THE Alliance Française de Manille (AFM), with the support of the Embassy of France, present Hibla 9, the ninth solo exhibition of Jane Arrieta Ebarle. The exhibition’s opening night is on February 1, 6:30 pm, at the Alliance Total Gallery. It will be on view until March 3.
Is Hibla the next Diaphanous?
Started decades ago, reaching back to the 1970s, and running into the hundreds of artworks based on the single, obsessive theme of transparency until the last days of its creator, the late Romulo Olazo produced the Diaphanous series, the defining works of his artistic career. Interestingly, “diaphanous” is often descriptive of a piece of cloth or fabric: as of a dress that is light and translucent, gossamer and gauzy, “see-through”.
On the other hand, the word hibla means a strand or a weave of fiber. Hibla was conceived and executed by Ebarle, starting a series that can claim origin from her 2008 solo show, titled Filipino Ethnicity.
In the initial works, Ebarle gave definition to the inspirational source of design based on such groups as the Tausug, the Manobo, the Maranao and the Kalinga. Visible was the pleasure which Ebarle took in the delineation of these designs, which, to her credit, achieved a tasteful balance between the literal adaptation of the design and the subtle improvisations she introduced. This was, in fact, an assertion of her own identity as an artist. For therein is the trap laid for the unwary and the insincere who dare to tread on hallowed ground, merely to sup and drink therefrom without contributing to its enrichment. Inspiration is never, ever about duplication, for the act turns the voice, as it were, into a mere hollow echo, ironically succeeding in enervating the original source. Aware of this dilemma, Ebarle was determined in progressing from this point of departure. An additional layer of interpretation must be acknowledged in the new artworks, in that Ebarle arrives at a heightened awareness of her liberation and feminism in the discovery of an authentic language sourced from ethnic fabrics.
Admittedly, weaving is traditionally regarded as the province of a woman, together with other domestic arts, such as sewing, quilting, cooking and laundering. A word must be said, however, to whoever may try to denigrate an art drawn from fabric design. The best argument against this is the example of the great French artist Matisse.
The grandson of a weaver, Matisse was exposed early to the brilliant colors of fabrics even before he studied painting. Throughout his life, Matisse collected swatches of fabrics and embroidery, the designs of which he incorporated as background in his paintings of odalisques, nudes and still lifes. His renowned cut-paper series was influenced by African Kuba textiles.
In Ebarle’s Hibla series, the element of line is maximized both in terms of their delineation and coloration. Fibrils or slender filaments of lines blanket large areas of color—carmine and rusty reds, vermilion and burnt orange, luscious chrome, saffron and lemon yellows, chartreuse and viridian greens, cobalt, turquoise and cerulean blues, russets and raw siennas, mauves, fuchsias, magentas and dark purples—transforming their warm tones into hot pulsating surfaces, expanding the illusionistic space and delivering a quivering impact. Ebarle’s works are a tribute to every strand in these hand-loomed fabrics. Her paintings are contemporary testimonials of Philippine traditional textiles transmitted through abstract art.
Ebarle was educated at the University of Santo Tomas with a degree of fine arts major in advertising. She has been a marketing professional for the last 16 years handling global brands. Currently, she heads the marketing of Faber-Castell, Dong-A and other brands all under the distributorship of Crown Supply Corp.
Having been the president of Philippine Art Educators Association, she has helped in the advancement of art education in our academic institution by teaching thousands of public-school teachers through the Faber-Castell Academy of Arts program. The program continues nationwide and has reached over 10,000 public-school teachers. She advocates women empowerment in art, too, and does this while finishing her MA in Women and Development at the University of the Philippines. She currently sits as the founder of Birthday Club, a group of women professionals that pushes for women-oriented programs. As part of her thesis, she put up her own blog, the founder and editor of www.daldakinangpinay.com, which tackles issues about women in Philippine art.
Ebarle has been a judge of one of the most prestigious art contests in the Philippine art, the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence. She was also named as one of the “100 Women Artists” during the the National Committee on the Centennial of the Feminist Movement in the Philippines, which was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. She was invited in 2011 as one of the panel speakers of the “Marketplace of Creative Arts” forum at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore, where she also held a one-day exhibit.
She had solos shows at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore in 2011 and the Philippine Center in New York in 2013.
Her last solo show was held at the National Museum, which ran from August 27, 2015 to January 30, 2016.