Kiri Dalena's ArtSpeak at ALIWW

Kiri with video cam           Photo by Roselle Siojo

He who makes me laugh makes me young and foolish again

I've tried, I've tried, I've tried in every way I know to lead a more (socially) isolated life. But it is no life, as Kiri Dalena pointed out when I revealed to her how I've repeatedly broken my New Year resolution to be more like my Aunty Social. She said she had a simple resolution for 2013: to take a vacation. She seems to haven't gotten there either. Every trip she makes is an official, i.e., working, one.

On the 16th of February, she sent an SMS apologizing for the last-minute invite to the opening of "You Have Every Right" at the Ateneo Art Gallery.  I was on my way to an officially sanctioned project (therefore, I really had to put on decent clothes and get out of the house): to interview a couple in BF Parañaque. Kiri didn't gauge the distances I had to cross to be at her affair, but I got the interview down pat to a little over two hours and arrived at the Ateneo with my bladder ready to burst.

I spotted Lyra Garcellano who led me up to the exhibit area, she pointing out the performance going on. Before I could turn to thank her, she was gone. Hmmm, I must tell her mom her little Lyrly has ninja-like reflexes.

I was more curious about what was on the walls than what the performers in blue were doing. When I turned to an alcove, what and who should I see? Drawings, a mural, painter Danny Dalena and his devoted Nini Gaviola. Upon seeing Danny's look (notably the glasses to match his all-black beatnik getup), I couldn't help asking, in my usual tactless fashion that could be socially embarrassing if my spouse had been with me, "Baldado ka na (referring to his cane), bulag pa? John Lennon look ba 'yan?" Good thing I wasn't speaking into his good ear, and I was rewarded with one of his tight, reassuring hugs. Kiri right away took the digicam from my hand and took the following shots.

Nini, Danny and Granny B

The signs behind us, made by Maria Cruz, are bits of dialogue from a Celso Ad. Castillo movie. Here I am giggling and about to burst out laughing when  Danny puckers his lips and insists on my doing the same. I can only hold his hand.

With my bag, umbrella and white hat, I can pass for the governess of Danny's children and grandchildren. That's us closing a deal that henceforth I will ensure that his girls must be kept out of harm's way.

On a more serious note, the show includes these other women artists, apart from Kiri and Maria, who're described by the Gallery as having a "post-feminist edge": Lizza May David, Tracey Moffatt, Claudia Del Fierro, Annika Eriksson, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen. Their works were described as revealing "certain biographies that become a preface to social change as the personal becomes political." The show's up till April 20.

 
Photos by Kiri Dalena

Ateneo Art Gallery's "You have every right"