Perhaps the truest sign that something has truly entered the sphere of everyday Filipino life is for a name to become permanently integrated into the vibrant Filipino language. Such is certainly the case with the word “Kenkoy,” a description foisted on someone funny or amusing. With its standout consonants and playful vowels, the name Kenkoy just radiates humor.
Consider “Vomit Boy.” The bat-eared figurine, sculpted in vinyl, sports some kind of leather fetish mask, while projectile-vomiting a stream of fluorescent green puke, which also comes in raspberry.
Printed stampita-size versions of a painting of EDSA People Power of 1986, with the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary dressed in yellow, went around during that time when most Filipinos were aglow with patriotic fervor. The original painting was later presented as a gift to the then newly-installed president, Corazon C. Aquino, the widow swept into power by an almost bloodless uprising.
Something about Caña’s art simply tugs at the heart. You gaze at his “Mother and Child” and you can feel the warmth, love, tenderness and peace of the subjects. His “Kaleidoscope Barung-barong” – a constant in his art because he grew up seeing all those shanties everyday as a kid living in Kamuning, Quezon City – conveys joy and hope, nonetheless, as he adds a touch of green to the brown landscape.
Here are nine Filipino Visual Artists who are doing very well in the US. Some of them were featured in the exhibit at the Los Angeles City Hall for the 111th Anniversary of Philippine Independence, others are striking out on their own and blazing new trails.
It’s the classic exasperated mom warning: “Clean up your closets or you’d find a snake or elephant underneath that mess!”
This coming October, I am sad to note, the Sunday Inquirer Magazine will no longer be a weekly habit but a monthly experience. It’s like the magazine will be converting from Catholic to Presbyterian and instead of receiving the body of Christ every Sunday, the honor and privilege and joyous experience will be limited only to the first Sunday of every month. Having gotten used to the weekly habit we developed in 2006 (with Alya Honasan as then editor in chief), I am having premature withdrawal symptoms. And massive flashbacks of issues past.
35,000: Estimated number of artworks housed in the Musée du Louvre or the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
A ticker-tape parade awaits Miss Universe 3rd runner-up Shamcey Supsup in Makati City, where she finished her secondary studies in a city public high school, on Monday.
US photographer Spencer Tunick is staging one of his trademark mass studies of nude volunteers on Saturday, with a thousand Israelis posing on a private Dead Sea beach.
The latest in global fashion, beauty, and culture through a contemporary Filipino perspective.
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