Media

Media in visual arts refer to the materials used by an artist for artistic expression and the processes used in working with them. Some of the most commonly used art materials are clay, wood, metal, stone, fiber and dyes, paint (including oil and watercolor), ink, pencil, paper, glass, plastics, and film. These materials may be used by themselves or in combination with each other. If combined, two or more materials may be worked on simultaneously or may be used one after another. The processes for working on these media depends largely on the material/materials to be used.

Clay

Earthware excavations in sites such as the Manunggul and Kalanay dating back to the third and second millenium BC are evidences of early indigenous technology in handling wet clay—by stamping, incising, drying, and firing. These types of earthware, formed when surface shales and clay are fired at low temperature between 1840° to 2030°F, compose most of the products by small-scale pottery manufacturers in the country today. They include all shapes and sizes of jars, cooking stoves and pots, serving plates and trays. Today, flower pots, tiles, toy fruits, and cooking utensils are also made.

Contemporary artists using clay as a medium include Baidy Mendoza, Charito Bitanga, Lazaro Soriano aka Aro Soriano, Julie Lluch, and Charlie Co. They make figurative sculpture from baked red clay called terra-cotta, which is first shaped by modelling, i.e., shaping a solid mass of clay, or by coiling, i.e., building up the walls of a hollow form. Most artists either leave these pieces unglazed or paint on them.

Stoneware, made from fine clay fired at higher temperature from 2130°F to 2300°F, are often utilized for decorative pieces and foodware. The clay turns tan or gray and its particles are freed when fired, resulting in smooth surfaces impervious to water, unlike terra-cotta which remains porous. Stoneware is usually glazed, i.e., covered with a vitreous solution that modifies and gives a semitransparent, smooth, and impervious finish.

Stoneware has been created by studio potters, like Leonardo Villaroman, Nelfa Querubin, Manuel Ramirez, Jaime and Anne de Guzman, Kay de Lange, Ugu Bigyan, and Lanelle Abueva-Fernando.

Porcelainware, made from a mixture of kaolin and feldspar, are fired at very high temperature. They are usually fashioned into high-grade dinnerware. Filipino artists who have used porcelain are Tessy and Jon Pettyjohn.

Wood and Related Materials

Wood carving is a traditional art practiced in many regions. Representatives of gods called bulul are carved by the Ifugao, Kankanay, Kalinga, and Ibaloy of northern Luzon. The best bulul are made from narra, chosen for its sturdiness and unfading sap. After the tree is cut and the figure carved, ceremonies are held where the bulul is bathed in the blood of sacrificial animals; thus, its dark color. In the Cordilleras, food bowls, jar covers, gong handles, doors, coffins, spoons, and forks are also carved from wood with distinct symbolic and decorative features.

In Mindanao and Sulu the sunduk (grave markers), panolong (house beams), and other house panels, and boat-shaped coffins are the major pieces of wood sculpture which are colored with natural dyes, and lately, with paint. Horse saddles, chess sets, Quran stands, covers of the lakub (tobacco container), chests, looking glasses, and backstrap-loom supports are also carved from wood. At times these are decorated with shell inlay and hair tufts.

The Tagbanua of Palawan sculpt birds, lizards, turtles, wild pigs, and boat forms from soft wood, which, after carving, are repeatedly exposed to the soot of burning almaciga or copal resin. The black of the soot is made permanent by repeated application of camote leaves. The figures are then incised with dots, curves, scrolls, leaves, and other geometric motifs.

The Spanish colonial santos were usually made of hardwoods like molave, kamagong, and balaon, medium like narra, tanguile, and apitong, and soft wood like batikuling, dap-dap, lanete, and lawaan. For the wood-carvers of Paete, the best wood for santos is batikuling because it is tough and repels termites; however, other woods, such as narra, kamagong, langka, and marang, are also used.

Most of the wood-carving tools in Paete come from the shop of Mariano Cajipe who fashions them on a native forge. The traditional wood-carving tools are the paet (chisel), the hiwas (skew), the landay (shallow gouge), the lukob (deep gouge) and the trespico or tatlong kanto (parting tool). Native handmade tools are harder and more durable than those imported because they undergo a more thorough tempering process in which the steel, several times fired and hammered into shape, is entirely dipped in oil and water up to the fine and sharp blade-ends. Unused railroad ties and old saws are converted to make these tools, the sizes of which range from the very fine, used for delicate work such as carving eyes, to the very large for working on broad surfaces.

The process called encarnacion (from Spanish “carne,” flesh) which refers to the rendering of flesh tones by a specialist known as the encarnador, was derived from the Spanish tradition of religious art practiced since the European medieval ages. The polychromed santo was called encarnado.

After the figure is carved, it is worked by the encarnador who has mastered the technique of coloring the clothes, and especially the face, hands, and body parts of the wooden image. In the 19th century, the carved figure was twice coated with a native gesso made of a mixture of fine white clay or kesong puti (native white cheese), and glue made from boiled carabao hide. This process created a solid and nonporous surface for the paint which was then applied over it. The estofado technique was used for ornamentation. Here the gesso surface was gilded then painted over. The gilt undercoat lent a warm luminous tone, and decorative motifs were executed by lightly scratching the paint with a fine instrument following the design, in the process exposing the gold underneath. In the 19th century Filipino sculptors also worked on ivory and perfected a technique of painting on the material in such a way that the color was rendered permanent.

In many parts of the country, the wood-carver’s art finds expression in different forms. Furniture in Betis, Pampanga feature floral and curling vine designs in openwork with finely turned miniature balusters. Pakil, Laguna is known for its filigree sculpture of toothpick trees and fantasy birds and fans. In Quezon, fiesta ornaments called pahiyas-tambag are made from the kayetana and matang-araw woods of the Sierra Madre for the feast of San Isidro, the patron saint.

For modern sculpture, Philippine hardwoods are among the best in the world. Aside from their tested durability, they have warmth of tone and a natural coloration that ranges from dark brown to yellow and reddish hues, as well as a fine-grained texture. Woods evoke the forests from which they came from as well as the atmosphere of the human dwelling.

Many sculptors have used the best Philippine woods. Napoleon Abueva has done large figures in wood, abstract pieces, retablos for chapels, and imaginative wood furniture. J. Elizalde Navarro has carved expressionistic masks and figures with a strong, primitive quality. With the dearth of wood for sculpture. some artists, like Jerusalino Araos and Rey Paz Contreras, have turned to weathered wood from railroad tracks or the stairs and beams of demolished houses.

Roberto Feleo and the Hulo group of artists have recently used impregnated sawdust as material for relief sculpture. Santiago Bose and Jordan Mang-osan have devised a method of sculpting wood from fire produced by reflecting sun rays with a magnifying glass. Grasses and reeds may be used as sculpture materials, as seen in Roberto Villanueva’s works.

Figurative sculptures, called komis in Bontoc, are made of tree fern. The Cordillera bihang is an idol fashioned from roots of giant fern. Other statues functioning as talismans are made from reeds, leaves, and tree barks.

In harvest rites, called ubaiya, the Ifugao community installs arches across trails. Hangings of sugarcane piths and dongla leaves are tied at the center. Ancestral images constructed from runo sticks and dongla leaves are repeatedly set along the various arches.

Bamboo lime tubes, incised with designs and indigenous poetry, are well known crafts done by Hanunoo Mangyan and the Batak of Palawan. They are used for arches and kubol (temporary sheds or palconies) for fiestas of patron saints. Bamboo was made into sculpture by Francisco Verano in 1980. Recently, bamboo has also became a trend among installation artists inscribe and even paint them into colorful sculpture, as done by Alwin Reamillo. Some artists have used bamboo or forest vines, seed pods, and tree barks, as seen in the installations of Junyee and Genara Banzon.

Basketmaking all over the islands utilizes materials from plants. Strips of buri, rattan, pandan, and bamboo splits, as well as ibus, nipa palm, nito, saha (banana pulp), and buntal fibers are variously dried and cut as materials for hats, baskets, and thatching.

Metal

Metal has been used as a sculptural medium from early times to the present. For small bronze or brass pieces, the cire-perdue or “lost-wax” method is commonly followed.

For the lost-wax process, a set of mterials is used for making the brass mold and another set for the two incasement layers. To make the wax mold, paraffin is mixed with almaciga and beeswax in equal proportions. The waxy mass is flattened with a rolling pin to the desired thickness. The wax is then dipped in lukewarm water to make it pliable then pressed around a previously prepared wooden pattern of the desired size and shape. The wax is cut in half, removed from the wooden pattern, and joined together to form the new mold which is made to harden while small spaghetti strips of wax are used to form okir designs on the surface. When the wax mold with its designs is completed, a mixture of equal parts of fine bamboo, charcoal, and muddy soil is patted to half-inch thickness inside and outside the mold for the first incasement. This is followed by a second consisting of three-parts sandy soil and one-part muddy soil which is also placed inside and outside the mold. The whole is sundried for three days and fired in an open pit, after which the melted wax is poured out and molten brass poured in its place. For finishing touches, engraving, as well as copper or silver inlay, embellishes the vessel. Basically the same process, though in simpler form, is followed by the Tboli.

The Tboli use this process for their figurines and jewelry which are made of metal alloys of bronze, brass, and copper. The Maranao also use the same process for their brass vessels. Mindanao betel-nut boxes are generally made from copper inlaid with silver. Brass is recycled from old cannons, church bells, and machinegun bullets. For modern sculptures, the traditional method in bronze sculpture is sand casting, which involves making a mould of special sand from the original model in plaster of paris, inserting a core, and pouring in the molten bronze. This was the method used by Napoleon Abueva, Guillermo Tolentino, and Peter de Guzman in their bronze works.

Aside from traditional casting, the figure may be built from bronze shavings, then pulverized, and passed through a sieve until it has the fineness of talcum powder. This is then combined in exact proportions with chemicals possessing binding properties. The bronze substance is poured into a mould where it subsequently hardens. This process introduced by Anastacio Caedo and his son Florante who does not require firing in a kiln, which entails high fuel consumption.

Contemporary sculptors have made use of metal in different ways. Unlike other media, metals have the properties of ductility, i.e., they can be drawn out into wires; and malleability, i.e., they can be shaped by hammering or they can be melted, cast, molded, or pressed into predetermined shapes. In contemporary sculpture metals—such as bronze, steel, iron, and aluminum—have been welded, cast, molded, polished, or patinated producing durable and permanent works. Eduardo Castrillo uses cut and welded metal sheets to create dynamic figures in the abstract or figurative mode; Solomon Saprid creates, out of welded pieces, craggy and expressive figures; Virginia Ty-Navarro uses the “pointillist” technique of dropping tiny blobs of molten metal on a frame; and Conrado Mercado does open-cage construction with steel rods.

Stone

Some of the most ancient sculptures found in the Philippines were made of stone. Statues called likha, blocks of human figures with lightly incised features, have been found in Calatagan, Batangas.

During the Spanish colonial period, adobe and other stones were carved to create santos, niches, and decorative reliefs for the facade and exterior walls and portals of churches, as well as the statues and reliefs on the capillas posas or wayside altars. Tombstones were usually made of marble.

Stone is also used as a sculptural medium by modern artists. Ildefonso Marcelo does sculptures in adobe of human forms in various attitudes. Abueva has done adobe, marble, and alabaster sculpture. More recently, Peter de Guzman and Agnes Arellano have devised their own marble-cast techniques from waste marble powder. Mount Pinatubo ash is also now widely used as synthetic stone sculpture by many sculptors.

Fiber and Dyes

Weaving refers to the orderly, rhythmic interlacing of warp which has been done since the second millenium BC. Abaca, a wild plant of the banana family, is the most widely used weaving material in the country. Also called waka in Maranao, baka in Subanon, and wogo in Tiruray, the fiber first undergoes a process of stripping. Locally grown cotton is also found among the Maranao, Yakan, and Maguindanao. Bark is also pounded by the Kalinga to produce red cloth. Sago palm is a source of coarse sack cloth, while the thinnest strip of coconut leaves are used for soft katcha (cheesecloth). Piña fiber from the pineapple plant is best known for the delicate textile used in making embroidered barong, terno, and kimona of the lowland Christian tradition.

Processing fiber requires beating the raw material to soften and separate strands, after which the fiber is spun. Ikat necessitates the process of tie-dyeing thread prior to weaving. Weaving by back-tension or back strap loom is done in most parts of the country. Although from a later tradition, the floor loom is popular in Ilocos, Tagalog, Bikol, and Panay provinces. Weaving in its various traditions is a subject of scholarship, preservation, and revitalization.

Natural Dyes and Pigments

The country has a rich tradition of extracting and using natural dyes. The most common of these dyes is indigo. Among Mindanao highlanders, sikarig is a vegetable dye which gives deep red colors, while yellow and orange are sourced from a species of ginger and turmeric. In Luzon, red tints are extracted from the bark of the narra tree. The katuray plant is a source of strong brown pigment. A good red color can also be extracted from makopa. The wood of the sapang, a low thorny hush with yellow flowers produces a common red color when boiled. The talisay tree is a source for black and brown dyes. Achuete, traditionally used for food coloring, is well known for its reddish orange color. Folk painters and weavers use a variety of these colors.

Resist dyeing is based on controlling fiber colors by binding, knotting, stitching, or treating parts with wax that repels the dye. When the resist is done on a prepared textile, it is called batik. Dye-resist has also been used in printmaking.

Appliqué is a method of decoration wh ich uses patches of varying motifs and color. Called tapong or ginontingan in Mindanao and Sulu, this is a highly developed art and is used for jackets, bed covers, and wedding flags.

Embroidery is the art of decorative needlework done on cloth or canvas. Various styles of embroidery on clothing are produced by traditional groups, notably the Bagobo and Manobo of Mindanao, and by the Tagalog of Taal, Batangas, and Lumban, Laguna.

Tapestry is the art of weaving colored threads or fibers into a heavy ornamental fabric to be used as wall hanging. Federico Aguilar Alcuaz created tapestries during his European sojourn in the 1960s. Manuel Rodriguez Jr. aka Boy Rodriguez experimented with local fibers and dyes in tapestry. Narda Capuyan and Shai Tamayo, manufacturers of woven products, also create tapestries of their own design and execute those designed by other artists. Liddy Los Baños Abes has created a body of work in tapestry in various representational and experimental approaches.

Related to tapestry is Paz Abad Santos’ fiber art which sews, glues, ties, knots, dyes, and paints various scraps of organic materials such as fiber weeds, grasses, shells, twine, husks, and twigs on burlap.

Trapunto is the process of quilting lightly padded areas of a design, usually associated with embroidery. Pacita Abad has mastered the art of trapunto, producing large-scale works with Afro-Asian character.

Painting

In painting, the art medium includes the surfaces or ground and the coloring substances applied to it. Almost all surfaces can be used as painting ground provided they are able to absorb pigments. The painting surface is primarily canvas, cotton, or linen cloth stretched on a frame and primed with a white or lightly tinted base.

Painting has been done on a wide variety of surfaces with the use of brushes, spatulas, sticks and even fingers. National Artist Cesar Legaspi is well known for using the palette knife. Rafael Pacheco is known for finger-painting. Most contemporary Filipino artists paint in the direct method, i.e., they apply paint directly onto the surface with a brush. A few use the indirect or traditional method, i.e., they apply the paint in thin layers of transparent color. Another technique in the indirect method is scumbling, i.e., an opaque layer of oil paint is worked over another layer so that small areas of the color beneath show through in an uneven, broken manner. New pigments have been produced, such as acrylic or acrylic vinyl polymer emulsion paint, which can also be used on canvas. Water soluble and quick drying, acrylic can be applied in thin, transparent washes or in thick impasto or pile-up texture.

Paper for painting is also commercially available. It comes in different thicknesses, weights, textures, and tones—qualities which artists take into consideration in their particular kind of work.

For watercolor, the paper is first soaked and stretched to prevent wrinkling during the painting process. The water-based pigments are applied to the paper as layers of transparent color stains. The wet-on-wet techniques create atmospheric effects in landscape in which the white ground of the paper is made to show through to provide the highlights. The dry-brush technique is used to bring out fine details. Gouache is opaque watercolor or poster paint in which the pigments are mixed with zinc white to create a more solid effect. Outstanding among watercolor artists are Romeo Tabuena, Florencio Concepcion, Lean Pacunayen, and Araceli Dans and, among gouache artists, Mauro Malang Santos aka Malang.

A fresco is a mural or large-scale painting done directly on a wall. To ensure durability, the wall must first be prepared by a coat of damp plaster. In true fresco painting, the artist works while the plaster is damp, using water-based pigments which are absorbed by the wall itself. Frescos were done for Spanish- period churches by painters like Cesare Alberoni and Giovanni Dibella.

Commercially available rice paper is commonly used for Chinese watercolor and calligraphy. Watercolor paper, printing paper, and other specialty paper which are imported from Europe, the United States, and Japan are widely used. Since the 1980s there has been a trend in using handmade papers made by artists’ communities from plants in their surroundings. Virgilio Aviado, who first experimented in handmade paper under the tutelage of Manuel Rodriguez Sr., pioneered in the making of paper prototypes prior to the dissemination of the technology by the Design Center in the 1970s. Handmade paper has a distinctive organic quality that comes from its slightly uneven and fibrous texture. Its irregular edge contributes to its personal and nonmechanical significations.

Katsa (cheesecloth) is a common substitute for canvas, especially for large murals for political rallies and other public gatherings, as it can be rolled up in an emergency. Katsa is also the surface used for painting with dyes in a dye-resist technique similar to handmade batik.

Paintings are also done on wooden surfaces. Plywood, especially marine plywood which does not warp, is commonly used. Tempera painting, the most common technique of easel painting in Europe until the late 15th century, was traditionally done on wooden panels. The panel was first coated with gesso, which is generally any white substance such as plaster of paris mixed with size or glue, to provide a smooth and matte ground. Painting then proceeds with the use of tempera which consists of pigments ground with egg yolk, producing a great intensity of hue.

Religious icons are also done on wooden panels. Gold leaf may be used for the embellishment of the saintly figures as well as for the background, the gold suggesting heavenly glory. As early religious paintings in the Philippines were done on flat wood panels, they are also referred to as icons. Bohol has yielded a wealth of icons on wood depicting the Santo Niño, the Virgin Mary, and scenes from Christ’s life and passion.

Printmaking

Printmaking is the art of creating an original design on a hard surface such as wood or metal, and then transferring its image onto a pliant surface like paper or cloth. Printmaking has many types: relief, wherein the imprint comes from the surface of the block through its principal methods of woodcut and engraving; intaglio, which refers to the printing method where the printed image comes from the inks deposited in the grooves and lines beneath the surface of the plate; planography, including lithography or printing from a perfectly flat limestone slab and serigraphy or the screen process which produces stencilled designs by pressing silkscreen paint through the open sections of a masked-out design with a squeegee through the mesh and onto paper or cloth; and xylography or the Chinese art of making prints from the natural wood grain.

Glass

Another two-dimensional medium is glass or stained glass. The latter consists of designs made from pieces of colored glass figures held together by strips of lead which themselves constitute an independent design. Stained glass is primarily associated with the Gothic cathedral of the 12th and 13th centuries which had rose windows and walls of stained glass narrating religious episodes. In 1956 Galo B. Ocampo, after studies in the liturgical arts in Rome, finished 73 stained glass windows for the Manila Metropolitan Cathedral. Other practitioners of the art of stained glass were Cenon Rivera and Abdulmari Imao. Glass as a sculptural medium has been developed by Ramon Orlina who fashions it into sculptural form, freestanding or integrated into architectural design.

Mixed Media

Since the 1980s distinctions between the media of painting, photography, sculpture, and printmaking have been blurred for techniques and processes have blended with one another.

Paintings on tiles or dishes by glazing has also been done by Jose Joya and Manuel Baldemor in collaboration with commercial ceramic manufacturers. The De Guzmans have also done tile paintings fired in their own pottery studio.

Mosaic, another two-dimensional art, goes back to early Christian and Byzantine churches and catacombs. Its technique is simple but painstaking: small units called tesserae, originally chips from slabs of colored stone, marble, or glass, are embedded on a wall or a floor prepared with wet cement in such a way that their tiny facets reflect the light. Mosaics are now made from a large variety of materials such as bits of colored paper or foil, postage stamps, shells, butterfly wings, and egg shells. Elizabeth Chan and Clarissa Perez are mosaicists. An example of Perez’s mosaic is the baptistry at the Mary the Queen Church in San Juan.

Collage is also a form of two-dimensional expression. This was first done by the cubists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso by pasting printed texts on the painting surface. Later, they collaged rope and sections of oil cloth to incorporate actual textures as well as to initiate a play between the simulated and the real. Artists have done collages with bus tickets and bottle caps, maps, and clippings. Roberto Chabet, Lee Aguinaldo, Marciano Galang, Fred Liongoren, and Prudencio Lamarroza were among the first to use collage in the Philippines.

In the 1960s Larry Tronco, Rodolfo Gan, and Ben Maramag used a spray gun for softly modulated, ethereal effects. For texture, some incorporate passages of frottage done by rubbing a pencil over a piece of paper placed on a textured surface such as a floor board or cement wall to capture its particular character. Another technique, decalcomania, is done by applying pigment on two sheets of material such as paper, pressing them together to obtain random shapes, then drawing out their figurative potentials by enhancing them and creating recognizable forms. The same effect can be obtained by pressing sponges or crumpled cloth on the printed surface. Many prefer to work in mixed media possibly combining oil, acrylic, and pastel with printmaking techniques and collage in one work. This flexibility often leads to a blurring of distinctions between printing as a two- dimensional expression and sculpture as a three-dimensional expression.

Artists associated with business and industry use materials, such as grassy chromium, aluminum, plastics, and electric light.

The European constructivists were the first to use plastics in art. Among the materials they use were plexiglass, celluloid, nylon, and lucite with threadlike stainless-steel springs to create forms in which space seems to flow through the transparent materials.

Assemblage refers to the glueing of materials and actual objects together. Discarded junk, such as rubber tires, dolls, toys, metal cogs, as well as “found objects,” like driftwood, shells, tough forest vines, stones, and aetritus from the sea, have been brought into an art context. Their shapes, textures, emotional, and literary associations enter into the meaning of the work. Jerry Elizalde Navarro and Lamberto Hechanova Jr. were among those who first used this method in contemporary sculpture.

Kineticism, as exemplified by David Medallas’s work, introduced the element of movement, and luminism the element of electric light. Many artists have also done sets for theaters, furthering the transformation and enrichment of their media. Computer technology has also landed as a visual art machine.

Today, there are painted sculptures, sculptural paintings, mobiles, photograms, painted photographs, installations with projected slide images, shadow projections, computer-generated graphics, xerography, and ready-mades. There are also media that seek to make a mark or modify the environment, such as earthworks on site. Performance art borrows elements from theater, kineticism, luminism, sculpture, and painting. Impy Pilapil, Gabriel Barredo and Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco are among those who have done luminal and motion sculptures.

The repertory of media available to today’s artist is rich and varied, and possibilities of experimenting with them are endless. While traditional Western media are highly dependent on imported materials—such as oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, watercolor on strathmore, and etchings on arches—which have remained the dominant, bankable media in the art market, many of the more creative artists have braved the challenge of unearthing forgotten indigenous recipes, combining these with recycled and alternative local technology.• I. Cajipe-Endaya and A.G. Guillermo

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