By Wilhelmina S. Orozco
Rarely do we find advocates who reveal the ins and outs of a project – from the time it is conceived to its financial resources and its implementation. Most of the time, we are already just presented the complete product, whether it be an activity, a service, or an object. But the process of realizing a project, especially one with social advocacy, is important to many people in society. A need exists to inform and educate everyone on how they themselves can be advocate, how they can replicate or conduct their own projects that will redound to a better appreciation and education of the public.
Hence, this was what Dr. Rick Bennett an Australian designer came here for and talked about at the Ayala Museum last Saturday, 29th of January 2011. Dr. Bennett is the Founder and Director of Omnium Research and a faculty member of the New South Wales University. Being a designer, his role has been to help in educating marginalized peoples and enhance the production of literacy materials through design like those for Africans - the need to guard against HIV-AIDS and malaria. In the Philippines, he helped the Lumbang, Laguna embroiderers create a public art, the sewn mosaic which now graces the wall of the College of St. Benilde. Another thing he did was the public installation of flowers made of recycled paper produced by the women from Dasmarinas, Cavite in order to emphasize the need to protect the environment.
In Uganda, Dr. Bennett’s project made stickers teaching the children to wash their hands with soap and water. In Kenya, his group donated uniform T-shirt for a baseball team with captions like “Use a condom,” “Choose Safe Sex,” and “Chung Aids” chung a word in Kenyan dialect meaning “get rid of.” Dr. Bennett mentioned how he had to hurdle government corrupt practices in Kenya too. When he sent the uniforms via parcel, the officials wanted him to pay $1,000 for the package. He demurred and said it was a donation. Later on it was allowed to be brought to the recipients, the students playing football in a school, free of charge.
The school has many black male children all aspiring to be big league football players. But sadly, in the picture he showed us, only one was wearing a pair of football shoes while the others were barefooted. And that was the custom in the place, he said.
From barong to mosaic piece
Dr. Bennett met a Filipina whom he had asked to direct him to a place where the people had some craft skills. He was brought to Lumbang, Laguna, where the women have been making barong since the Spanish era. Their works are very refined, done by hand on pina cloth; however, it takes several days to finish a barong and the income is not really big enough for the family. Hence, in one household, several women and girls could be involved in the undertaking.
When Dr. Bennett asked them how much it would cost to do a size of about 4” x 6” of embroidery on pina, and numbering 2,566 pieces, they were at a loss how to name their price. So, Dr. Bennett got the eldest of the group, gave her a piece of paper where he had written the price that he was ready to pay. Once the group had given the price then the lady would open the paper and reveal the amount. To Dr. Bennett’s consternation, the women merely quoted a price of P15,000 and even lowered it to P10,000 when he said, “What?” Then he asked the lady to open the paper and it read, “P50,000.00.” He later on told them that they should know how to cost their work or else they would get “s______” by middle agents who overprice the product once it reaches the market.
Actually, the embroidered product to be finished was based on an embroidery design of a photograph of the San Roque chapel found in Lumbang which Dr. Bennett included in the design after his visit. He found the place quaint, a typical Philippine town still with greenery and a Catholic chapel in it. He made a mosaic picture of his photographs, proposed to the College of St. Benilde the project and then went on to gather the embroiderers to finish it.
Numbering 79 the embroiderers, included young and even older women whose skills were handed down to them by their relatives. “I approached the women and asked, ‘Can you do this?’ They replied they are scared of doing it because it might not be correct. I replied to them, ‘ll take care of your scare but you take care of the embroidery,’” Dr. Bennette narrated. Actually, he just gave them the colors of each piece to be sewn and allowed the women to make their own designs. Some put in a bird, another a flower, and others the scenery of Lumbang itself. When it was done, the group helped Dr. Bennett look for a framing shop – two frames made of palo china and the mosaic piece sandwiched in between. Then on top was a hook to tack it on the wall.
At the hanging ceremonies at the CSB, the women were very much excited because it was the first time for many to have traveled to Manila. When they saw their pieces hanging on the wall from top to almost the ceiling of the building, they were overwhelmed. Why because their work can now be appreciated by more people; moreover, they are now recognized. Angelina Lagrosa said, “Napaiyak ako sa tuwa. Di naming akalaing kaganda at kalaki ang aming ginawa.” (Icried tears of joy. We didn’t know how beautiful and huge what we had done.) Ms. Osio said, “Nabigyan ng kahulugan ang aming gawa.” (Our work has now been given recognition.) Cory Maano said, “Lubos na kasiyahan at pasasalamat sa pag-promote ng aming gawa.” (Extreme joy and gratitude for promoting our work.) The project has continued for covers of cushions with orders coming from Australia through the connections made by Dr. Bennett.
DASMANILA –flowers at Ayala
Another project of Dr. Bennett, ecological in nature, took him to Dasmarinas, Cavite, a relocation place for residents of Tondo and other slum areas in MetroManila. He found there women producing bags out of recycled materials from tetrapak juices. To start the project, he asked them, “Do you know why Manila was given its name?” The women, most of whom hardly went to school, were surprised to know that the name Maynila actually came from the word, “Nilad, a kind of flower. Manila Bay during the Spanish era was covered with nilad and so when people asked where it was, they would answer, “Dun sa may nilad,” or where there are many nilad flowers, until it became “Maynilad,” and finally “Manila.”
Dr. Bennett showed us an old photograph of that time then when water was clear and the people still navigated through the waters using the casko. But now, that scenery is gone and the river is highly polluted, full of wastes of a consumerist society.
While the flowers were being made, Dr. Bennett looked for a place to display them in two months when the women would have finished all. He found the Ayala Museum with a fountain in its façade ideal for it. He informed the director there that his project is connected with urban pollution and that through art, the people could appreciate the need to act on it. Then he explained what the women had done. He was given only 3 weeks to prepare as his concept luckily coincided with a celebration honoring the Pasig River. So the women rushed to make several thousands of flowers.
During the launching of the project, sometime in November, 2010, each visitor was given a flower to put inside steel tube vases placed around the fountain which then recreated a beautiful scenery of a landscape with a river and flowers winding around it. The project was so successful that it was brought to Glorietta and to Cebu to highlight the need to face the ecological challenges facing the Pasig River and all surrounding urban waterways. It will also be brought to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia on March 15, 2011.
“Everybody needs art. Here in MetroManila, we see lots of concrete, cables, and hardly any kind of art. It’s quite depressing. England is the same – gray. Everyday it’s foggy there which is why I moved to Australia where at least you get to see blue skies,” Dr. Bennett opined.
Moving to Australia in 1990, Dr. Bennett became active in woodwork, sculpturing and then gravitated to studying how people learn and how to teach. Eventually, he taught design graphics which makes students focus on thinking creatively. His preference for design is rooted in the ideas of Paul Rand, “Design is a personal activity that springs from the creative impulse of an individual, ” and of Neville Brady who said that there are many designers who deal with what and how, but never ask “Why?” to which this author would raise another question, “So what?”
But the work of Dr. Bennett is closely connected with the technologies of today. His group, Omnium Research Group of the College of Fine Arts in New South Wales University connects online with designers, artists and theorists worldwide about creativity, and the need to be creative reaching out to the marginalized sectors of the world in every continent. Participants to this online connectivity now number 200 in 30 countries made up of teachers, students and professionals who contribute their ideas on how to use design when undertaking a social advocacy. His next project would bring him to Vietnam.
Public Art Advocacy gathers adherents who could be excited by the colors, shapes and meaning that the objects present. It provokes the viewers to ask questions, to find out solutions to social problems. For example, the flowers made from recycled materials produce a feeling that eventually, we may not be holding real flowers anymore in the future given the fast deterioration of our soils due to pollution. Or that sewn mosaic mural at the CSB shows us that simple women folks’ creativity could be harnessed to provide beauty to everyone, allowing us to appreciate the world and its surroundings. Then of course, literacy materials, like those on health that Dr. Bennett showed, could be better understood considering how colorful they are. (By the way, he said even the choice of colors had to be close to that which is indigenous to the group of beneficiaries.)
But one thing that is very gratifying he said was that the Filipino people can be counted upon anytime to produce something artistic despite the fact that we are always eating in between those periods of production. While watching the women produce the embroidery for a day, he found himself being offered snacks at 9 in the morning, lunch at about 11 am, and then snacks again in the afternoon.
Actually, eating is not exactly what the people are fond of, but rather the camaraderie of eating together and being able to get to know each other more. This is “social eating” which makes our culture highly personal and human-driven, rather than product-driven. For us, artistic collective undertaking becomes meaningful and important when the people are bound by human relationships. Nonetheless, Dr. Bennett’s projects showed us that single-mindedness in bringing about art can raise a people’s self-esteem, and generate public awareness of the significance of the project. Hence, thank God for people like Dr. Bennett who could raise public awareness about our people’s (especially women’s) artistic skills from local to international grounds.
For those who want to read more about Dr. Bennette, his works can be accessed through http://creativewaves.omnium.net.
