Artwork
Nature
#fish
#combined media
#pacita abad
#Philippines
#quilts
“Shallow Gardens of Apo Reef” (1986), oil, acrylic, mirrors, plastic buttons, cotton yarn, rhinestones on stitched and padded canvas, 132 x 137 1/2 inches. All photographs courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery, shared with permission
After a traumatic childhood second during which she practically drowned, Pacita Abad (1946-2004) developed a profound concern of water. The massively prolific Filipina-American artist determined to beat her trepidation within the Nineteen Eighties and signed up for diving classes on the British Sub-Aquatic Membership in Thailand. There, she discovered to securely plunge into the depths of the ocean, finishing greater than 80 dives throughout the Phillippines in her lifetime.
On view at Tina Kim Gallery in New York is a vivid sequence of trapunto work—a quilting approach that entails including stuffing for puffed layers—impressed by Abad’s love for swimming. Titled Underwater Wilderness, the exhibition presents eight large-scale works made between 1985 and 1989. Plastic buttons, rhinestones, glitter, and sequins add textured dimension to the dense prismatic seascapes of tropical fish and vegetation. Proof of Abad’s fascination with the plush ecosystems, the mixed-media works sew collectively a vibrant tapestry of what lies beneath the floor.
As famous within the gallery’s assertion in regards to the exhibition, these work are extensively thought to be the artist’s least political physique of labor, though their function in her observe is extra nuanced. The textual content explains:
The sequence can maybe be learn as Pacita’s bridging of non-public and political histories and the “manifold lived realities” of the Philippines. After she led pupil demonstrations towards dictator Ferdinand Marcos within the late ’60s, her mother and father inspired her to finish her research overseas after her household house was sprayed with bullets. She was solely in a position to return to dwell within the Philippines in 1982 after twelve years away and began this physique of labor the yr earlier than the autumn of the kleptocratic regime in 1986.
That is the primary time the works have been exhibited collectively since 1987. Underwater Wilderness is up by August 16.
“Dumaguete’s Underwater Backyard” (1987), oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 85 1/4 x 118 inches
Element of “Dumaguete’s Underwater Backyard” (1987), oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 85 1/4 x 118 inches
“Sepoc Wall” (1985), oil, acrylic, mirrors and buttons on stitched and padded canvas, 139 1/2 x 132 inches
“The Far Aspect of Apo Island” (1989), oil, acrylic, gold thread, plastic buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 88 1/4 x 69 inches
“Hundred Islands” (1989), oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 79 x 118 inches
Element of “Hundred Islands” (1989), oil, acrylic, glitter, gold thread, buttons, lace, sequins on stitched and padded canvas, 79 x 118 inches
“Anilao at its Finest” (1986), oil, acrylic, mirrors, plastic buttons, and rhinestones on stitched and padded canvas, 115 3/4 x 124 7/8 inches
Element of “Anilao at its Finest” (1986), oil, acrylic, mirrors, plastic buttons, and rhinestones on stitched and padded canvas, 115 3/4 x 124 7/8 inches
The artist
#fish
#combined media
#pacita abad
#Philippines
#quilts
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