The multi-media art of Alan Cabalfin

This piece appeared in fittopost.yahoo.ph and Vera Files in January 2011. Image by Eman Lerona.

Sometimes, his house along Canillas Street in Leon town of Iloilo overflows with students from the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, or with members of the historical council from Antique. It is an old two-storey wooden house that he himself had remodelled, with the assistance of a neighborhood handyman. The entrance was reinforced with concrete inlaid with shards of ceramics from the artist’s workshop, and the flooring is a mosaic of colourful tiles

salvaged from a bargain hardware store in Iloilo City. His humble house is a showroom of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and an assortment of his collections. It has practically become this small town’s tourist attraction.

Alan Cabalfin is an artist of mixed persuasions. Although originally breaking into the Iloilo art scene as a watercolorist, he became well-known as a ceramic artist, having apprenticed under Nelfa Querubin who used to have a pottery workshop in Miag-ao, Iloilo, and after training in ceramic art at Tokoname, Aichi, Japan in 1995. His sculptural works were then exhibited in galleries in Iloilo, Manila, and Dumaguete. He joined many group exhibits and festivals exhibiting his works.

Cabalfin’s passion for pottery was translated into cinema when he made his first short film after attending a Mowelfund Film Institute film-making workshop in 2000. His short film “Dihon” (Mold), which was set in the Querubin work shop in Miag-ao, earned a string of recognitions from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Gawad Urian (Urian Awards), and the Film Academy of the Philippines awards in the short films and student categories. Recognition for this little film was topped by a First Prize in the Kodak Cinematographers Competition, making “Dihon” the country’s official entry to the Kodak Worldwide Student Program Cinematographers Competition in Sydney, Australia.

His love affair with film led him to work with several film projects: as production designer in Nick Deocampo’s “Mother Ignacia,” and as art director in Jonar Pueblo’s Ilonggo film “Dagyang.” He also directed the “Samayaay” video for the Iloilo National High School Special Program for the Arts. But Cabalfin’s multiple talents was not left unnoticed by those he was able to work with. Soon, he found himself designing galleries for exhibitions and museums and doing sets for stage productions. He was asked to design the RVM Historical Museum and later the Heritage Hall in Quezon City, the Lourdes College Museum in Cagayan de Oro, the Evelio B. Javier Gallery and the Museo Antiqueño in San Jose, Antique, and the Guimaras Provincial Museum and Monument in Jordan, Guimaras. His practical yet highly creative and versatile stage designs using textiles were well appreciated by directors who asked him to design sets for ballet, sarswela, and even beauty pageants!

As art director for Miss Dinagyang and Lin-ay kang Antique for several years, Cabalfin’s touch was seen in drapes and painted sceneries that complement the various segments of the pageant, much like imitating the patadyong (locally women textile from Panay). Cabalfin is well aware of the distinct weaving traditions in both Antique and Iloilo, that his production designs may well be a homage to these well-kept traditions.

As an artist, Cabalfin sees all these works not as mere money-making ventures. He believes that something must go back to the community where art belongs. While working as art director for the Museo Antiqueño in April 2007, where he did some terracotta dioramas, he was able to interact with the potters of Sibalom, where he sourced his clay. Seeing the traditional pottery-making in Bari, he volunteered to conduct workshops and lectures which helped the potters produce other designs aside from the functional banga (water jar), kuron (round bottomed-pot), and sig-ang (stove). Now, the potters dish out animal figurines, candle and lamp holders, which are easily picked up by garden enthusiasts at local trade shows. Six months later, he came back to the Museo Antiqueño for his the exhibition “Bag-o nga Daan,” his first pottery exhibit since his last in 1996.

When Cabalfin was invited to exhibit at the Philippine Center in New York last year, he decided to bring to the Big Apple something of Panay. His solo exhibition that ran from July 12-23, 2010 at the lobby of the Philippine Center was titled “Binanog: Panay Bukidnon on the Rise.” Binanog is the dance of the Panay Bukidnon, imitating the movements of the banog bird. The exhibition featured his paintings and ceramics that capture the delicate motifs of the Panay Bukidnon embroidery called panubok and the energetic movements of the binanog dance. One particular painting is a triptych called “Binanog sa Siyudad,” (Binanog in the City) showing three binanog dancers, each against the backdrop of urban skyline, identifiably Iloilo City, Hongkong, and New York.

Coming home from that New York exhibition, Cabalfin, hastily prepared another painting exhibit called “Binanog sa Siyudad” for the Karay-a Arts Festival held at Gaisano Grand Mall of Antique on October 22-23. He was so filled with inspiration. “I think that in my next projects, I will consciously try to show not only my art, but my culture as well,” he said. @

Macrame

Yesterday, I got a surprise SMS from Laurence Tapican, a young poetry enthusiast (and I suspect he writes poetry, too) from Aklan. He requested for a copy of my poem "Macrame," which was published in Homelife in 2001, and won second place in the annual poetry competition initiated by its literary editor Leo Deriada. Laurence said he has been wanting to read it since he was in first year high school, and now he is a college sophomore. Today is Laurence's birthday, and I want to give this gift to him (not a very happy poem, though). I admire Laurence's zeal for poetry, and I wish there were more young people like him interested in poetry.

Macrame

There is no sadder art:

I make each knot

As though a sorrowful mystery

Recited on Holy Week:

A beadless rosary rolled

Between my fingers

Blistered and pained

Like remembrances of false loops

And entanglements.

How am I to weave

This twine of strength

To decorate my bare walls?

I think of many patterns,

But when knotted

They make a thousand little nooses

To hold the necks of my desires.

This art of tying is a grave thing.

It shortens the string.

When I reach the end of my rope,

I make one final knot

And I am ready to

Hang.

Vaun, 8

This is the companion piece to "Vaun, 21", which I posted two days ago. This was published in MGA KANTA NI DATU LUBAY, 2003.

You asked me what circumcision was,

And I told you the doctor cuts the foreskin.

You frowned and said it hurts,

And looked at me, waiting for confirmation.

Of course, it hurts. It's painful

Like all manner of cutting.

It was painful for a tree when you cut

Its branches with that sword you fashioned

Out of bamboo sticks.

It was the pain you felt when you cut your finger

With Nanay's kitchen knife, trying to sharpen

The tip of an arrown with which to shoot

Lola's santol. You cried, didn't you?

Though not exactly the same way I cried

Looking at Tatay on his deathbed

That first morning of May.

You looked at me, wondering.

Because it was painful too.

Something was being cut, being lost.

But that pain we could bear.

And you asked me why boys needed

To be circumcised. I don't know.

I did not ask Tatay when he took me

To the hospital for this ritual men imposed

Upon themselves. I am sure he wouldn't hve

Known the answer. They say it is for us

To stay clean, though it's only the tip of us

That's trimmed. (I don't really believe this,

Because once we expose our heads, the more

We become impure.)

They say it makes us a man. Maybe

It is for boys to feel the pain of becoming men.

So when time comes when we lose our fathers,

We could bear the pain.

It is like sticking up our necks, all right.

Now that Tatay's gone,

You are not only my brother,

But also my son.

Ang gusto ko sa lalaki

Bukut bahul anang ulo, nga kaangay kang lobo

Kon kang mga pagdayaw ginahuyupan ko;

Malabug anang pisi, bukut lang anang pisot,

Para may panghigot sa gamo nga mapudyot.

Kamaan maghibi sa kasubu kag kabudlay,

Bagnas ang pagharakhak kon kami ‘gakalipay.

Nagabato sa sipal, bisan sa sunloganay,

Kag ginabaton man ako, pananglit magkulang;

Malapad kag matibsol anang braso kag dughan,

Nga daw nagalinog kon kami ang mag-kuwan;

Dungan kami magsalum kon sa mga problema,

Dungan man nga magbutwa, ‘galagas kang ginhawa.

Dungan kami magturog, dayon nga magahandum

Kang pagbagtik kang asin sa mga dughan namun.

Vaun, 21

Wara run ikaw it mga pamangkot

Tungud naubos mo run ka pakut

Ang mga sabat sa imong hunahuna.

Sa imong pagsulud sa departure area

Daw may naghapon nga kaluya,

Angay kang nagaisarahanun nga maya.

Malupad ikaw nga dara gid lang

Ang mga hopya nga bilin ni Nanay,

Kag ang kaugan kang mga tinaga

Kang amun pagpalangga.

Ayhan kon sarang lang ibaruron

Namun sa imong maleta

Ang mga hakus kag haruk

Nga nagkulang sa imong paghamtung

Agud ipabatyag kanimo

Nga ang atun nga pagburugto

Indi makilala sa atun dugo,

Kundi sa atun pag-irimaway

Sa nagarinapta nga balay:

Si Neneng mo sa California,

Si Cheche rugto sa Florida,

Si Inday rugto sa Malaysia,

Si Nenet sa Saudi Arabia.

Ayhan rugto sa Amerika

Makita mo ang kanimo gin-aman,

Hay rugto man nagahulat si Nanay

Nga nagatipon kang panimalay

Paagi sa cellphone, Forex

Kag balikbayan box,

Facebook, email kag text.

Mangin lubos ang pag-iririmaw

Sa atun pagbulag kadya nga adlaw.

Layaw para kay Datu Lubay

Now it can be told because I have received the confirmation letter from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. I got a grant to translate six of my stories into Filipino. The six are:

1. Alot (Haircut). This is about coming home and finding out that everyone you knew has gone, except for your barber. An unexpected haircut becomes a metaphor for cutting off your relationship/s.

2. Ang Sastre (The Tailor). The village tailor dies, and everyone was waiting for his only son so they could bury him. But the whole village could only whisper their shock when the son arrives as a woman in red dress, with a bouquet of black paper roses.

3. Abyan (Friend). Three friends tell their own tale of a friendship that they didn't notice was falling apart.

4. Gugma sa Bangkok (Love in Bangkok). Exploring the labyrinth of a bath house in Bangkok, a traveler falls in love with a stranger, a Bangkok boy who buys him red roses from a Suan Plu market. No one has ever done that for him before.

5. Library. The school library opens. There is a program, with guests from the capital town. The school children perform for them, but only the teachers and guests are let inside the library for the reception. The excited school children peer from the wooden windows.

6. Imelda. Imelda buries her husband, who left her nothing but a small plot for vegetables. In the evening and she lies down on the bamboo floor, she listens to the chicken in their coop, and feels for the first time a sense of joy and freedom.

These stories shall be published next year in a bilingual edition. Stories 1-4 have been published in my book "Agi, agi may putay sa dahi" while stories 5 & 6 are new. Am excited to finish Binirayan 2010 and start on the translation.

"Tumaka" in Silay City

Just after its premier during the Karay-a Arts Festival 3, we got an invitation to perform "Tumaka" in Silay City. The occasion was Padayon One Visayas!; we were to be part of the cultural night sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. So off we went, this time with even fewer actors! (You know how it is to be a travelling troupe, and the expenses it entails.)

For this edition, we added a scene. That's after the suggestion by Cecile Locsin Nava, who watched the performance in San Jose. She would like to see a scene to show how Maria was swept by Tumaka's charm. We devised this scene overnight, just before we left San Jose for the 3AM trip to Iloilo. We wanted it to be a quiet love scene, with only Tumaka speaking, offering her something to eat (first, a banana which she refused), but Maria just kept looking at him until the last part where she tells Tumaka she is hungry and would love to eat anything. Tumaka offered her balinghoy (cassava root), which of course, is a phallic symbol.

Perico Pikoy (played by moi!), as usual stole the show, with his balletics and eclectic dance movements. So perhaps, I shall give the role to someone else next time. That would give me more chances to watch the play entirely so we could keep improving it to perfection.

We performed at the century-old mansion Balay Negrense, with no less than Governor Sally Perez of Antique, Mayor Oti Montelibano of Silay, Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento of Calbayog City and some of Silay and Bacolod's culturati in the audience. The play was well received by the elite audience, despite it's risque material. We believe the play will get more genuine appreciation, as it did during the KAF3 at the EBJ Freedom Park, from the general public (read: masa audience), when we tour it to the towns. I hope we could get enough support to tour the play.