PABALAT
Salvador Ching
September 23 – October 7, 2022
The exhibition will run from September 23 – October 7, 2022 at Art Lounge Manila – Podium, Ortigas Center. The opening reception will be on October 7, 2022 at 6:00PM. For more information, visit the Art Lounge Manila website, www.artloungemanila.com. You may also check their social media pages, FB: @artloungemanila IG: @artloungemanila, for more details.
PABALAT is Salvador J. Ching’s 16th solo exhibition at Art Lounge Manila. Translated, it may pertain to the wrapper, particularly of gifts. But it may also mean the cover of books, or the ornate cutout wrappers of local Bulacan pastillas de leche, or the dying folk craft of making them. As such, the title opens up the exhibition to all manner of associations connected with wrapping.
Wrapping is the art of both protecting, concealing, and presenting a gift. It connotes value, not just of the monetary value ascribed to the gift, but conversely, how the giver values the recipient. It tells of the person’s esteem, but also of his taste and personality as choices are made as to how a gift will be presented. It also is a product of the social relations wrapped with gift-giving. With series titles like Alay, Offering, Bagahe, Pagsuyo, Pambalot; it is not a stretch to imagine the exhibition as connected to the act of gift-giving.
In the marginal notes written in graphite by Ching on his paintings, he expounds on the different social relations and situations which pertain to gift giving. Our culture is replete with references that illustrate the different dimensions of gifts. A “pasalubong” from a loving mother to a child is different from a gift an employee would give to his boss on his birthday, for example. Or a dowry is way different from a gift you would give to a friend on a whim of sudden nostalgia. A peace offering is something that symbolizes efforts to repair a damaged relationship. An “alay” is something more appropriate to deities and the divine. A “pabaon” for a loved one leaving on a trip out of town. Be they acts of remembrance, of care, of generosity, or as efforts to curry social favor or further status, gifts are integral part of our culture, and perhaps, Ching trains our attention towards these with PABALAT.
If we look closely at the works on exhibit, we notice the similarity of Ching’s new paintings to lively presentations of all manner of gifts. In the 24 works on canvas, pastel colors, muted earth tones, and stark neutrals become the backdrop for ornate metallic compasses, and black photographic stencils of women and men of Malolos from the 1920’s. In his suite of 20 paintings over brown paper bags, Ching playfully transforms these images with accoutrements of the times like earphones, cellphones and other gadgets which denote an eye-catching transfer of the subjects wearing clothes from a bygone era, to the present. And in the 14 resin sculptures in colorful pastels, eye-catching neons, and somber neutrals, we see the pasalubong in brown paper bags transformed into attractive sculptures that trigger memories of childhood pasalubong or care packages of pabaon.
Several motifs crisscross over the almost 60 artworks which comprise the exhibition. Common to all the works are the nostalgic imagery of Filipiniana, a motif which Ching has consistently used in various forms since his early years, and which has garnered him awards in prestigious art competitions when he was starting out in the 90’s. Inspired initially by the “Larawan” series of Benedicto Cabrera, whom he admired for his use of photographs that documented the dress and life-ways of the Filipino during the colonial periods, Ching, who grew up steeped in the culture and history of Bulacan, has successfully adapted the imagery into screen-printed images over the years. This striking technique is a signature motif of Ching, and can still be seen in all the series presented in this exhibition.
Created from a box of photographs Ching has inherited from his own grandmother, Lola Loleng, his work becomes a reminder of the genteel and cultured past of his family, of Bulacan, and of the country in the colonial period. The city of Malolos, where Ching and his family hail from, is a historic place where the first Philippine congress was hosted, and the first Philippine constitution drafted by Filipinos was made. At around the same time, Jose Rizal praised the efforts of the women of Malolos who formed a peaceful movement to lobby for educational reforms to enable women to take up higher education and call for greater participation of women in politics and other aspects of the social life then in an effort to assert their rights and equality. Ching’s Lola Loleng was the product of a society that was beginning to empower women, as she herself was a teacher in Malolos, during the American colonial period.
Another motif in the exhibition is of the ubiquitous brown paper bag. Rendered in three different ways throughout the artworks, it ties the entire exhibition with the idea of gift giving as the brown paper bag is often used as packaging for pasalubong, or pabaon.
In the first group of works, it is used as the support on which the painting and transfers were painted on. It was these paintings over this brown paper that started this exhibition as it was the only available material which Ching had in abundance during the hastily declared Emergency Community Quarantine in March 2020. Some of the works on these paper bags have archaically-dressed Filipinos wearing contemporary masks and other safety gear we continue to wear because of the pandemic.
The image of the brown paper bag is also transformed into photographic screen transfers on canvas which are juxtaposed with the Filipiniana imagery from the colonial period, hinting at the central ideas of the exhibition. And lastly, the form of the brown paper bag is transformed into resin sculptures, on which Filipiniana imagery is also printed on.
PABALAT as an exhibition, could be associated with the gifts of our history and our culture. Ching has created a wonderfully colorful presentation worth thinking about, and appreciating for as he says “as Filipinos, what can we pass on to our children and the rest of the world, but the good in our culture?”
About the Artist
A graduate from the University of Sto Tomas with a degree of Fine Arts Major in Painting, One of the Five Philippine Representative to the Third ASEAN Youth Painting Workshop & Exhibition in Indonesia, and moved on to the Asian Biennale Art Exhibition in Havana Cuba, Bangladesh, Seoul Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, China & New York USA. He received numerous Awards & Citations in Major Art Competition in the country. Has had 15 Solo Show to date, held in Cultural Center of the Phils, Dela Salle Art Gallery, Bulacan Museum, Big&Small Gallery-Megamall , Boston Gallery-Cubao, Art Verité-Serendra BGC, USA & Secret Fresh SIXINCH Gallery Ronac Art Center-San Juan, Mandaluyong City. A co- Founder of Bahaghari ng Malolos, Former VP Art Association of the Phils., Former VP Lakan Sining ng Bulacan, Member of The Saturday Group of Artist & Association of Pinoy Print Makers.
One of the resource person of Sining sa Eskwela and CCP – UNICEF Art Therapy Workshop, held in different provinces in the Philippines under Cultural Center of the Phils.( CCP ) ,“ Art for Wellness Program” Career Executive Service Board (CESB) & Project HeART: Art Therapy Program by Metrobank Foundation’s Metrobank Art & Design Excellence- Network of Winners ( MADE-N.O.W.)
Executive Committee Member of National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)-Committee on Visual Arts. 2020-2022
Salvador J. Ching
A full-time multi-awarded Painter, Sculptor, Installation & Performance Artist.
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