Pumapapel: Art in Paper, showcases the beauty and versatility of paper as an artistic medium. The exhibit also explores paper in a range of art forms.
Amid a society of the Internet, texting, and Photoshop, Pumapapel pays tribute to everyday paper, elevated and transformed. Pumapapel features the work of seven artists, artisans, and designers who use paper not merely as a surface on which their art is conveyed. These artists push the boundaries of this common material, looking at it as a source of inspiration and a medium in its own right:
- Tony Gonzales, designer and paper artist
- Tes Pasola, designer and paper artist
- Pandy Aviado, printmaker
- Impy Pilapil, sculptor
- Joey Cobcobo, visual artist
- Wataru Sakuma, designer and papermaker
- Asao Shimura, papermaker, book artist, and handmade paper researcher
Pumapapel begins with the works of designers and paper artists Tony Gonzales and Tes Pasola, who have both been reinventing paper as a medium for art and design for decades. Welcoming visitors is a large-scale, cloud-shaped installation of paper rocks floating mid-air especially created for the exhibit.
Pumapapel features not only Filipino artists who push the boundaries of paper, but also international designers and artists who have been working in the Philippines to explore paper’s possibilities. Japanese designer and artist Wataru Sakuma creates fine prints from a variety of fibrous papers; Japanese papermaker, book artist, and researcher Asao Shimura, on the other hand, makes shifu (fabric woven from strands of paper thread) and small books on handmade papermaking, often from local fibers such as piña.
Also on display are limited-edition calendars created by Gonzales, Pasola, and German designer and artist Inge Brune for the German gifts and home accessories company Hartmut Räder Wohnzubehör GmbH & Co. between 2008 to 2010, with paper as the inspiration and art medium.
Fashion Design and Marketing majors from the School of Fashion and the Arts have also been challenged to create couture out of recycled paper. Seven young designers who are learning advanced draping under the mentorship of Iskra Orendain—Trishia Meer, Michaela Meinecke, Lyra Kristine Meneses, Gabbie Sarenas, Paloma Escalona, Geoffrey Zordilla, and Anna Patricia Garabelo—showcase their dresses fashioned from a range of papers. Some of the papers used include recycled newspaper and magazine papers, crepe paper, and bond paper.
Also part of the exhibit is a collaborative installation created by the participating designers and artists of Pumapapel with a variety of papers and natural fibers.
