Tropical Futures Institute (TFI) are showing Dumaguete artist, Kris Ardeña, in a solo presentation titled, “Basahan,” to this year’s Art Fair Philippines.
“This is our (TFI) first time and the first time that a Cebu-based organization will be joining Art Fair Philippines,” said Chris Fussner, co-founder of TFI.
The show “Basahan” continues as one of Ardeña’s narrative paths of finding beauty in everyday Filipino culture, picking these details out and using them to inspire his work. His work is based on the socio-economic conditions that surround his studio and practice.
In explaining how he decided to use basahan retaso rugs as the medium for expressing his art, Ardeña points to what he calls, “adaptive re-use.”
“It has to do with the precarity of my situation. In art school, although I was on a full-tuition scholarship, I had to work to pay for everything else and I never really had money to buy oil paints, I just started using what was around my immediate environment,” he pointed out.
“The basahan retaso rugs are a staple household item in most Filipino homes. It can
be bought in most department stores and markets. Much like the tarpaulin or the ukay-ukay [or used clothes], it has found its way into mainstream Filipino culture. Living with
these materials, they are part of my works because, in a way, it was just there. It’s not about pop art. It’s not about recycling, it’s about the possibility of the material itself. That’s the ingenuity of adaptive re-use.”
TFI is a multidisciplinary think-tank studio that works closely with the Cebu gallery 856G in putting together a broad base of cultural programming that connects many pockets of the creative community in Cebu together.
TFI and 856G Gallery recently worked together with Ardeña in his solo presentation in Dubai. For Art Fair Philippines Tropical Futures Institute will be presenting Kristoffer Ardeña separately.
Art Fair Philippines was held at The Link, Ayala Center in Makati Center from February 21 to 23.
For more information and updates, visit Tropical Futures Institute’s Instagram page at @tropicalfutures.