Unearthing the hearth of the feminine

Unearthing: Womynist Bones and Sexuality-Unearthing the hearth of the feminine. When the river does not run,rest awhile, rip through reality, rake up the rust, embrace what you’ll find. Reclaim and from there, a hope to redeem radiance.

Ten artists run and rhyme with one another as they uncover and recover the feminine in “Unearthing:Womynist Bones and Sexuality”, an exhibit of paintings, sketches and installations on March 1-14 at the Philam Life Center for the Arts, United Nations Avenue, Ermita, Manila.

Unearthing: Womynist Bones and Sexuality features the works of AJ Tolentino, Azalea Mazon-Camps, Benay Reyes, Ivy Universe Baldoza, Joana De Leon-Hoffmann, Ligaya Domingo, Lydia Cabasco, Maan De Loyola, Rimaq Joaquin Palma and Tif Guevara- a group of artists from and of different backgrounds prime a range of works to provoke and evoke the woman within.

A celebration of International Women’s Month, the exhibit aims to commune with the woman in each one in order to facilitate dialogue on women’s realities- unearthed in the eyes of these ten artists. A take-off from Clarissa Pinkola- Estes’ book, Women Who Run with the Wolves, these artists procure arresting sections as they translate their own visual and tactile narratives. The works in turn, aspire to stir and spur awareness from the audience and elicit response to the different issues and archetypes associated with the woman, her processes, truths and ideals.

Benay Reyes

Babae (Womyn), 2004

Kasal-kasalan, 2004, 8"x10" gelatin silver print


Takusa Sari-sari, 2004, 9 8"x10" gelatin silver prints

Sa Tatlong Taong Ningning, 2004, 3 8"x10" gelatin silver prints

Para sa Alingawngaw ni Ningning 2004, 15 8"x10" gelatin silver prints

Alitaptap Sari-sari, 2004, 15 8"x10" gelatin silver prints

For where the woman speaks and where the woman soars and where the woman roars.

In 2004, these pieces were exhibited in a solo show entitled Babae (Womyn) at the now defunct Siwang Gallery in E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City. Babae is the artist's exploration of a woman through her body. The woman in her body and how society impose her realities as she experienced and witnessed it. Here, Ligaya does this by using Barbie dolls to create the metaphor of the body as the deliberate use of the archetype of a woman in different spheres of society; the home, the media, the work place. Drawing from her memories of playing with Barbie dolls from her childhood. She uses its images to tell the story of women she witnessed in her life, a friend, her mother, an suspecting stranger she encounters in a street corner.


[Post is taken from Fly Fire Women Unite]

Collage Series 2008

Three Hearts 2008, 8x10

Blue Heart 2008, 8x10

Collage Series 2008

This is a series of collage that I worked on this December intended to be gifts for very special friends. I turned them to Christmas cards.

I was inspired by creating minimalist abstractions here, just making room for a lot of spaces and just adding a few elements. I played with various pastel colors mainly because this was the only available palette to me at the time I was making them when I got the set of construction paper from National Bookstore and added some newspapers.