El Arte del Himbon celebrates paper and textiles

By Ted Aldwin Ong

What happens when tradition meets texture — when paper carries memory and fabric breathes with color?

The Himbon Contemporary Ilonggo Artists Group reaffirms this timeless dialogue by revisiting paper and fabric through two compelling exhibitions: “PapelArte” at the Gawang Art Space of the UP Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage, and “TelaArte” at the Agatona 1927 Museum Café.

Throughout art history, material has never been merely a passive surface but an active participant in creation.

Artists have long understood that meaning is carried not only by image but also by medium, an understanding distinctly reflected in the two exhibitions.

Building on this tradition, the two shows present outstanding artistic creations that highlight the possibilities inherent in each medium while exploring their capacity to convey the artists’ diverse and dynamic expressions.

They feature experimental and modernist works by 13 artists working on paper and eight artists working with textiles, merging craft and fine art to form an aesthetic showcase of varied styles and forms.

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PapelArte

Prof. Martin Genodepa, director of the UP Visayas Office of Initiatives for Culture and the Arts, highlighted the historical significance of paper, noting that it has served as a medium since the Chinese invented rice paper and the Egyptians developed papyrus.
Undoubtedly, paper remains a fundamental medium for art.

This is evident in PapelArte, which the artists describe as a process of “playing with paper,” showcasing nontraditional approaches and innovative practices that convey political messages, personal expression, and even critiques of creative labor in the age of AI.

Three works by female artists exemplify this playful experimentation.

Althea Villanueva’s “Fragments of Dreams and Visions” transforms discarded paper into a vibrant collage of iconic landmarks, natural environments, flora and fauna, and food, illustrating the interdependence of nature and modern living.

The piece hints at sustainability while subtly posing the question, “Is everything too hard for HIM?”
Gina Gigi Apostol’s “Wilting #1 (Don’t Smell the Flower When It Is Dead)” combines recycled paper with hibiscus and trumpet tree stains.

Apostol shared, “For me, this is a rarity, as paper has never been my medium. But playing with it, recycling it in bits and pieces, felt like a quiet whisper. Then, of course, ideas formed as fragments of emotion held still.”

On the other hand, Charmaine Española issues a warning about creative workers’ overreliance on artificial intelligence through her work “Homogenophobia,” a term she coined to mean “fear of homogenization.”

Using paper and boards mounted on a red canvas panel to evoke a “red alert” in the creative industry, Española illustrates homogenization through 36 identical brain assemblages.

Reflecting on the piece, Española explains, “The long and short of it, though, is that I believe, as artists, we always have a choice — do we participate in this homogenization, or do we fight to keep ‘creative thinking’ living up to its name?”

On PapelArte, Himbon emphasizes that “the paper’s organic and recyclable qualities renew its relevance. To work with it is to engage with material memory — tearing, folding, layering, and recycling — allowing form, composition, and texture to emerge.”

These qualities are vividly manifested in the works of Norman Vincent Acedera, Kirby Majaque, Anthony Castillo, Edwin De Los Reyes, Eros Escaroendencio, Harry Mark Gonzales, Gilbert Gonzales Labordo, Nick Lanes, Ariel Pineda, and Aljerico Saraum, demonstrating how paper continues to inspire unconventional forms, textures, and creative expression.

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TelaArte

The spirit of playful experimentation is further expanded by the Himbon artists in TelaArte, where similar approaches and creative processes are applied to fabric.

Here, tactile and process-driven methods traditionally used on paper are translated into textiles, as seen in the works of Joseph Bilan, Gerundio Buendia Jr., Vic Fario, Aivee Genson, Edgardo Gonzales Jr., Vic Nabor, Carol Salvatierra, and Miguel Antonio Tronco.

Through cutting, folding, layering, and assembling textile materials onto canvas, the artists allow form, texture, and conceptual meaning to emerge organically.

In Miguel Antonio Tronco’s terracotta sculptures, fabric functions as a wrapper, covering, and enclosure, further enriching the dialogue among material, surface, and structure.

Several works reinterpret textile traditions and processes.

Aivee Genson’s “The Loom” revisits weaving’s foundational apparatus not simply as a tool, but as a concept.

Traditionally, a loom interlaces warp and weft, threads held in tension and woven in measured rhythm to form cloth through repetition and precision.

In Genson’s reinterpretation, the loom shifts from a mechanical instrument to a symbolic form.

It evokes the technical rigor of manual weaving while functioning as an allegory for connection, memory, and community.

By foregrounding process over product, Genson frames the loom as a site of inquiry, where tension and intersection mirror both material construction and conceptual formation.

Similarly, Carol Salvatierra’s “Palanublion” and “Playtime” explore fabric as a terrain for gesture and movement, emphasizing the labor of women who craft and sustain it.

Salvatierra highlights how textile is not only functional but also a vessel of cultural memory, making labor and craft inseparable from everyday life and identity.

Joseph Bilan enriches stories of labor, heritage, and identity through textural visual language that echoes textile-making while emphasizing individual uniqueness through impasto style and thumbprints.

In “Banana Bonanza,” he celebrates the Philippine harvest and Filipino farmers, while hablon garments honor Ilonggo women, especially mothers, linking agrarian pride with cultural heritage.

Vic Nabor continues the dialogue between land and lineage in “Weaving the Last Green Shore,” where mangroves symbolize resilience.

Thriving in harsh coastal conditions, they protect life much like the communities they shelter; through layered textures and woven materials, Nabor conveys both fragility and endurance, prompting reflection on environmental stewardship.

Likewise, in “Threads of the Past,” he employs hablon cloth as a vibrant backdrop for monochromatic figures of farmers, vendors, and workers.

Colorful textile fragments come together as a patchwork of collective memory, while the subdued portraits suggest archival traces, creating a quiet interplay between past and present, visibility and invisibility.

In “Where Threads Become People,” Edgardo Gonzales Jr. transforms textile into metaphor.

Cut and layered fabric pieces, echoing handwoven materials, form garments — blouses, skirts, trousers — that suggest human presence without depicting bodies.

In this piece, fabric does more than clothe identity; it constructs it, just as intersecting threads form cloth and intersecting lives shape society.

This focus on process, material, and the interplay between form and meaning is mirrored throughout the works in PapelArte and TelaArte.

Together, these exhibitions affirm that medium is never merely material, but a vessel of meaning.

Through paper and textile, the artists transform process into expression, demonstrating how hands-on engagement shapes not only objects, but also memory, identity, and community.

In doing so, they remind us that creation is both a material and cultural act, in which form and meaning are inseparable.