wore the clothes, how they lived and why the clothes seem as they are. Both were a product of research, the difference is that Marina got the information directly from the persons involved, while the research team of the museum got data from previous researches in a theoretical manner. In Marina’s work, the actual garments talked about are there, they are the real deal, while at the museum those clothes are only copies of the real thing, since those garments were not really preserved up to this time. Those seen in the museum shows only what the early Muslim settlers might have possibly looked like.
Marina’s “Un/fold” is an exact mirror of real life, practically because it imparts the story of real people, who are, the artist’s mother, aunts, uncle, and grandparents. The dresses project a story of a typical Filipino family after the World War II. What interests me most of this work is the process of unfurling every minutiae and detail in every piece of garment from lola edeng’s closet, and renovating it to become as one piece of art capturing a wide horizon of the past and making it known to the world.
The artist showcased a whole bunch of dresses. It is really amazing how every piece conveys its own story. The most striking among the pieces were the ones made in duplicate, telling that they were made especially for the twin daughters of Edilberta and Gregorio Rubio, Elisa (the artist’s mother) and Laura. It was remarkably pleasurable noticing the timeline as the twins grow from their pre-school days until they finish college and start to work. Through observation of the dresses, and from the notes of the artist, I knew the changes that took place in the physical figure of the twins, like the time when Laura was healthier than Elisa and when Elisa eventually grew fatter than Laura. Also, I saw the changes in fashion and styles, like different patterns, cuts and other accessories in the dresses. I saw first-hand the kind of material the garments were made of. Most of the dresses, especially the ones made by the artist’s grandmother, if not all, were made from cloth, which was before used to package chicken food. Incredibly, these beautiful dresses were made from recycled materials like ‘katsa’ and small excess pieces of cloth sold at the market, ‘retaso’. Some of the dresses were really gifts and bought done. Down with the photographs, I knew somehow a biography of the Rubio family, the twins in particular and their other siblings, Helen, Sonia, and Boy.
Seeing and knowing all of these, I had the sensations of my childhood and my elementary days. I was overwhelmed of how skilled the artist’s grandmother was in making dresses, and how the artist herself came up with the idea of producing art such as this. Practically this art by Marina Cruz is well elaborated and methodical. It is very spontaneous yet perfectly controlled. A work which appeals to the audience not solely by the upshot but mostly by the course of action the artist has done. To describe it to a person who could not see it would be hard, but through thinking like the artist, it is possible. The work is about the logical gathering of data about every piece of garment in the artist’s grandmother’s closet from the ones who wore the dresses themselves. As mentioned, the exhibit comprises the garments, their photographs and their description.
The most important part of the work would be the line of investigations the artist did about the garments, leading to the surfacing of the series of events that took place in the lives of those who wore the dresses, those who sewed them and those who has relations to the family, present in the time being. She made interviews and further analysis corresponding to the interviews she made. The actual uncovering of the past concealed in those dresses is essentially the heart of this work of art. I think the artist made this work like a spur-of-the-moment. It was unplanned, plainly unstructured. It was born through actual curiosity. And much sooner in the process, the artist transformed this spontaneous act to a more planned manner, thereby producing such a work that is well thought-out. If I had a chance, I would ask the artist how she thought of an efficient kind of presentation to exhibit the garments. Another question would be, did the idea of making a plain old wardrobe as a work of art, as seen today, come to you with no doubt regarding the possibility of making it happen? Have you had any doubts, that the data gathered might be insufficient?
“Un/fold” reminds me of the past. It reveals how the people before have their clothes uniquely designed and made for them, unlike today, people already buy ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes, except by some circumstances given. Another would be the passing on of clothes to younger siblings. I remember that one of the dresses the twins had had patches. And the artist noted that it was most probably worn by Sonia or Helen, the younger daughters. It also reminds me of early superstitions and beliefs. Lolo Goryo strictly instructs his children to wear white dresses when attending to the church. Ironically, little children are allowed to wear colorful clothes, for the bare reason that it is good to look at. This clearly suggests the early transition from ancient cultural beliefs to modern thinking.
The exhibit by Marina Cruz reminds me of an exhibit in the National Museum about early settlers in the Philippines, particularly the Muslims. There, the clothes and accessories of these early Muslim settlers were displayed. Both exhibits tell a story about those who wore the clothes, how they lived and why the clothes seem as they are. Both were a product of research, the difference is that Marina got the information directly from the persons involved, while the research team of the museum got data from previous researches in a theoretical manner. In Marina’s work, the actual garments talked about are there, they are the real deal, while at the museum those clothes are only copies of the real thing, since those garments were not really preserved up to this time. Those seen in the museum shows only what the early Muslim settlers might have possibly looked like.Marina’s “Un/fold” is an exact mirror of real life, practically because it imparts the story of real people, who are, the artist’s mother, aunts, uncle, and grandparents. The dresses project a story of a typical Filipino family after the World War II. What interests me most of this work is the process of unfurling every minutiae and detail in every piece of garment from lola edeng’s closet, and renovating it to become as one piece of art capturing a wide horizon of the past and making it known to the world.
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