REVIVAL+SURVIVAL

The following is the PowerPoint that I had presented to my fellow peers and thesis advisors.
It is a more visually way of presenting my thesis, and I think it will be more helpful to my audience to see the direction in which I intend to take this collection.

Senator Nikki M.L. Coseteng from the Philippines stated, “In this world, only those who have a strong sense of who they are, can insist on their own terms. Only those that can value their real nature can exercise power over global forces” (Pastor-Roces, 3). I have come to the realization that in order to have a strong sense of who I truly am, I must learn more about my heritage and only then will I be able to express myself and to find my identity 

Jose Rizal, is considered the greatest national hero of the Philippines, and he is where I started my research, unknowingly and subconsciously and thats where I began exploring who I am, and my culture.

Traditional filipino garments are the Barong, maria clara dress, and the terno which evolved from the maria clara dress

For this project, I decided to combine all three garments by creating a Barong inspired shirt with the butterfly sleeves from a terno, and a saya with a sash inspired by a tapis from the Maria Clara gown.

“ang paglisan sa tahanang sinilangan at nilakihan ay higit pa kaysa kung malawa ang kalahati ng sariling pagkatao” jose rizal Noli me Tangere

Basically means, where we come from is what forms our being; When you leave your homeland, where you grew up you lose more than half of yourself

The importance of Joze Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (latin for touch me not) to Philippine history is, it jump started the Philippine revolution against the Spanish government. He’s still seen as a hero even after his death (“Jose Rizal”). This novel essentially portrays the story of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y Magsalin, a young Filipino man who was studying abroad in Europe, when he returns home to the Philippines; he sees the corruption and abuse by the Spanish government, and the Spanish Catholic clergy (Rizal). Loss of culture in the country itself.

Terrance Houle, a Blood Indian from Southern Alberta, has inspired me because it made wonder how people view Filipino people here in Canada. When I first saw this work in the McCord museum, it flipped a switch in my brain, and that’s when I began to consciously think about my thesis.

Parallel lives – growing up, his parents tried to keep their children connected to Blood and Blackfoot traditions, houle and his sibling’s were sent to public schools where he was able to see the divide between his culture and the mainstream culture. (Murray Whyte).

Similar, the only way my culture survived in myself was through my parents, and family. The school system didn’t teach me anything about my culture.  I don’t have a detachment, however I just wish I had more knowledge on my own culture.

Therefore I have to do a lot of research about traditional Filipino textiles on my own because my family and parents don’t actually know anything about traditional weaving, and in Marian Pastor-Roces’s Sinaunang Habi: Philippine Ancestral Weave, This is actually addressed, how filipinos today don’t know about the traditional textiles

Textile History Based Research

-Roy W. Hamilton’s From the Rainbow’s Varied Hue

-Marian Pastor-Roces’s Sinaunang Habi: Philippine Ancestral Weave

Weaving Based Research

-Donna Sullivan’s Summer & Winter

-Marguerite Porter Davidson’s A Handweaver’s Source Book and

  A Handweaver’s Pattern Book

Research as Prototype

Weaving will be an important aspect of my final work therefore I know I have to make samples of the final weave structure and pattern I want to use, and I know I have to get used to weaving yardage.

Weaving is important to my culture, to my family and to me

My grandmother, whom I never had the chance to meet, as she died a month before I was born, was a weaver. I own one of the blankets she wove for my mother and her siblings. The blanket I own was made for my mom and my dad. I never knew she was a weaver until last year, when my mom randomly told me about her mom, we never really talked about her mom before. I don’t know what the feeling was and it’s kind of hard to explain, but when I found out that I had this in common with my grandmother, I felt complete and proud. My mom also recently told me that I got my talent from my grandma, she was a dressmaker and weaver.

My aunt, my moms older sister, is going to actually look for the fabric that my grandma wove when she was still alive, my mom told me that my grandma wove a lot of yardage, that hasn’t been used yet. So hopefully mu aunt will be able to find it and send it to me.

Nature vs. nurture

Weaving comes naturally to me, it’s the first thing I had learned from OCAD that I knew I loved. Looking back on first year, I realized I had taken quite a liking to weaving and it had come easily to me.

I actually woven with a bit of pina thread, it was wonderful

Natural dyeing is also an important aspect to my final work, I plan on using avocado(skins and leaves), mango(skins and leaves) and banana leaves as the primary dye source

my ancestral home in the Philippines (where no one live in anymore) has an avocado tree growing in the back yard (my dads side)

my family home in the Philippines has mango trees and banana trees growing throughout the property

The following slides include the rough sketches and muslins i had prepared for my mid-term critique, which has changed slightly. Also, the photograph fabric were done by myself on a 16 shaft loom where i had created my own original drafts, woven with a plain weave in between each pattern weft.