TAGALOG AT TAGA-ILOG Roberto M.A. Robles 8 March – 27 April 2012 GF Lobby and West Wing Gallery Vargas Museum University of the Philippines

Education Guide

CONTENTS

1. Exhibition Notes

2. About the Artist (Sidebar)

3. Theme One: Sculpture

4. Theme Two: Landscape/Riverscape

5. Theme Three: Poetry

6. Glossary (Sidebar)

7. Sources and Suggested Readings

(Sidebar)

About the Education Guide

The Education Guide has been produced to accompany the exhibit Tagalog at Taga-ilog. It is designed for

discussions and activities for High School and College entry-level classes in Humanities, Art Studies, Fine

Arts, Poetry and Creative Writing. Suggested topics for this exhibition include: Sculpture, Landscape,

Riverscape, Identity and Poetry. This kit includes guide questions, pre-, during, and post-visit activities,

suggested readings, and glossary. Important terms are underlined for emphasis and possible discussion in

class. It is encouraged that course tutors/teachers have a pre-visit to the exhibition before the class’s actual

visit.

This education guide may be reproduced. Additional low-resolution images for educational purposes are

available upon request.

Visitor Information

For pre-visits, please coordinate with the Museum to schedule a group visit and inform the Museum at

least 24 hours in advance. Group visits may be guided by a museum staff, by the teacher (the galleries may

be used as classroom upon advance notification), or unguided (students may view the exhibition at their

own pace).

For information about the museum hours and entrance fees, check the official website of the museum at

http://vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph.

Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines

T: (+632) 928 1927; (+632) 981 5000 local 4024 F: (+632) 928 1925 M: (+63929) 856 7909 E: vargasmuseum@gmail.com URL: http://vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph FB: facebook.com/vargasmuseum.upd

About the Artist Roberto M. A. Robles (b. 1957) graduated

from the School of Music and Fine Arts of

the University of the East with a

bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. In 1995, he

completed his Master of Fine

Arts sculpture program majoring in stone

carving under the tutelage of Prof. Hitoshi

Itoh at the University of Tsukuba School

of Art and Design. He was appointed

Dean of the College of Fine Arts,

University of the East in the same year

upon returning to the Philippines. He has

extensively exhibited locally and abroad in

such venues as at the Pinaglabanan

Gallery, Galleria Duemila, Tokyo

Metropolitan Museum, and Ibaraki

Museum of Modern Art and Kitano

Museum Art Movement. He received an

Asian Artist Fellowship at the 11th Annual

Freeman Foundation Vermont Studio

Center, USA in 2004. Robles held his 30

year retrospective "Saluysoy" at the

Ateneo Art Gallery in 2011.

Exhibition Notes

In this exhibition, the meditation on place that is the museum is co-incident, either as a matter of

synchrony or of chance, with a meditation on the “east” and the “west,” coordinates of power and

otherness, inflections of north and south, waxing and waning, rising and setting, end and genesis.

The two sets of sculpture find their site within this cartography, intimating a relationship with the

enigmatic title of the project. The terms tagalog and taga-ilog pertain to an ethnic identity based on

language. It is also an ideological ascription that shapes the Filipino or the Philippine. And finally, it is

about a topography: that the person is known by his or her vicinity, which in this instance is the river.

Identity, therefore, purportedly fully formed, is tumescent. It is totem, Tagalog, ensconced on a

base as obelisk, monument to self, memorial to posterity, testimony to the futility of forever-ness and the

legacy of memory. This is one “sculptural” proposition. The other is the ensemble of slabs on the

museum’s terrazzo floor, evoking flux, stream, flow, a horizontality that resists the hierarchy, or

hegemony if you will, of the other. It is current, Taga-ilog, threatening to slip away, close to the ground,

stemming from it.

Here, the installation of the propositions of sculpture opens up a dialogue on the overlay of

spaces in an atmosphere of lucent, riverine sparseness. Here, the interval between objects yields to the

visitor the opportunity to feel a milieu and gather the traces of sensing from the encounter with the art

itself or with the figurines alongside it: maquettes of the actual artifacts, faint drawings that nearly

disappear.

It is through this slit in the event of an exhibition that light filters through the glass of what may

well be a bare museum, which in itself is a tenacious institution of fragments and home to the pretensions

to certain copious unities. It is the tamed light of the east and the west, of bukang-liwayway and dapit-

hapon, of daybreak and dusk, of morning and night. Through the permeable skin of a museum that faces

the risks of exposure, light animates place and art, crafted and sculpted by the grains of its vitality, its

incessant wellspring.

GLOSSARY Sculpture is a three-dimensional artwork created by carving, molding, casting or combining materials that provides an organizational mass or volume. Intaglio is a formed or incised relief sculpture in which the design is sunk below the surface. Relief is a sculpture raised from a flat background. Flat relief (stiacciato-relievo), low relief (basso-relievo or commonly known as bas relief), medium relief (mezzo-relievo) and full/high relief (alto-relievo) are the types of relief with various degree of projection of form from the background surface. Sculpture in the round is a free-standing sculpture which can be seen on all sides. Maquette is a model for a larger piece of sculpture. Carving is a method/technique of making a sculpture by removing, cutting away some parts of the material to form the desired figure or shape. Modeling is a method/technique of adding, combining and building up of materials to create a sculpture, sometimes with the use of an armature.

SCULPTURE

Pre-visit Guide Questions and Activities:

1) Discuss in class the definition of sculpture, materials commonly used, various techniques, and the

process of sculpting.

a) What is a sculpture? How do intaglio, relief and sculpture in the round differ?

b) List down the materials that can be used in making a sculpture. What are their usual

characteristics or properties (e.g. soft, malleable, etc.)?

c) How are these materials being used to make a sculpture? Which ones are used in carving? in

modeling? in casting?

d) What is a maquette? How does a maquette help the sculptor in making large-scale works?

2) Review in class the elements of art especially line, shape, form and space.

3) Ask the students to bring materials they can use to make a sculpture (preferably for modeling). They

can use these materials for the post-visit activities.

Actual Visit Guide Questions and Activities:

1) Look at the sculpture located at the West Wing Gallery. What do you think is it made of? How did the

artist make the sculpture? What are the processes involved? Are they carved, modeled or cast? Share

your insights with your classmates.

2) Observe the sculpture at the Lobby. Describe the prominent lines and shapes that outline the

sculpture? Now look at the study drawings and compare them with the sculpture. Differentiate how

space was created in the drawing and sculpture. Describe further the line, shape, form and space of

the sculpture.

3) Scrutinize the maquettes at the West Wing Gallery. Try to match the maquettes and the actual

sculptures. Are there any departures from the maquettes in the actual works? What are the

differences? How did the works evolve or change?

Post-visit Activities:

1) Group the students into pairs. Each group should submit a short concept paper about their sculpture

with several study drawings and a maquette. After the submission of all the groups, the class can

GLOSSARY Armature is a rigid framework used as a support during the construction of a sculpture particularly in the modeling method Casting is a method/technique of making a sculpture wherein the material is poured in to the void of an assembled mould and left to set. Mould is a casing or shaped cavity used to give a definite form of the material used in casting Landscape is a category in art that refers to the depiction of nature, usually the views of land, mountains, forests, seas, and other natural sceneries. Sometimes a more specific term is used such as seascape, riverscape, cityscape, urbanscape and the likes. Haka is a Japanese word which means grave. A typical Japanese grave (family grave) consists of a stone monument and a chamber where the urns are put. Some haka can also be a simple mound. Ekphrasis is a descriptive, expressive or dramatic writing inspired by an artwork, may be a painting, sculpture, film or any art form. Ekphrastic poetry is an example.

deliberate and choose which proposal they think is the best and the class can sculpt a large scale work

out of that.

2) Modern sculptures use innovative and ready-to-use objects. Ask the students to expand their notion

of what a sculpture is by making sculptural works made out of objects they can find around them.

LANDSCAPE / RIVERSCAPE

Pre-visit Activity:

1) Discuss in class the concept of landscape and riverscape and how nature becomes a common

inspiration in the art production.

2) Show in class some art works that depict nature, landscape or riverscape, both figurative and

conceptual works.

Actual Visit Guide Questions and Activities:

1) Nature has been the main inspiration of Robles for his works in Tagalog at Taga-ilog.

a) One of these is the museum’s space: the lush landscape surrounding the museum and the building

itself. How did the artist blend the interior of the galleries and the sculpture? Observe the sunlight

coming in from the glass wall and the light cast on the terrazzo floor. What do you feel? How

does the lighting emphasize the form of the sculpture? How do the slab-like sculptures,

positioned almost directly on the floor, evoke movement? How does it relate to a stream or river

which Taga-ilog signifies? The works are located at the east and west sections of the museum.

Analyze further the relationship of these directions/points on the rising and setting of the sun,

and of light and shadow.

b) The slab-like sculptures also represent logs which can be found in the Calumpang River in early

days. The name Batangas was derived from the word “batang”, a term that the natives use to

refer to the logs floating in the said river. Looking at the sculptures, can you picture in your mind

the scene described earlier? How does the title Tagalog at Taga-ilog resonate with this historic

account in terms of location, topography and identity?

c) Read the haiku-like poem on the glass. What is Haka? Look at the sculptures and check the

inscriptions. In what language are these inscriptions written? How does it relate to haka? (You

Sources and suggested readings Coleman, Ronald. Sculpture: a basic handbook for students. Iowa: Wm.C. Brown, 1990. Kemal, Salim and Ivan Gaskell, eds. Landscape, natural beauty and the arts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Moorman, Honor. “Backing into Ekphrasis: Reading and Writing Poetry about Visual Art.” The English Journal 96.1 (2006) : 46 – 53. Penny, Nicholas. The Materials of Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Rich, Jack. The Materials and Methods of Sculpture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.

may ask the help of a guide or museum staff for the translations of the inscriptions.) Compare the

term “haka” and “tagalog”. Dissect these words in terms of ethnicity and language and how

these converge in the artist’s concept of the exhibit.

Post-Visit Activity:

1. Write a reflection or reaction paper about the exhibit focusing on the context of landscape and

riverscape and how the artist utilized nature as a catalyst for his sculptural works.

POETRY

Pre-visit Guide Questions and Activities:

1) Discuss with the students poetry and their previous writing experience.

a) What are your usual inspirations when writing a poem? What is the subject?

b) Have you written a poem inspired by nature? Or by an artwork?

2) Play in class the song “Vincent” by Don McLean. The teacher can also emphasize the following lyrics:

Starry, starry night.

Paint your palette blue and grey…

Starry, starry night.

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,

Swirling clouds in violet haze…

Ask the students if the song reminds them of a painting or an artist. Show in class afterwards the

painting “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh and let the students share their thoughts.

3) Discuss in class what ekphrasis is. Aside from the previous song “Vincent”, read in class other poems

inspired by artworks.

a) “Before the Mirror” by John Updike on Pablo Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror”

b) “Number 1 by Jackson Pollock” by Nancy Sullivan on Jackson Pollock’s “Number 1”

c) “American Gothic” by John Stone on Grant Wood’s “American Gothic”

d) “It’s Me!” by David Harrison on Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych”

Actual Visit Guide Questions and Activities:

1) Read the haiku-like poem on the glass at the West Wing Gallery. What does it say? How does it relate with the artworks in the exhibit?

2) Walk around and view the sculptures. Observe and feel the museum space and the environment outside. Describe what you see, how it makes you

feel and what you think the artwork wants to convey. Based on these, write a poem in any form (haiku, ballad, sonnet, free-form, etc.)

Post-visit Activities:

1. The students can further refine the poem/s they wrote while in the gallery. They can also make a drawing, illustration or painting based on their poem.

2. The students can also write an essay narrating their experience in touring the museum and poetry writing. This can serve both as an evaluation and as a

way to wrap up the lesson.