Debbie Palao x Kagikan 2011: A Retrospective

• • • • • Many of the pop culture fare like imagining the concept of time: in some cases it is like a place (Back to the Future [»] was a film my sister-in-law dragged me to watching, which I also enjoyed!) for meeting famous personalities from the past or present, and sometimes it’s a state (K pushed me the wonderful book Einstein’s Dreams [»], written by Allan Lightman, which I intend to push to everyone else as well!). Depending on your attitude towards it, a sense of nostalgia, or, as Edith Piaf sings in last summer’s Inception, “no regret” helps point to the future, acknowledging the past.

I like thinking visually, and for this year’s time-inspired theme, “Kagikan”, I imagine threads. I imagine ‘now’ as a kind of shrug, a scarf, an overcoat, woven together by the threads of so many things we have been and we have done in the past, which continuously weaves the shrug we wear tomorrow. The image of weaving is also very important for me, as this is a traditional technique that I believe is something the Filipino ought to be proud of [»].

Two kinds of abaca, two kinds of weaving: Maze two-seater on black and white abaca rope, and fine abaca threads woven with copper for upholstery; and behind it on the right, copper weaving for Aladdin tabletop.

So we decided to incorporate threads, the notions of linear progression, coming and going, as well as respecting origins (for Kagikan) for our 2011 collection. Every individual item to be showcased should carry this organic thought, true; now how do we translate this to the booth?

Left and right: Fred Sandback’s [»] refreshing, dimension-manipulating, string-and-space installations. I got to know Mr Sandback’s works through my good friend [»], and the magic of his exhibits is slow-acting but potent. These are perfect to encapsulate the feeling we were trying to evoke, of time being linear but at the same time confounding! However, on a purely artistic perspective, this is indeed genius, but in a show like Cebu-Next, the (annoying!) factor of marketability must always come into play, whether one likes it or not.

1st photo: Me and my boys measure cleaned bamboo poles against the length of our matte-black wall; instead of string, which we thought would look too “puny” next to our items (and therefore negligible), we decided on bamboo, carrying over flexibility, sturdiness, and its clean silhouette; 2nd photo: a longer shot of the pre-arranged bamboo ‘grove’, waiting to be tuckered in and fixed after a few minor adjustments.

Eventually though, the strings indirectly inspired the look of the Pout lounge chairs and the Lhasa lamp. I loved the idea of something very delicate woven on a definite frame!

Putting the pieces on the mock-up booth to see how they are supposed to go on the final day. It’s important to actualize the arrangement of your items, because space can also be very deceiving! What looks good on paper, even when scaled, can sometimes feel different when you’re amongst it now.

We’re slowly seguing into the -ber months, and for me, this is a cue to start slowly and surely (in Cebuano we say, hinay-hinay) start thinking up concepts for 2012! There will be some noticeable developments in Cebu-neXt, but rest assured, the quality and the OOMPH we’ve come to be known for will be as intense as ever.