JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

My column in the Star today.

Photos from the author’s website, www.edmunddewaal.com.

Netsuke are Japanese ornaments no bigger than a matchbox, finely detailed, light but tough, carved in wood and ivory. Their subjects are wide-ranging and unexpected. Animals, of course: a brindled wolf, a ruffled dragon leaning on a rock, a stag scratching its ear with a hind leg. People caught in mid-movement: two acrobats tumbling, a cooper making a barrel, a woman bathing in a tub. Still objects: a medlar fruit ripe to the point of deliquescence, a bundle of kindling tied with a rope. So much care and effort invested on a very small thing that will be used as a toggle on a cloth bag, or suspended from the sash of a kimono. They are so easily lost, left in the pocket of a jacket that gets sent to the dry-cleaners, thrown away with a crumpled receipt. These objects, so losable, are all that remain of a vast fortune.

But this is not one of those tales of bygone eras and lost glamour. What could’ve been another foray into the nostalgia industry was averted when the netsuke fell into the hands of a potter. For who would understand more fully how things are made, handled and handed on than someone who makes things?
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Madre Mia by rosauroq

Uro sent this photo in response to Tw*tter, our recent post on Lee Paje’s exhibit (and apropos of the flak over the “blasphemous” CCP exhibit). This was taken at an exhibit of Eastern European art at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in 1989.

What are they thinking?

You say “Blasphemy”, they say “Fascism”, we say “Huh?” My column in interaksyon.com. While writing it I googled “Mideo Cruz” and found his facebook, with a quote that describes him as “a facile generator of anxiety and debate”. Umm, “facile” is not a compliment.

Chus, Leo and I went to the artist Lee Paje’s solo show Mater Potestatem at Tin-Aw Gallery.

The exhibit features images of female archetypes—Delilah, Lilith, the Magdalene and others—painted on androgynous bust silhouettes,

Edible sculptures called Sanctus Cunnus—liqueur (tapuy)-filled chocolates that the visitors can eat,

and the Para Series, oil on relief sculptures done in collaboration with Abril Valdemoro. Yes, they are stylized female orifices. (Female iconography figures in the works of many artists including Agnes Arellano, who has made sculptures of genitalia, and Georgia O’Keefe’s flower photographs.)

We liked Manang Magda in particular.

Chus noted the scent in the gallery—lemony fresh, like some feminine hygiene product. “Smell-o-vision!” he said. “Clever!”

“Actually it’s our floorwax,” said the gallery owner. Haha!

“I love this show!” I declared. “Chus, we must reply to this show with the male version. You know—anthuriums, bratwurst, and of course, sculptures cast from real life.”

Then we would get banned and infamous.

Tin-Aw Art Gallery is on the upper ground floor of Somerset Olympia Makati (across from Old Swiss Inn), Makati Avenue beside the Manila Pen, Makati. Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Telephone (02) 892.7522. Visit www.tin-aw.com.

I’M NOT MADONNA by Hi Fashion Music

In medieval times it was believed that there were four cardinal humours in the human body: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. To be healthy one’s humours had to be balanced; otherwise you were melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic or sanguine.

MANILA, Philippines – An art installation that mixes Christ with kitschy symbols of pop culture and includes a crucifix with a movable penis has set off an uproar in the Philippines among conservative Catholics, who say the installations are a mockery of their faith.

Mideo Cruz, the artist responsible for the installation – intended to be a commentary on icon worship – has been branded a “demon” and bombarded with death threats and hate mail since his work featured in an exhibit in Manila that began June 17… Read the report.

This reminded us of an amulet/pendant we bought in Quiapo some years ago: anatomically-correct Santo Niño. It was one of the many anting-antings (amulets) sold around Quiapo Church, along with “pamparegla” (abortifacients sold right by the church door) and herbal remedies. My friend bought a lot of anting-antings to hang in the genetics lab; the visitors are boggled.

Meanwhile on Wall Street: “Ocularpation”—naked performance art.

We dropped by the annual Cut-Price Book Sale at the nearest National Bookstore. As usual we weren’t looking for anything and we ended up buying something.

This was too good to pass up:

A Taschen book featuring works by Caravaggio, Claesz, Dürer, Arcimboldo and others. Beautiful full-color plates. Original price P735 (which is low for a hardcover art book), sale price P441.
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Lucian Freud, Reflection with two children (Self-portrait)

Lucian Freud, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest, most influential and yet most controversial British painters of his era, has died at his London home.

Lucian Freud’s perverse depictions of magnificent muck

Lucian Freud, Girl with kitten