Arts & Culture (02/17/21)

Talk on Copyright at Gateway Gallery’s KulturaSerye

GATEWAY Gallery starts this year’s KulturaSerye with the webinar “ARTHENTICITY: Copyright and Responsible Art-Making,” with attorney Exequiel Valerio of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. The webinar will present the current copyright landscape, define it, its processes and mechanisms. It will also discuss current and pending laws that will cover the issue of copyright. The webinar is ideal for creators, designers, teachers, students, and art enthusiasts to gain a better understanding of copyright laws in the country in order to protect their works. It is co-presented by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and the J. Amado Araneta Foundation. The webinar will be streamed live free on Feb. 20, 2 to 3:30 p.m., at the Gateway Gallery Facebook Page (GatewayGalleryPH). The webinar is open to the public and does not require pre-registration. Viewers will also get an electronic certificate by filling up an online feedback form at the end of the talk. To know more about the event, visit , or contact Gateway Gallery at [email protected], 8588-4000 local 8300, or via its social media at Facebook (GatewayGalleryPh), Instagram (gateway.gallery), Twitter (gateway_gallery), and YouTube (Gateway Gallery).

Group show, 3 solo exhibits at West Gallery

OPENING on Feb. 18 and running until March 20 at West Gallery are one group show and three solo exhibits. The group show, “Grayscale,” features works by Andres Barrioquinto, Jigger Cruz, Mark Andy Garcia, Winner Jumalon, Raffy T. Napay, Lynyrd Paras, Neil Pasilan, Arturo Sanchez, Jr., Kaloy Sanchez, Luis Antonio Santos, and Hamilton Sulit. Meanwhile,the three solo shows are Alvin Villaruel’s “Days In and Out of the Sun,” Lendl Arvin’s “At the Top of the Food Chain,” and Demosthenes Campos’ “Inclination to Observe.” Visitors to the gallery are welcome by appointment only. To make an appointment, call (02) 3411-0336. The gallery is located at 48 West Ave., Quezon City. It is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and closed on Sundays and public holidays.

PPO stages pocket performances

THE PHILIPPINE Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) will stage online performances through its Pocket Concert Series from February to July. Billed as The PPO Spotlight: Virtual Pocket Performances, the next concert for the month will be streamed on Feb. 19, 8 p.m., Friday through the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) website. The PPO Online Pocket Concert Series is a program of the PPO which can be viewed on the PPO FB page and the CCP YouTube as platforms.

Judge and his wife write a book of renga poetry

FORMER Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Simeon Dumdum, Jr., who is an accomplished author and a Palanca Award winning writer, has teamed up with his wife, Ma. Milagros “Gingging” T. Dumdum, who is also an author, to write a poetry collection entitled The Sigh of a Hundred Leaves. The two are published poets and have been writing poetry individually for decades. Their book has been released and is being distributed by San Anselmo Publications, Inc. The Sigh of a Hundred Leaves contains 100 renga poems. Renga is a poetry style of Japanese origin and features alternating stanzas from two separate poets; it is composed of only five. Reading renga is akin to listening to a conversation. In the case of the Dumdums’ verses, the effect is an engaging “he said, she said,” exchange. As Mr. Dumdum explains in the book’s introduction, “In this work, my wife Gingging and I agreed that she should write the hokku or the first three lines, and I the waki or the succeeding two lines.” According to the retired judge, his wife and he treated the endeavor as a chess game. “She would make a move and I would make a countermove.” The result is a friendly competition among the spouses. They wrote the poems over a period of a few months before the pandemic. Their words take the reader on journeys to churches, rivers, and gardens; through days and nights of rain, bonfires and clouds; and on paths scented by jasmine, chrysanthemum and other flowers. To complement the book’s Japanese theme, the publisher commissioned young Filipino-Japanese artist Mariko E. Nakamura to design the book. To avail of The Sigh of a Hundred Leaves, send a message to the San Anselmo Publications, Inc. Facebook page. Each copy of the book comes with a free bookmark of the customer’s choice among 19 different designs, with an option to buy all of the designs as well.

Ballet and wellness to be tackled in online workshop

FORMER Ballet Philippines principal dancer Christine Crame will share the unique and remarkable healing benefits of ballet in a free and public online dance workshop entitled Movement Connection on Friday, Feb. 19. In the webinar, Crame will immerse the participants in ballet-based practice exercises beyond that of an artistic dance form, but more of an expressive experience on well-being. The former Associate Director of Ballet Philippines, she majored in Dance at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts. She currently shares her experience and expertise in the field as a full-time professor and mentor at the college. Hosted by the Arts and Culture Cluster, the session will be moderated by Nina Anonas-De Santos, ACBE, former soloist at Ballet Philippines, principal dancer at the Manila Metropolis Ballet and Junge Ballett Compagnie, Frankfurt and featured international artist at Ballett Frankfurt. It is open to interested parties with fundamental knowledge on basic or contemporary ballet. It will be conducted via Zoom on Feb. 19, 2 to 4 p.m. Interested participants may register via QR code or through For inquiries, visit the official Facebook page of Benilde Arts and Culture Cluster through https://www.facebook.com/benildearts.

Raffy T. Napay at BenCab Museum’s Gallery Indigo

BENCAB Museum marked its 12^th anniversary on Feb. 13 with the opening of Raffy T. Napay’s solo exhibition Cocoon, a collection of large-scale works that embody the artist’s favored material of multi-colored threads. The show is divided into two themes: one being the process of building a better version of self, the other being the notion of family and the sanctuary it offers. The first series, composed of nine works presents an abstract sensibility, in which the stitches constellate into pockets of shapes and forms, but never developing into a discernible image. For Napay, the pandemic has given people the opportunity to delve into their inner reserves, generate what can potentially propel their dreams, and discard those that no longer serve one’s growth. The second series, swaddled in rich red, is a veritable family portrait, with three works suggestive of the mother, father, and child. The exhibit is on view until April 4 at the BenCab Museum’s Gallery Indigo. Viewing is by appointment only. To book, send an e-mail to [email protected].

Indigenous weaving the focus in Stories for a Better Normal episode

INDIGENOUS weaving advocates will gather virtually to promote appreciation of traditional and ecosystem-based livelihoods and share information on ways to enhance the resilience of rural livelihoods to the pandemic and climate crisis in the next episode of Stories for a Better Normal: Pandemic and Climate Change Pathways. The episode Protect Indigenous Weaving! is hosted by Rep. Loren Legarda, it will air on Feb. 18, 10 a.m., via Facebook Live at and . Joining the online conversation are Virginia Doligas, general manager of Easter Weaving Room Inc.; Anya Lim, co-founder of ANTHILL Fabric Gallery; and attorney Emerson Cuyo, director of Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to discuss how to preserve and protect local weaving patterns against counterfeit and giving indigenous peoples a voice through intellectual property rights.