Sinulid: Threaded Experience now open

Mananghaya, Imhinasyon sa Banhera

The Benilde Fashion Design and Merchandising graduating class’ Sinulid: Threaded Experience is holding an exhibition until May 24 at the Design + Arts campus of the school.

We were privy to the process of making the exhibition. Thelma San Juan, TheDiarist.ph’s editor, wrote an essay in the exhibition catalog, while this writer did the exhibition’s wall text and edited the catalog. Also involved were Michael Salientes, who styled the exhibition, and Gabby Lichauco, who designed it. Jay Aranda, known for his work in ballets and other events, did the lighting. Geraldine Araneta, the director of Benilde’s Center for Campus Art, heads the team.

dela Cruz, paralysis by perfectionism

del Rosario, Kuha Kultura

Nicolas, Reyna

Soriano, Interlude

Each outfit on exhibit was flanked by columns with photographs and words, inspirations that the designers handpicked to make a mood board.

Alexandra Zarate, whose beribboned dress was a crowd favorite, said she “has a fear of missing out,” which inspired her collection. “It talks about my personal struggles as someone who’s in her teenage years and sometimes feels isolated in her own fears. I took inspiration from my own abstract feelings and tried to translate that into textures and colors.”

Elijah Mananghaya’s collection is about “young gay children and the idea of a towel they use to wrap themselves. Sometimes, they pretend it’s a dress, wig, or mermaid’s tail.” In his runway collection, which was shown a week and a half prior to the exhibition opening, Mananghaya used a robe with multicolored terry cloth balls that elicited oohs and ahhs. “I didn’t use that in the exhibit because I had to make a lot of changes to embody the idea of the camp aspect of my collection.”

Navera, Dharma

Graduate Paulette Navera showed her “Dharma” collection, which concluded with a snake eating a crow. “My upbringing inspired me. I’m a scholar of the school and I experienced the differences between myself and the other students who are more privileged than I am. I related my collection to Aesop’s Fables. Aesop was a slave who told stories. There’s a struggle with desire and the survival of the crow.”

“My collection is about my mom. My look for the exhibition is an apron. We dye salted eggs in the family business, and I use this in my apron. There’s a crystallization process involved,” says Lance Rubio, whose collection was named “Para Kay Nanay…”

Chavez, Handuraw

Chan, The fall of Icarus

Cabrera, pieces of a girl

Lao, Pas de deux

Caamic, Balud

When we were working on the exhibition, we were inspired by the Hidden Curriculum, or things that are invisible to the eye but happen daily within the school premises. Various things that are not said, but only seen, such as the architecture of a building, can contribute to a Hidden Curriculum. The psychological underpinnings are enormous. Knowledge is gained from seeing patterns or occurrences on the school premises. How the teachers go about their discourse in creating Sinulid, what is implicit and not said in the design work that students ought to do, are essential; perhaps “make it tidy,” or “be excellent,” or “always articulate?” In the same vein, educational institutions are affected while the students themselves are learning. The Faculty of Design and Merchandising is as much influenced by the students’ daily to-and-fros, from the students’ sighs and what they could mean, between the cutting and the sewing and the blank stares from students’ daydreaming. What are the values, notions and learnings from these practically invisible occurrences?

We were left in awe of the works of several graduates–including one made of latex, another with tiny pearls, and so many others–but we didn’t have a chance to talk to all of them.