Music is what feelings sound like.

I've never been so unexpectedly terrified in my life... until I tried singkil. And apparently I wasn't the only one out of the CLUTCH girls.

Last Saturday, Kapisanan program coordinator Jodee Aguillon introduced us to traditional Philippine dance and its rich, long history. Turns out Jodee was a former dancer and choreographer, with a rather unique style, fusing contemporary forms with traditional. Seeing Jodee on a regular basis, I think we were all surprised by how knowledgeable he was about Filipino dance and how incredibly talented he was on the floor.

Then the bamboo sticks came out. We were all somewhat familiar with the dance, having either seen it performed before or having been taught the dance in the past. It was like double-dutch — with long, heavy sticks. The workshop was a good change — a good workout — and we all made it out alive.






Afterwards, we had our music workshop with Casey Mecija, lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the Toronto indie band Ohbijou. Casey was a dream — not to mention her music. After seeing her and a couple fellow bandmates — her sister Jennifer and cellist Anissa Hart — play an intimate show at Kapisanan the week before, our hearts melted from the sweet warbling harmonies and beautifully layered instrumental melodies. Casey introduced us to her world and shared her touring and recording experiences and stories about her and the band's projects and endeavors, such as the Friends in Bellwoods compilation album and some short films.

Then we got into work mode: how to incorporate music into our short film Perched. Having been collectively working on the film for months now, the CLUTCH ladies have let it sit aside while we focused on the other art workshops pouring in. The one missing element in the film (besides the filtering and colour correction techie stuff) was the music. Music is CRUCIAL in setting the tone for the whole film and more importantly, as Casey mentioned, evoking emotion. We had our narration and shots set and done, but the movie as a whole lacked a "heart tug." So we brainstormed and sampled music and laid out our options. Daryl Anne cracked the bandurria, a small 14-string guitar played in the Philippines, and we were stunned.


Casey (above) and a few members of Ohbijou will be helping us incorporate the bandurria with other instruments for Perched's musical score. Recording starts in a couple weeks... just in time for the final exhibit. I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are to be in the studio for the whole process. It's going to be one for the books.

DG

See a video clip of Casey and members of Ohbijou play at the Daps All-Ages Concert Vol. IV at Kapisanan here.

ALUNSINA: a clutch exhibit

It's officially official. We've finally come up with a name for our final exhibit that encompasses this year's CLUTCH ladies and their works: Alunsina. She was a goddess in pre-colonial Filipino mythology who yearned to create the world, against the wishes of her god-husband, Tungkung Langit (though there are variations of this myth story... we like this one better).

After five months (and still one more to go), one culminating night, Saturday, February 20 beginning at 7 pm, will showcase our creation — everything we've done in the program. Every artistic mentor we've worked with has pushed us to try something completely out of our comfort zone, some more in our element than others. Each new art form, from encaustic collage and photography to spraypainting and Filipino poetry, has tested our brain power and squeezed every bit of our creative juice, sometimes to the point of anxiety. But it will all be worth it. And we're just as excited as you are to see how everything will turn out.

Join the Facebook event page and check the blog for updates. Hope to see you there.

Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture presents...

ALUNSINA: A Clutch Exhibit

Featuring works by:
Kristina Guison / Daryl Anne Panganiban / Desiree Gamotin / Flerida Peña

OPENING RECEPTION
Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture
167 Augusta Ave.
Saturday, February 20, 7PM - 11PM
Film Screening: 8PM

Six months. One night. Reflecting the creative spectrum of four young Filipina artists.
Visual Art // Installation // Film // Photography // Music // Performance

GALLERY HOURS
February 20 – March 6
Wed - Fri 1PM-8PM, Sat 1PM-6PM

"There was a time when there was still no world. No sun, no moon. No time. Let me create, the goddess cried."
http://www.clutchwomen.blogspot.com

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About CLUTCH

CLUTCH is a free six-month arts-based program for young Filipina women to start a dialogue with each other, get mentorship from professional artists within the community, have access to professional tools to hone their creativity, define their identity, explore their cultural heritage, and tell their stories on their terms. CLUTCH aims to provide hands-on artistic and leadership development, through the exploration of cultural identity as the foundation for empowerment.

KAPISANAN would like to acknowledge the generous support from The Ontario Arts Council of this project.

Silk Screen session part2

On Saturday, January 9, 2010

CLUTCH got the chance to make their own silk screens!
We didn't get the chance to send in our own images before-hand, so Jeff Garcia brought up the idea of creating our posters for the exhibit.

Daryl Anne ^_^

EXPOSÉ!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Photoshoot Day

The Clutch girls get to express their image through the camera. Under the guidance of our photographer Mila Victoria and our make-up artist Claudine Baltazar, we all worked together into creating a whole new look; Creative, sophisticated, and edgy.

Wait 'till ya see what's comin'

Kristina & Darryl begin assembling the wood scraps for their spray painting piece - - - women of Filipino folklore, taking revenge for the abuses they've gone through......

Where Have I Been?

This is the part where I'm going to try to updated SOME THINGs that have happened so far for CLUTCH. Thanks to April, our coordinator (our agent), our schedule has been overbooked with wonderful workshops, guest speakers and projects to finish up.

"IT'S CRUNCH TIME GIRLS!"

[Mithi Esguerra]
We had discussions of how we view ourselves in the community and went on to discussing about the “Socialization of Filipino Women” and the role they played in ‘his’tory; From the Spanish and American colonization, through the struggles of the revolutions, and to the different occupations that the Filipina has to take in order to survive. Looking back at it, we seemed more “Badass” until we got degraded by societal views of the Americanized mind.

[Alex Felipe] Photography
We went through the basics of photography; from the use of space, angle, rule of 3rds, simplicity and balance...etc. After the lecture we got to play around with Photoshop and the necessary tools in editing digital photographs.

[Jeff Garcia] Silk Screening intro

We only had time to do a lecture and will be doing the actual workshop later in January.

[Bernice Gei-Ying Hune]
We had to rush to the next workshop after Jeff’s, and into the Chinese Canadian National Council office to listen to Bernice’s Stories. “Bernice works with facts and memories to create narratives. She shares her process to encourage others to participate in artistic endeavours.”

And with that bit of encouragement we took the chance of promoting our program “CLUTCH” in what we do, where we are based, and how to get there. We told them that we are going to have a gallery setup for people to come and see. I just really wished I had more of the little KPC bookmarks to handout... I only had five at that moment. (until I realized I had more in the other bag pockets). Oh well! Hope that Bernice’s message was heard to support artistic endeavours.

[Spray Painting ideas]
We headed back to KPC right after CCNC to brainstorm what we still needed to get done in time for the gallery. At this point we also started to think of what to name our precious.

Desiree, Kristina and April went on a scavenger hunt for wood scraps in an architecture dumpster. I'm pretty sire they had a blast because they brought a van full of wood pieces.

(Here's a rough assembly of the pieces)

......[ Documentation Vidz - Thinking of the Perfect Exhibit Name ]......

Enjoy the vids ^_^

D.A.P.