Uses Space as Metaphor and Canvas for Her Woodcuts and Woodprints
Visiting Ambie Abano’s …in the constant rain… at Galleria Duemila is a respite from the alternating scorching of the sun and the drenching of the rains for a number of reasons that work physically, emotionally, philosophically, and spiritually, by being able to, first and foremost, capture the refreshing qualities of the rain on wood.
This feat fascinates and comforts me because she did so without sacrificing the aural and tactile qualities of the rain, which not only bring back the memory of times past-present-future, akin to the desire to be refreshed-be drenched-be dried, but also because its stillness disconcerts and moves at the same time.
Rain when seen or felt against the ticking of clocks becomes both timeless and timed, there is both eternity and finitude in having these multitudinous raindrops slashed on Philippine hardwood, and the senses are shocked to alertness when you hear instead of the droplets the measured moves of clocks with incomplete hands, missing numbers, and defaced, surreal melting faces.
The first sign of comfort is having to come into the space from either actual rain/sun to a safe place where the elements are there and not there, yet you are still surrounded with and by them, even as you swing and feel weight on the hardwood as you move back and forth with the silent tick-tocking around you.
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Audiences turn pendulum in a silent sort of mantra that begins to match the cadence of your breathing and your heartbeat, until you are in full sense of yourself, and begin to notice that you are not only physical, but more so, concept and spirit, fleeting and beautiful as a butterfly!
The second sign of comfort is to see yourself reflected in a multitude that is singular as you enter the inner space of the gallery and be surprised, aghast!, that everything else are simply cropped versions of three images. But which ones are the source images, or are these all originals, much like entering and looking at a Hall of Mirrors and seeing yourself in front and around you, in a magical, mystical dialogue with the self.
Audiences begin to wonder then how the self really is the constant in and against time, and the elements, because like the metamorphosis that witnessed the caterpillar transform to pupa then to a butterfly, rain or shine, there is only the essence of that butterfly from beginning to end. And so we see dialogues of and between selves as printed permutations of the three massive woodcuts that are ONE.
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Catch this complete experiential package at Galleria Duemila from July 13 to August 31, 2019!
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Ambie Abano
…in the constant rain…
Galleria Duemila
July 13-Aug 31, 2019
…in the constant rain…
Galleria Duemila
July 13-Aug 31, 2019
