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Thursday, March 28, 2024

How to be a woman of the world

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A solo exhibition by a woman, ongoing at 1335MABINI, features pieces that shed a light on the issues women face.  

How to be a woman of the world
'Pro-obstruction' (2018), a series of coat hangers from Nikki Luna's 'This is how to be a woman of the world' solo exhibition.

Judy M. Taguiwalo was arrested twice for protesting the Marcos dictatorship. The first time, she was stripped naked and forced to sit on a block of ice while under custody. The second time, in 1984, she was four months pregnant, and she gave birth to her daughter in Camp Crame. 

During a confirmation hearing in May 2017, Sen. Tito Sotto alluded to Taguiwalo’s single motherhood as “na-ano lang” (getting knocked up), to which she replied, “I teach women’s studies. We respect all kinds of families and that includes solo parents.” 

This is how to be a woman of the world.

Emma Sulkowicz, a non-binary, lugged a 50-pound mattress around the Columbia University campus for more than a year, both as an act of protest and as a performance project for their art thesis. They had been raped in their dorm room by another student, whom the university found to be “not responsible.” 

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Sulkowicz chose to carry that burden in public until the assailant left the school. When graduation day came, they brought their mattress, and their friends helped lift it up for the very last time. 

This is how to be a gender non-conforming person of the world. 

Nikki Luna casts these women’s clothes in resin, creating a wardrobe that tells the story of the violence done against them under regimes that traffic in abuse and misogyny. These vestments are a memorial to the way they have responded and resisted, a statement stripped of its fashion to lay bare the strength in vulnerability. 

Not all victims prevail, however. 

How to be a woman of the world
'Dancing with the Dictator' (2018), carved wood 

Charlie Jean was just 14 when she was seduced by a man twice her age. The seventh grader had moved in with her boyfriend when the cops stormed his home one night, shooting him, his brother, and two of their friends. Charlie Jean also died from bullets lodged in her arms, stomach, and buttocks. In a variation of “nanlaban,” the cops claimed she was holding grenades. She was 15, and four months pregnant. 

Other casualties are even younger. Unspeakable acts have been done to very young children, and in empathy Luna casts her own daughter’s dress. Every mother feels the pain of another. 

This is how to be a woman of the world. 

The other pieces in this exhibit point to a system that is continuing to fail women. Imelda Marcos’ crystal-encrusted strappy pump, which she wore to her husband’s inauguration in 1965, reminds the public how to this day, justice still eluded Martial Law victims, and criminals are still dancing free. 

The series of coat hangers, cast in ceramic, draws from the symbolism of wire hangers used by the women’s movement in fighting for reproductive rights, but it also brings to mind Man Ray’s installation piece “Obstruction,” a chandelier of hangers whose title also describes the progress reproductive rights are making here and in other parts of the world.  

Another one of the President’s many unstatesmanlike provocations are minted in marble as a parfum that speaks of the way women’s bodies are objectified and reduced to signifiers like odors. 

A full-length mirror reminds viewers how rape culture is reflected and perpetuated when someone says beautiful women will be raped. This is not the first time that Luna has appropriated the President’s anti-women insults and pulled from them the power of protest, and it won’t be the last—as long as he is still in power, she will carry this load.

How to be a woman of the world
'WARdrobe' (2018), resin fiberglass

Nikki Luna’s solo show “This is how to be a woman of the world” runs until Jan. 19, 2019 at 1335MABINI in Karrivin Plaza, Makati City. 

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