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[av_heading heading=’NO FILTER | Young artist reinvents Tumandok threads’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Tuesday, June 13, 2017
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IN Kinno Florentino’s vision for Iloilo, the past and the future blend seamlessly into a hablon dress. He sees Iloilo’s women clad in garb inspired by our province’s Panay-Bukidnon communities, standing tall and proud against the city’s most iconic sites – the Arroyo Fountain, Calle Real, the Molo Mansion – their eyes fiery, staring fearlessly into the future.
Tubok, named after the Tumandok / Panay-Bukidnon tradition of ornate embroidery Panubok, is the first solo exhibit and fashion project of Kinno Florentino, a fourth-year Fine Arts student of the University of San Agustin. In Tubok, Kinno adds a unique spin to our province’s indigenous traditional costume, envisioning them worn by the modern Ilongga, all the while encouraging the preservation of local customs.
“I wanted to innovate the clothing, but still keep in mind Ilonggo culture,” said Kinno, expressing that fashion is his favorite art medium. “Panubok is one of the many unknown icons of Panay identity, and [it] should be learned [by coming] generations.”
Kinno shares he was once frustrated that Visayas’ indigenous people (IP), especially the communes of Central Panay, were not given as much attention as tribes from Luzon and Mindanao. Finding out about our island’s Panay-Bukidnon communities, he was awestruck by their vibrant and distinct customs.
For research and to stay true to the Tumandok tradition, Kinno visited the IP community in Barangay Garangan, Calinog four times in a span of six months, immersing himself in their culture. What he learned was the art of traditional embroidery and how it has been passed down from generation to generation for more than hundreds of years.
“[I saw that] through Panubok, our ancestors were not only able to share their traditions but also pass down knowledge and education,” recalls Kinno who sees his exhibit as a way to stir greater conversation about our province’s indigenous people.
A self-described “ambitious and demanding perfectionist,” Kinno expresses that he had to fight through a lot of time constraints to make his show perfect – finishing the fashion pieces in just over a month, and completing the all the wall-mounted paintings with just a week’s notice.
Kinno used local products to design his dresses, mainly the famed hablon of Miag-ao, embroidering them with traditional ornate patterns inspired by the Panay-Bukidnon panubok. “Each Panubok pattern has an exact meaning and is usually associated with animal features such as bird’s eyes, and snake skins,” shares Kinno.
To complement his fashion show, Kinno translated his designs to canvas. “The paintings of these clothes worn by Ilongga models set in different Iloilo Heritage sites will show how the modern women embrace their ethno-cultural identity and independence through fashion,” expressed the young artist.
Kinno dedicates his first solo exhibit to the Panay-Bukidnon community, showing earnestness to instilling a sense of Ilonggo identity and culture in coming generations. “It is important to preserve the identity of the Panay-Bukidnon and the stories that they tell,” muses Kinno, his eyes fiery, staring fearlessly into the future. (maverhick.blogspot.com/PN)
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