Happy Birthday Sir

Roberto Chabet (b. 1937) is a pioneering Filipino conceptual artist whose works are results of the process of unraveling of fixed notions about art and meaning. Highly allegorical, his drawings, collages, sculptures and installations question modernity. His works are meditations on space, the transitory nature of commonplace objects and the collisions that occur with their displacement.

Chabet studied Architecture at the UST where he graduated in 1961. He had his first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery in the same year. He was the founding Museum Director of the CCP from 1967-1970 where he initiated the first 13 Artists, giving recognition to young artists whose works 'show a recentness, a turning away from the past and familiar modes of art-making'. He led the 70s conceptual art group Shop 6 and taught for over 30 years at the UP College of Fine Arts, where he espoused a kind of practice that gave precedence to idea over form. (from the Alarm + Chaos show brochure, West Gallery, till April 27, 2009)

Peace and Quiet

The view from the 54th floor of a building in the Fort of Manila Golf, Forbes, the Makati skyline, and beyond. Getting up to the helipad was through a maze of giant fans and blowers (the airconditioning units), industrial stairs, and steel doors. And then there was QUIET up there. Very quiet. And the view. Manila so far below, looked neat and clean. I wish.

Then a little farther out to the west was Manila Bay.


I do not miss living in a building this high. The view was a real selling point at the time, but I have only really looked at it when I moved in, and now that I no longer have it. It is breathtaking. I watched a 747 taking off from the international airport nearby, and it took a while to get to our height. How unnatural to fly was my thought, as unnatural to be completely submerged in water. These are not our elements, air and water. Suffice to say I am a nervous flyer, and get seasick driving along Roxas Boulevard just watching the water.

I was very happy to be up there with CD. She is making a 360 degree panorama drawing of this city of ours for her piece in this year's 13 Artists Awards at the CCP. I was there simply because I have never been. A reminder to do something new and different as often as I can.

It Is Done

We finally did it. Tiger's balls are gone, granted that they were 'inguinal' and probably not working all that well (low sperm count from too hot surrounding environment). Our term was 'neutered', our driver's term was 'caponed'. First time for me to see this kind of surgery that lasted all of fifteen minutes. Didn't realize that he was going to be put under general anesthesia with matching intubation (and extubation). It was heartbreaking to watch, especially since I kept remembering the cats we used to dissect in college in the same supine position.



But all went well. The boy is now home, swaddled in his mom's t-shirt, very groggy from the drugs, but otherwise fine.

Done.

The Good News is

1. I am finally getting over a transpacific flu that started in Canada and bloomed in Manila that morphed into alarming difficult breathing cough-variant-asthma.

2. Tiger's liver enzymes are normal after two years of chronic hepatitis! R put him on a real food diet with the proper amounts of protein, carbs, fat, etx. The food sounds pretty gourmet -- granola, yoghurt, yams, chicken breast, and a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil a day -- but all that costs LESS than the various dry dog foods we tried over the last few months. So the boy is finally getting neutered tomorrow, a big event for his moms (I'm taking the morning off to watch the operation, R taking the afternoon off to nurse him off the anesthesia).

3. I'm going to Japan for 2 months! I got a grant from the Japan Foundation to make work. R and T more excited because this be a reason to tag along and visit the Muji Temple of Ginza.

Recharging

Almost home. Pajama days all day the last three days. Favorite Favorite thing to do. Flew into winter wonderland to a closed car rental, had to sleep on a bench with the heat off, till the counter opened at 6 am. Drove the two hours to the top of the mountain, half asleep dead tired. So R is sick with a fever, but getting better. It's been a non-stop three weeks.

Now is recharge time. Snow outdoors, pajamas indoors. Favorite Favorite.