ONE can meander aimlessly in a mall or traipse absent-minded all over a park. In a museum, one can also wander freely but with a purpose. To learn about the past, for one thing.
October is designated as the Museums and Galleries Month (MGM) by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 798, s. 1991. It is to recognize that our cultural and art forms are necessary for nation-building and shaping national destiny.
According to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, this year’s theme is “Embracing Uncertainty: Showcasing Solidarity, Hope and Recovery,” which “highlights the binding role of museums and galleries as cultural identifiers in a rapidly-changing world. As we slowly enter the post-pandemic era, we are wandering into an unknown world. Nevertheless, we still stand as one—looking towards the future with a recovered and renewed vision.
There are numerous museums across the country. A few of them feature fashion, clothing and adornments among their permanent collections and special exhibits.
The National Museum of Anthropology reopened last Saturday, October 22, with the spectacular art exhibit by National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik, called Indio-Genius: 500 Taon ng Labanang Kultural (1521-2021). You can marvel at the mammoth installations, then be enchanted with the Ornaments Collection, which was amassed through archaeological excavations and donations since the 1950s.
The prehistoric artifacts include beads, necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings made of shell, bone, clay, stone, glass, and metal covering the Neolithic Period from around 4,000 years ago until the late colonial period. As per the museum: “Some of the most notable pieces in the collection are the nephrite jade ling-ling-o ear pendants, specifically the Zoomorphic Ear Pendant, a National Cultural Treasure [NCT]. Ling-ling-O earrings in the collection can also be found fashioned from shell and clay materials.”
The University of the Philippines College of Home Economics Costume Museum (UP CHE Costume Museum), meanwhile, has a dedicated space for clothing and accessories. Besides collecting and displaying practical objects of cultural significance, CHE also teaches its students about preventive conservation techniques and documentation procedures.
In November 2020, for instance, the school conducted a digital laboratory practicum called
“From the Baul,” which included the reconstruction of the components of a terno. Rhaj Nortiza, Riva Quitevis and Regine Yu were assigned an Art
Nouveau garment, and they “reimagined the elegant dress on a manananggal of high influence and with a dark past who preyed on corrupt officials at night. The fully-embellished ensemble was fit for a socialite during the carnivalesque 1930s, and quite an easy wear when disembodying herself after an evening’s soiree.”
One of the references of the students was a baro’t saya made of cotton, piña, silk and metal donated in 1961 by Mr. and Mrs. Maxime L. Hermanos to the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, and which is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Hereabouts, a noted art patroness and collector is Mercedes Zobel. Her collection of indigenous textile arts is now on exhibit at the Ayala Museum, called Skeins of Knowledge, Threads of Wisdom. Some of the pieces were gathered from fellow collectors, such as Ricardo Baylosis and Floy Quintos.
Another art enclave owned by a prominent Filipino family is the Yuchengco Museum, which currently honors National Artist for Dance Ramon Arevalo Obusan. The artist’s legacy lives on in the Ramon A. Obusan Folkloric Foundation Inc., which was established in 1992. By providing for the education of promising but underprivileged youth through free dance and music workshops and training, the younger generation has better chances at life, and for their communities to thrive in the field of traditional arts and culture.
The foundation also ensures the “survival of the traditions and folkways of the Filipinos and its indigenous communities through research, recording and performances of the same.” All these are highlighted in the ongoing exhibit, called Dancing with Artifacts, which showcases objects, textiles and research from the collection of Obusan.
Leandro Locsin, the architect known as the “Poet of Space,” is another National Artist who contributed to making a place an art destination—the Monastery of Transfiguration of the Benedictine monks in Malaybalay, Bukidnon. It has the majestic pyramid-like but actually nipa hut-inspired church on its grounds. But our point of interest is the Museum of Transfiguration, which “enshrines” the 50-piece collection of vestments for worship designed by Dom Martin Gomez, OSB, formerly known as fashion designer Gang Gomez. He asked some 20 ethno-linguistic groups to weave indigenous textiles which could be used for the liturgy that were compatible with the solemnity of the liturgical celebrations.
The artist-monk, as noted in the Alliance for International Monasticism site, “was able to wed Benedictine classical art with the indigenous textiles of his country. These vestments exude the qualities of noble simplicity, balance and harmony, along with the tradition of classical art and the Benedictine respect for native elements.”