About Us
Kaliwat Kinabuhi is a show by us: Estela, Linya, and Raymund L. Fernandez. We are related. This is a family show. And so, you might perceive it as a presentation both of commonalities and diversities, similarities and differences that define three individual creative viewpoints on life, and perhaps three possible directions for future art.
Kaliwat is the Bisayan word meaning “related” when it is used specifically. But it may be taken broadly to mean things similar - the expression of their relatedness. Kinabuhi means “life.” And so the title of this show translates many ways into English. The obvious one being that it is a show of members of a family and their viewpoints on life. We invite a translation which brings the title closer to the concepts: Mimesis and Realism. This reading is more to the point of what weaves us together as artists, each coming now into our own particular ages, each in our own particular ways. Mimesis and Realism are important issues to think about when we think of the contemporary. They are an important part of current discourses. And so we ask: What is real? Is reality what and how it appears? Or is it more than that? Where is and what constitutes the border between how the thing appears and what it truly is? And what do artistic techniques have to do with artistic meanings?
We think, like Salvador Dali, that art should be “edible.” And so we invite the viewers to partake of this show the way they would partake of a small prandial event. Some of the works are quite serious and heavy, others clearly light - even frivolous. Either way, we hope you will find the works enjoyable even if in some ways bothersome. We hope the works give no one a case of relative indigestion.
Kaliwat Kinabuhi is a show prepared since a year ago when we decided it might be fun to have a first show together. We received much assistance from Dr. Ted Gonzales for this show. He kept up the pressure to make this show happen. And especially for his great faith in us we are very thankful. Without it we would all still be. But not this show.
Kaliwat is the Bisayan word meaning “related” when it is used specifically. But it may be taken broadly to mean things similar - the expression of their relatedness. Kinabuhi means “life.” And so the title of this show translates many ways into English. The obvious one being that it is a show of members of a family and their viewpoints on life. We invite a translation which brings the title closer to the concepts: Mimesis and Realism. This reading is more to the point of what weaves us together as artists, each coming now into our own particular ages, each in our own particular ways. Mimesis and Realism are important issues to think about when we think of the contemporary. They are an important part of current discourses. And so we ask: What is real? Is reality what and how it appears? Or is it more than that? Where is and what constitutes the border between how the thing appears and what it truly is? And what do artistic techniques have to do with artistic meanings?
We think, like Salvador Dali, that art should be “edible.” And so we invite the viewers to partake of this show the way they would partake of a small prandial event. Some of the works are quite serious and heavy, others clearly light - even frivolous. Either way, we hope you will find the works enjoyable even if in some ways bothersome. We hope the works give no one a case of relative indigestion.
Kaliwat Kinabuhi is a show prepared since a year ago when we decided it might be fun to have a first show together. We received much assistance from Dr. Ted Gonzales for this show. He kept up the pressure to make this show happen. And especially for his great faith in us we are very thankful. Without it we would all still be. But not this show.