On Fashion, Faith and Culture
By: Yasunari Ramon Suarez Taguchi
Every now and then, Cebu’s creative arts circuit comes by shows that defy the strait-laced definition of what exhibits are – shows that largely embody what is referred to in “the message is the medium” mode. Such an exhibit opened late last month as a post-Sinulog season feature and a National Arts Month highlight in Cebu – one which is mainlined by the works of celebrated fashion designer-cum-creative dauber Steve De Leon.
Titled “Saulog: Encounter, Pilgrimage and Transformation”, the show opened last January 27 at the Kabilin Center of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. where it will be on display until May 31. It is the first exhibit wherein De Leon’s artworks are featured outside of Metro Manila.
Presented by the center and curated by lawyer-curator Sedfrey Santiago and Fr. Jason Dy, the founder of Cebu’s Alternative Contemporary Art Studio, the exhibit can be characterized as a sequel to the well-received “Stitching Faith and Fashion” exhibit that was featured in the gallery of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2023.
In “Stitching Faith and Fashion”, viewers got to see pieces by De Leon which tempered a narrative wearable art tenor to the Mysteries of Light of the Holy Rosary – the mystery which encapsulates what’s largely described as Jesus Christ’s evangelical period.
In “Saulog”, De Leon hems a similar take to the celebration of five centuries of Christianity in the Philippines, the conversion of Raja Humabon and his wife, Hara Amihan, to Christianity, and the different aspects that’re entailed in the devotion to the Santo Niño.
Divided into three parts, the show got its name from the Cebuano “kasaulogan”, which loosely translates to “festival” or “celebration”.
It opens with “The Encounter”, which features pieces that recount Magellan’s gifting of the Santo Niño to Hara Amihan on the occasion of her baptism, and installations that allude to the deities whom locals prayed to prior to the introduction of Christianity.
Its second part – “Pilgrimage” – mainly features works that nod to the evolution of the devotion to the Santo Niño, contextualized through different points of views.
Pieces that’re representative of farmers, fishermen, carpenters and members of the LGBT community, among many others, are included in this part of the exhibit, which can be described as a vibrant tapestry that speaks of how certain Santo Niño devotions came to be.
“Transformation” – the exhibit’s third part – immerses viewers into how ingrained the Christian faith has become.
This part of the exhibit accomplishes this via visual narratives that speak of how certain icons and religious imagery came to be, and how some of these symbols and iconography have changed and are changing without loosing their meaning.
When shorn of the moorings of this theme, the exhibit can be described as a show that plates up a take on the abstract expressionist and neo-expressionist forms – only different in that its exhibiting artist utilizes threads, fabrics and textiles, as opposed to paints and other mediums traditionally used for canvas-bound tableaus.
In the technical distillations of creative styles, abstract expressionist pieces are typically made without any predefined subjects, themes, studies or concepts, as it is a style that challenges an artist to form something while in the process of working on a piece in real time.
Though it can be argued that De Leon had an idea of what he was going to make when he was working on a piece, expressionism’s the on-the-fly implications apparently played a role in the making of the show’s featured pieces as they are calibrated to evoke a sense of being from viewers – sans the explicit use of narrative art’s literal components.
Serving as the pieces’ “top layer” are takes on the neo-expressionist mode, which allowed them to steer clear from distinctly looking like something, yet gave a spacial tone to symbolic and non-symbolic interpretations of a message – in the exhibit’s case, “The Encounter”, “Pilgrimage” and “Transformation”.
But of the different creative and technical components that make up the show, its most
stand out feature lies in how it heralds an oftenmisunderstood (if not, understated) aspect to contemporary art: the view that words are not the only coins in the realm of thought, as visual design directives also have their own value as a form of currency.
This is expounded by Fr. Jason, one of the show’s co-curators, who, in an interview, writes “In the history of the Catholic church, textile based art has been an important aspect of its liturgical rituals, in catechesis and the furnishings of its sacred spaces. We see it in the vestments worn by the priests, deacons and bishops.”
“Embroidered tapestries with biblical texts and/or images are displayed in churches as banners to celebrate special occasions. Altars are covered with linens. Saulog makes an attempt at the confluence of art, fashion, and the Catholic imagination through the works of Steve De Leon.”