Ashe Writes | Woven Into Being: Splicing Life
As a filmmaker
and video editor,
Kidlat applied his
talents into creating
the imagery for
his exhibit to capture various themes that evoke similar,
and thoughtful, emotions. Yet veering from the usual linear narrative, he
chose to highlight
certain important features
of his subjects –
ones that still
stir up powerful sentiments in
the beholder.
His exhibit, Woven Into Being, is a collection of a series of
photographs reaching back to 2009 when he first
wove together images
for an exhibition
at Cafe by
the Ruins in
Baguio with his
brothers Kawayan and Kabunyan.
Though the idea of weaving together different images would come later in 2013
after he put together photos of dogs and their owners for an Axis group show
held in Baguio.
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| Paris hand woven photograph 16.00 x 21.50 cm / 6.30 x 8.47 in. 2009 |
Each photograph gives you a powerful sense of being trapped in the archaic beauty of everyday things, such as the shots of old abandoned buildings – ever-enduring the elements, standing tall in the midst of a constantly changing city yet unmoving and stuck in permanence, decaying and forgotten though still in plain view of the public, a grotesque display of wear and tear that stubbornly persists despite the odds.
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hand woven photograph
28.00 x 28.00 cm / 11.03 x 11.03 in.
2015
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Another dominant feature are the ones of the old-fashioned trucks, melded together with photos of old men, which struck us as extremely insightful because of their match – outdated and beat-up as they are, both still continue to carry on through the times, either adjusting with the modern age or sticking up to traditional ways. The way these photos are presented spoke volumes about our current period with advances in technology coming to blows with our conventional means.
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hand woven photograph
30.48 x 45.72 cm. / 12 x 18 in.
2015
|
Seemingly clashing ideas were perfectly combined through Kidlat’s skillful hands to craft a work of art that simultaneously needs no words, yet requires thousands to be described.
It was an enriching experience,
to say the least, to have witnessed the proud gallery of an imaginative soul
with so much to give to the world.
Standing in the middle of the gallery, one only needs to take a moment
to absorb the central feature of the exhibit – that the past and the present
are not so different, that sometimes one needs to take apart and lace together
another image entirely to gain a change in perspective, and that above all
things, we endure.
*Article originally published in M Magazine's 2nd Issue, 2015
** The Woven Into Being exhibit ran from May 9 - 30, 2015
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