Tiwtiwong in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Singapore – Kawayan and his bunch of merry friends went on a round trip to Halsema Highway last year on a Dangwa bus. Actually, it wasn’t even a bus. It was a tarpaulin made to look like the iconic red, yellow and gray Dangwa and inside was the makeshift exhibition area and moviehouse where people along the highway would visit in that two-week trip.

This being a country-and-western haven, Kawayan’s friend, DH Mark Zero, even held a Benguet cowboy remix concert at where the former Abatan Records was. Kawayan et al (more formally known as AX(iS) Art Project, painted on the rockwalls, balanced boulders along the way and played the gongs on their way from Baguio to Sagada. They promised to make a repeat journey and what a return journey it was.

This year, Kawayan’s bus brought them from Sagada to Singapore. Being a part of the Philippine delegation to the 2013 Singapore Biennale, they turned one room of the Singapore Art Museum into one fun journey indeed. The AX(iS) exhibition is called “Tiwtiwong: The Odds to Unend,” “tiwtiwong” an Ifugao term to “involuntarily losing your way.”

Kawayan de Guia is the co-curator of the exhibition and practically conceptualized how the trip would look like. 

Bencabagawin. National Artist Bencab (Benjamin Cabrera) did this huge drawing of people representing the different ethnographic groups in Baguio. He did this on a huge Tibetan handmade paper. Collectors had been bugging Bencab even before he finished this but yes, this is not for sale. 

Bulolagawin. The late Baguio artist Roberto Villanueva did not finish this documentary on a gongmaker in Kalinga entitled “The Last Gongmaker.” Rica Concepcion and Tad Ermitano collaborated on this conceptual piece. If you move the mouse on the gong, parts of the footage of the film would show on the blank wall. The bulol was carved by Jason Tuguinganay based on a huge sketch by Villanueva. 

Leonardagawin. Leonard Aguinaldo was the last to win the defunct Asean Art Awards 10 years ago using rubber sheets which he etched and colored. He utilized the same distinct technique for this huge kandong (an endemic tree in Upper Ilocos Sur) tree showing the salt trade that cemented the partnership of upland Cordillera and lowland Ilocos. 

Villafuerteagawin. Young artist Carlo Villafuerte (that’s him with the sad face and long hair) hand-stitched this huge work entitled “Wagwag Wonderland” using textile from discarded second-hand clothes. Villafuerte never uses a thimble and sewing machine so this is one thorough and painful art. 

Mightybhutens. This huge mosaic snake is Halsema Highway. And the pictures on the side showed part of the 32 waiting sheds made into art by Baguio and Manila artists like A.G. Saño, Willy Magtibay, Dex Fernandez, Sultan Mangosan, Butch Guerrero and the Mighty Bhutens, a trio of mosaic makers led by Kawayan’s brother Kabunyan. The Mighty Bhutens taught schoolchildren how to make mosaics and collaborated with them for this “Waiting Shed Project.” 

Agawin. You stand on this compass (see the Axes?) and the music above you amplifies. This is the 24-hour musical loop made by Shant Verdun to recreate the sounds and noise of Cordillera in one day. 

Kidlatagawin. Kawayan’s father, Kidlat Tahimik, not only debuted his 30-year-in-the-making film about Ferdinand Magellan and Enrique de Malacca in Singapore, but he also made this installation, which shows Filipino sailors on a balangay. By the way, this is the Ifugao goddess of the wind blowing the skirt of Marilyn Monroe. 

Santibose. Tuguinganay also carved this 3-faced bulol from a print made by the late Baguio artist Santi Bose. There were 82 other bulols exhibited here made by 40 carvers from a Grade 4 pupil in Ifugao to an 80-year-old farmer in Sabangan, Mountain province. 

Tattoo. On the glass wall of the museum are transparent photos of Ruel Bimmuyag of the traditional tattoos made by Fang-od, one of the last female tattooists in Kalinga and probably in the whole Cordillera. She does her pricking with a thorn from a lemon branch and soot. 

Aso. This dog and the table were taken from a former dog eatery on Katipunan Street in Baguio which was turned into a tongue-in-cheek dog-eating museum by Kawayan and his Aso-ciates because dogmeat is no longer served there.  – Rappler.com