Not for grandma and grandpa only

Announcement from the excellent brewer of ideas herself who loves a jam of creative people, Gilda Cordero Fernando, in her Inquirer column today:

Parade of grandmas and grandpas
The Grandma and Grandpa Club of the Geriatric Center and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of St. Luke’s Medical Center, Global City will hold a parade of the art wheelchairs with Grandmas and Grandpas riding them. This will be on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 10 a.m., and will be followed immediately after by the raffle of wheelchairs to its donors. Everyone is warmly invited.

The art wheelchairs will be on display at the lobby of the St. Luke’s Medical Center, Global City until Aug. 6. (If you ask me, I sincerely like all the chairs. All are equally beautiful, and I wouldn’t mind getting any of them as one of the sponsors.)
The remaining chairs will be on auction at a date to be later announced.

Read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/117929/the-revolt-of-the-cheese-curls#ixzz2axHRW4x6

Robert Alejandro's "The Silver Chariot"

Birds and other fauna on a wheel

Mr. Alejandro signs the work that resulted in bleeding hands.

"Citigram," a collaboration of students from the Philippine High School for the Arts

Lower half of Gerry Leonardo's "Therapeutic Rolling Vehicle"

That's the chair's back plus other colorful details put together by Leonardo.

Imagine hanging your caps or hats or chokers or necklaces on Leeroy New's "Temple of Healing."

You can sit on everyone else's wheelchair, but Aba Dalena installed this mortally hurt but still peaceful-looking angel on hers. It's pure sculpture.

These rubber silicon protrusions on Agnes Arellano's "Anti-Stress Wheelchair" work like a shiatsu massage.

Noel Cuizon and Karen Flores's "Primera, Segunda, Tercera" is guaranteed to make a seated couple feel like a king and a queen "in sickness and in health."

Cat clinging on the wheel of Wendy Regalado's "Beast Friends Forever"

Io Regalado's "Ibong Malaya" gives a wheelchair-bound patient the illusion of freedom.

Io's wheels even has claws to protect the rider.

Nona Garcia's "Dextrose Art" looks simply elegant in an exhibition setting.

A rare occasion it is when Gilda grants an interview to broadcast media (Associated Press). Here she throws her arms high to show what a high she got when three hunks from Palma Hall at UP Diliman carried her on her wheelchair to a theater. That was how the idea of an art wheelchair clicked in her mind. Dr. Joven Cuanang got into the picture along with Gilda's BFF Manuel Chaves as production manager, and the public enjoyed another good ride!                               Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Art + medicine = hapi wheelchairs

"Nobody says no to Gilda Cordero Fernando," Dr. Joven Cuanang of St. Luke's Medical Center said at  yesterday's Apolinario Mabini Hapi Wheelchairs Parade. He added that it was her "flash of genius" that set the wheels in motion for this project that has seen an exciting synergy between art and medicine. With just a little goading and reminding from her, the 17 participating artists let their imaginations fly, thus giving the start of National Disability Week added panache.   Photos by Babeth Lolarga

The Cordero Fernando and Cuanang tandem should be further tapped for revolutionary and out-of-the-box ideas born out of passionate minds and a deep love for the healing arts.

Aba Dalena and writer Carla Pacis pose beside the former's "Anghel Bulilit."

GCF aboard Marc Cosico's carretela wheelchair

Even the group that provided the music came on wheels!

That's production manager Manny Chaves, second from left, looking not too harassed.

Kidlat Tahimik with his bamboo camera and "All-weather Guardian Angel Salumpuwet"

Agnes Arellano explains what her "Anti-stress Wheelchair" is all about: breasts and nipples made of silicone rubber, recycled from her sculpture molds and turned into acupressure points.

Pancho Villanueva and Ling Quisumbing Ramilo's collaboration

Io Regalado's chair has a wide golden wingspan.

Senior students from the Philippine High School for the Arts put together a cityscape in and on a chair.

Noel Cuizon jokingly calls the welded together wheelchairs as his and Karen Flores's "conjugal property" to underscore the "in sickness and in health" clause in their friendship.

Wendy Regalado smiles beside "Beast Friends Forever."

Robert Alejandro and his "Silver Chariot"

Plet Bolipata is fashionably cocooned in "Winged Icarus."

Don Salubayba's "Trono" includes blinking lights.

May more partnerships arise among the idea persons, the artists, the Philippine Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine and The Mind Museum.

Wheelchairs never had it so good | Vera Files

Wheelchairs never had it so good | Vera Files

Women on Women at Altro Mondo

From the inbox came this invite, a welcome sign that the March calendar is about to be filled with Women's Month activities. Meanwhile, early congratulatory greetings to our sisters. Brava, Filipina!
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Altro Mondo - Arte Contemporanea celebrates Women's Month this March with a group show by established and up-and-coming women artists based here and abroad.

Billed "Women on Women," the show will mount paintings, sculptures, installations, and mixed media works by Agnes Arellano, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, Valeria Cavestany, Marika Constantino, Jenny Cortes, Lina Llaguno-Ciani, Delphine de Lorme, Sheen Ochavez, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, and more.

The gallery will unveil Arellano's new series of reliefs centered on "the end of a woman's life when she renews her virginity." Cajipe-Endaya brings to the collection intricate scrolls that pay homage to the women of the Philippine revolution. Llaguno-Ciani delivers two arresting paintings from Italy, "OFW" and "La Pùi Bella del Mondo." Ramilo offers fascinating urban yet personal interpretations of the contemporary woman with an altar of found objects, a breathtaking wall of sandpaper, and cigarette butts. French artist de Lorme lends provocative pop art pieces on the power of women's sexuality today.

"Women on Women" opens on Thursday, March 8 at 6 p.m. at Altro Mondo, third level Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati 3rd level Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City.

A poetry reading session will be held during the reception, featuring award-winning and oft-published writers Mabi David, Daryll Delgado, Nikka Osorio, Faye Cura, Petra Magno and more. The reading will comprise of poetry, short prose and other performances inspired by the works in the show. For inquiries, call 501-32-70–71, email altromondo.info@yahoo.com, or visit our website at www.altromondo.com.ph.