miscan mock up by touki roldan

Radiant Beach Negros Caffiene Survey Floating Brick Diversion Grazing Glory

“we are not gluten nor are we free” / issue 01

CONTRIBUTORS

ADAWAD WDW Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please chat includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contactemplate that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contac

04 / contributorsss

ADAWAD WDW Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may neeoogle+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contactemplate that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contac

FEWFEF FEVNOF Please note that if you havemplate that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contact your template supplier for advice. Please note that if, you may need to update your template. Please coyour template. Please c

VEREFE FEVER Nte that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to uave a custom template that includay need to uoogle+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contac

CONTENTS 06 Floating Brick Diversion cocaine were recovered in the shore of Siargao 10 Zero Hero Wala Usik store sells environmentallyconscious articles ABOUT THE COVER Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contact your template supplier for advice. Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features,.template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contactemplate that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template.

12 Rattan to the Core Obra produces lounge chairs, dining chairs and lighting fixtures that universally utilize rattan

13 Anatomy of a Classic Rattan Chair Rattan furniture is a home decor trend that is back

22 Grazing Glory philippine art from the west

16 Radiant Region Artist from Sagay City turns beach house into cafe-art gallery

29 misc treated mood board

20 Negros Caffiene Survey featuring the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upcoming steaming hot coffee spots

28 a public service announcement

30 misc. shop inventory items on hand

21 Local Outstanding Brewers featuring the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upcoming steaming hot coffee spots

miscan / 05

CREDITS

editor-in-chief Geli ArceĂąo associate editors Christiana Campos Alexandria Mesias managing director art director Ginoe Ojoy graphic design Touki Roldan Writers Photographers Illustrators Thank yous

06 / miscan

Negrense Apparel

FLOATING BRICK DIVERSION Philippine Drug Enforcement Director Aaron Aquino said the dumping of cocaine into Philippine seas could be a diversionary tactic.

“40 blocks of cocaine were recovered in the shore of Siargao”

words Rio N. Araja photography Mach Marco

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director Aaron Aquino said the dumping of cocaine into Philippine seas could be a diversionary tactic of drug syndicates so they can smuggle a bigger shipment of shabu We at PDEA see it as a diversionary tactic so they can smuggle into the country bigger shipment of shabu, because if we look into it, cocaine only has a two-percent market in the Philippines. So the dumping of cocaine could be intentional so authorities will be busy retrieving those blocks of cocaine while they smuggle into the country tons of shabu. Law enforcers will be focused on retrieving and searching for blocks of floating cocaine. The tendency is there will be a vacuum in the security of other coastlines, and it is where

08 / may ghad i hate...

they smuggle the shabu from other countries. They’re using cocaine as a decoy. Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac agreed with Aquino, saying: “It may also possibly be a diversionary tactic. That’s why we call on our people to remain vigilant, report any suspicious sightings of items or persons, and never allow the proliferation of illegal drugs in our communities.” Together with the PDEA, and other law enforcement agencies, the PNP remains committed to perform its mandate to enforce the law and fight the illegal drugs menace with utmost respect for human rights,” he added. On Tuesday, February 12, fishermen recovered 48 blocks of cocaine along the shore in Purok 2, Barangay Poblacion, Dinagat Island. The

next day, 40 blocks of cocaine were recovered in the shore of Siargao, San Isidro in Surigao del Norte. On Sunday, February 17, a fisherman turned over blocks of cocaine he found in the shoreline in Barangay Bagumbayan, Paracale, Camarines Norte. According to police, the recovered cocaine is worth more than P5 million. Aquino said there have been 13 incidents of floating cocaine since last year and most of them have GPS trackers. But Aquino expressed belief that the GPS trackers were used so the drug syndicate can identify where the cocaine will go, so they will know where their bigger shabu shipment has to pass through.

top image national coast guard retieving a floating cocaine brick above smugglers using buoys as a drug vessel right coast guard unwrapped several packages of narcotics

miscan / 09

ZERO HERO PLASTIC ZERO WALA USIK STORE SELLS ENVIRONMENTALLYCONSCIOUS ARTICLES SUCH AS TUMBLERS, BAMBOO, METAL STRAWS, BAMBOO MUGS, AND UPCYCLED FASHION ITEMS.

an environmentalist, the newly-opened no-single-plastic-use bringyour-own-containers basic commodity store Wala Usik is a store after my own heart. Wala Usik opened to the public at the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc. (PRRCFI) office on January 19 and it holds exciting possibilities in the retail sector. Wala Usik is the first zero-waste store in Negros Island for the purpose of “reducing carbon and plastic footprint, recycling, composting, natural and organic produce, and mindful living.” Plastic refers to single-use plastic bags or containers that make up the most number of items in garbage piles or any garbage strewn around the environment. Wala Usik aims to eliminate, or at least, decrease plastic trash that will endanger wildlife, humans, our seas, and water sources. If you do not consider yourself one of the culprits in the increasing pile of nonbiodegradable trash, think again. I believe that no one can escape the use of plastic and non-biodegradables in modern life. Die-hard fans of mother Earth have to apologize to her for the unavoidable. Unless you live in a cave then, there’s really no escaping it-that-must-beshunned-but-we-use-anyway.

For a start, Wala Usik: Tiangge+Kapehan sells rice, coffee, cooking oil, sugar, salt, tuba vinegar, soy sauce, and toiletries such as liquid shampoo and shampoo bars, and liquid hand soap. The store also has dishwashing liquid, detergent, and fabric conditioner although the latter is non-organic. The inventory will surely expand. It seem the future is bright. PRRCFI executive director Dave Albao said that the center will accommodate recyclable items including polyethylene terephthalate bottles, glass bottles, and metal cans. I remember the first Sea Waste Education to Eradicate Plastic at a purok in Barangay Banago where, in two hours, my team collected 18 sacks of plastic trash. Collated with the other team’s collections, a total of 72 sacks were gathered. Imagine these being mistaken for food by birds, floating in the sea, endangering marine life by choking them, causing indigestion and eventual starvation, or winding around their heads and bodies. Now that you get the picture, isn’t it about time to rethink our lifestyle and daily habits? For a start, with baby steps, there’s a store just for this new mindfulness.

1 2 3 4 5

product display and a weighing scale beside it Wala Usik logo they also served native coffee liquid soap in a glass dispenser iced tea and juice and native delicacies

The Wala Usik / Tiangge + Kapehan is located at the ground floor of the PRRFCI office at the Citisales/Teresa Building, beside the flyover before Bangga Pepsi. Don’t forget to bring your own shopping bags and containers!

miscan / 13

RATTAN TO THE CORE INDUSTRY It is an exciting time here as several notable retail giants in the furniture world have set up outlets here in Manila

words / Philip Cu-Unjieng photography / Mach Marco

there is something the Filipino will always forge a very personal relationship with, that would be his or her home. With renovating, upgrading and tinkering, bywords with any Filipino homeowner, is it any wonder that beyond the architects who are perpetually kept busy, the proliferation of interior designers and “space” consultants supports this very intimate relationship we Filipinos foster between us and our abode? It is an exciting time here as several notable retail giants in the furniture world have set up outlets here in Manila, recognizing the potential of the local market; whether the real estate industry or individual homes. While gaining footholds here does mean better and more varied options and choices for the Filipino homeowner, I’d like today’s column to be a shout out for the local furniture makers, who, without much fanfare, continue to be leading lights not only for our export market, but for also keeping abreast with global design standards, and championing the Filipino craftsman in a viable, sustainable manner.

makers. The PIFS is a collaboration among the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation (CFIF), the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) and the Pampanga Furniture Industries Foundation (PFIF). And while we may know of individual luminaries in the design world such as Kenneth Cobonpue and Vito Selma, this show was just as much about companies who have been at it for decades and decades, tirelessly working the local wicker, rattan, into pieces that astound and go beyond garden and outdoor furniture, and transform into pieces sought for the

1 2 3 4

5 6

At the recent Philippine International Furniture Show (PIFS) held for three days at the SMX Mall of Asia, I had the chance to join foreign buyers and local enthusiasts in seeing firsthand the variety, innovation, design excellence and chutzpah of these local furniture 12 / miscan

this page rattan lounge chair with side table production in Cebu rattan stool by CFI Scandinavian inspired easy chair opposite page rattan 3-seater sofa dining chair with metal legs

living room. One of my late mother’s favorites, Mehitabel, was at the show. Founded in 1947 by Maria Montenegro de Aboitiz, we are now looking at three generations of one family pushing Mehitabel to the forefront of local furniture makers. Josephine Aboitiz’s booth is still at the helm, along with her children Robert and Maria Luisa. One of the enduring institutions of Cebu furniture-making, Mehitabel produces for such names as Ralph Lauren, Artefacto, Kreiss, EJ Victor and Williams-Sonoma. Ever innovative, it not only work with rattan and natural woven fibers like abaca, but incorporate wood, metal, stone, resin, leather, parchment and faux shagreen in their designs. Another booth that caught my eye was Obra Cebuana, which has been around for over 25 years now. Located at the Arcenas Compound in Cebu,

the outfit is now run by Selina and Justin Romualdez (Selina is the sister of Vito Selma), with design consultant architect Rene Ybañez and in-house designer Timmy Banzon. With new designs, patterns and materials, Obra produces lounge chairs, dining chairs and lighting fixtures that universally utilize rattan as the base material, but then take proverbial flight in capturing our imagination with possibilities! And here is where at the end of the day, I found myself duly impressed and feeling proudly Filipino. It may all have started with being “rattan” to the core, but thanks to Filipino ingenuity in design and adaptation, the melange of materials being used alongside rattan made this showcase of local furniture makers one very impressive sight.

miscan / 13

DESIGN SLUG by misc.

ANATOMY OF A CLASSIC RATTAN CHAIR

RETRO RATTAN DINING ARM CHAIR by Dear Keaton Our Retro Rattan Dining Arm Chair from Palecek features a chic retro pole rattan frame. Rattan furniture is a home decor trend that is back in a big way, thanks to the popularity of boho style in fashion and interiors. miscan / 15

Located in Margaha Beach Resort, Barangay Old Sagay in Sagay City, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kape Albarakoâ&#x20AC;? is a 45-square-meter beach front property owned by artist, Nunelucio Alvarado, who himself hails from Sagay. words Azer Parrocha / photo Chris Armin

16 / kape albarako

colorful café-art gallery directly facing the sea is slowly turning into Sagay City’s go-to place for people of all walks of life – tourists, students and fisher folk – to drink, paint and talk about everything under the sun. Located in Margaha Beach Resort, Barangay Old Sagay in Sagay City, “Kape Albarako” is a 45-squaremeter beach front property owned by 66-year-old artist, Nunelucio Alvarado, who himself hails from Sagay.

The art-gallery, which is built using bamboo sticks, is an artwork on its own since it is painted by Alvarado with the help of his children, to appear like a mural depicting the colors red, white, blue and yellow. Alvarado said that the Kape Albarako started as a beach resort, but was eventually turned into a café-art gallery after he realized that he needed a studio to paint in and that the people who frequented the place usually came just for coffee and an early morning chat. “Fisher folk and sugar farmers would

miscan / 17

often visit early in the morning to have coffee with me before they work. They would tell me about their frustrations and that motivated me to paint,” Alvarado shared. “I get new ideas from observation and when I interact with the community. My paintings are inspired by the conversations we exchange in the coffee shop,” he added. Just like most artists, Alvarado shared that he had been drawing ever since he was a young boy. His father, who was a signboard painter, would often ask him help in finishing his work. In primary school, his classmates would pay him to complete their art-related homework if it involved drawing or painting. He said that he no longer needed to ask for “baon” from his parents this way. At present, Alvarado is known for his progressive works of art that depicts faces of plight and struggle of Negros-based laborers. He is also founder of artist organizations such as Pamilya Pintura, Pintor Kulapol and the Art Director of Syano Artlink (syano, which is short for “probinsyano”). Moreover, he has also represented the Philippines in several art shows in Australia in 1992, Singapore in 1996, Japan in 1997 and San Francisco, USA in 1998 yet still chooses to live a modest life by the beach. 18 / miscan

Kape Albarako is home to some 100plus paintings, most of which painted using bright colors. It also serves coffee and Negros Occidental sweet delicacies best paired with coffee including piaya, barquillos or whatever is available. Alvarado said that the café-art gallery opens at 6:00 a.m. and closes at 6:00 p.m. unless friends come over to visit for drinks and heart-to-heart talk. He also welcomes students who study fine arts or others who just want to know how to paint. Without discouraging students from pursuing a major in fine arts, Alvarado said that he would tell them that the best place to learn is not inside the four corners of the classroom, but outside. Alvarado himself studied BS Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman, but never finished.

He describes his trademark as “stark frontality of all his figures re-calling Egyptian paintings with their hieratic presentation of bodies and faces.” Every now and then, Alvarado would fly to Manila to attend art exhibitions where his paintings would be featured. He, however, said that he tries not to do it as often to have more time to focus on his second love after his wife – painting.

“MY PAINTINGS ARE INSPIRED BY THE CONVERSATIONS WE EXCHANGE IN THE COFFEE SHOP”

miscan / 19

NEGROS CAFFIENE SURVEY BECAUSE OF THESE FIERCE COMPETITIONS ABROAD, TAMANO SAID THEY ARE TEACHING THE BASLAY FARMERS TO WIDEN THEIR PERSPECTIVES AND THINK ABOUT COMPETING WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES AND NOT WITH REGIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. words Philip Cu-Unjieng / photography Mac Mafaco

nce the coffee farm gets accreditation, it will become part of the “main menu,” or the list of priority tourist spots in tourism expos and events abroad, where the DOT presents the farm to foreign buyers and travel agencies. “In tourism, it’s not enough that you build a product. You build a product and at the same time, you must campaign abroad. The competition, actually, is not here. It is in events abroad,” Tamano said, adding that during these events, the DOT competes with fellow tourism agencies and ministries from neighboring Southeast Asian countries 20 / miscan

such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Because of these fierce competitions abroad, Tamano said they are teaching the Baslay farmers to widen their perspectives and think about competing with neighboring countries and not with regions in the Philippines. Tamano also assured that his agency’s trainings are “world-class,” since these programs are approved by DOT officials who have undergone trainings themselves from international tourism bodies such as the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization.

LOCAL OUTSTANDING BREWERS

Once the coffee farm gets accreditation, it will become part of the “main menu,” or the list of priority tourist spots in tourism expos and events abroad, where the DOT presents the farm to foreign buyers and travel agencies. he competition, actually, is not here. It is in events abroad,” Tamano said, adding.

3 / MUSEUM CAFÉ

Gatuslao Street, Bacolod City Natural Food made from scratch, included daily Artisan Bread. They make their own Ham, smoked Bacon, their own Cheese etc. No soft drinks only fresh juices. Every week there are new Specials on the menu, fresh from the Markets. All the dishes are based on the Classic International Kitchen, made from local products, as available Organic, with a Filipino twist. You can have lunch or dinner in the Phinma Galery in The Negros Museum or at the terrace under the old trees.

1 / DAMGO

Corner Rizal-Aguinaldo Street, Silay City

5 / STUDIO CAFÉ

Tamano said they are teaching the Baslay farmers to widen their perspectives and think about competing with neighboring countries and not with regions in the Philippines.

12th Lacson Street, Bacolod City Best cafe I had been to in Bacolod City where service, staff, food, and price blend perfectly. Had the best Kanlaon organic coffee. They have fresh vegetables and ingredients displayed which the staff would gladly explain to customers. A good stop museum. The outside door area is beautifully set up with very old wooden furnitures and plants.

4 / DON MARIANO

BS Aquino Drive, Bacolod City Best cafe I had been to in Bacolod City where service, staff, food, and price blend perfectly. Had the best Kanlaon organic coffee. They have fresh vegetables and ingredients displayed which the staff would gladly explain to customers. A good stop museum. The outside door area is beautifully set up with very old wooden furnitures and plants.

6 / CELERY CAFÉ Zamora Street, Silay Cit

We are a small cafe that only serves Hand Drip Coffee, Fresh Smoothies, and Slow Pressed Juice. We also micro roast our own Native Coffee in Silay.

2 / COFFEE CULTURE Alijis Main Road, Bacolod City

You can have your caffeine fix and you can also learn more about coffee tasting from the owner. They offer coffee tasting for groups of 5 people or more . The place is actually cosy and they have an outdoor seating area. Aside from the coffee the ube cake is also good.

miscan / 21

THE OSSORIO EXHIBITS MAY BE ANOTHER MANIFESTATION OF “REPATRIATED” PHILIPPINE ART FROM THE WEST. BUT THE ISSUE IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT. words Azer Parrocha photo Chris Armin

new exhibit of paintings by Alfonso Ossorio seeks to plumb into the art and life of the enigmatic artist-dilettante who had been largely dismissed in his lifetime as mere patron to Jackson Pollock and an art dabbler, but whose reputatizon for trailblazing art has so grown since his death in 1990 that he’s now considered the missing link between American Abstract Expressionism and European Art Brut. “Grazing Light,” which opens this week at León Gallery in Makati, follows through the highly successful exhibit “Afflictions of Glory.” Mounted last year also at León to mark the Philippine-American artist’s birth centenary (1916-2016), “Afflictions” was the first ever major show of Ossorio’s work in the land of his birth.

22 / miscan

The new exhibit will hang 18 works, all from the Robert Ossorio Family Collection. Art restorer and conservator Liliane “Tats” Rejante Manahan, project manager of the new exhibit, disclosed that last year’s works, which she helped curate and León Gallery owner Jaime Ponce de León insisted were of “unassailable provenance,” had also come from the same source. “Afflictions” made certain connections between the unorthodox depiction of Christ in Ossorio’s celebrated mural at the St. Joseph the Worker chapel in Victorias, Negros Occidental work and his own tangled psychology due to his strict Catholic upbringing, having a very strong mother, and his homosexuality. “Grazing Light” will somehow build on Ossorio’s conflicted obsessiveness, but with emphasis on his unique but very intense artistic techniques, such as his wax-resist painting method and his modern reinvention of medieval fresco technique as illustrated in his Victorias chapel mural. Drawing from her work also as an interior designer, Manahan said the title refers to light or lights located close to the lit surface that brings into relief highlights and textures. She said that Ossorio’s methods of repetition

miscan / 23

and layering, true to the obsessive Art Brut tradition, would reveal layers, textures and shadows that endow his works their uncanny power. It may seem that “shadows” would also connect with the previous exhibit that tackled Ossorio’s “Afflictions.” The Ossorio exhibits may be another manifestation of “repatriated” Philippine art from the West. But the issue is more complicated than that. Ossorio, scion of a sugar clan that established Victorias Milling in Negros Occidental, left the Philippines when he was 8 years old, obtained British and American education, became a US citizen, and lived there until his death, save for a brief homecoming in 1950 to work for 10 months on the now celebrated “Angry Christ” in Victorias. Although Ossorio was a hardworking artist, regularly exhibiting and even pioneering art styles, he was more known as patron to Pollock and a dilettante who held sway over high society in the East Hamptons, where his vast estate, The Creeks, became the hub of VIPs, artists and intellectuals. Because he was to the manor born, as an artist, he was from the art world by and large proscribed. Classified by the media as a member of the New York School, Ossorio was at best an item of curiosity because of his ethnicity and his own art practice was both similar and dissimilar to Abstract Expressionism.

Such “dissimilar similarity” was perhaps prefigured when, at the suggestion of Pollock, Ossorio went to Paris and met Jean Dubuffet, champion of “Art Brut” (literally “raw art”). The French artist described Art Brut as having a “spontaneous and strongly inventive character.” Dubuffet’s definition was a roundabout way of saying Art Brut works were by patients in mental asylums (“outsider art,” according to one British critic, somehow approximating Michel Foucault’s discourse on prisons and mental asylums) and by children (later “naïf art”). Dubuffet inveighed against “culture” and “civilization” for deracinating or standardizing artistic expression. He believed that the freest expression could be found only from the mentally

24 / miscan

deranged, beyond the bounds of sanity fixed by culture and the establishment. Oddly enough, Pollock and Dubuffet never met, but their respective streams found a bridge in Ossorio— action painting and gestural abstracting connecting somehow with outsider, naïf and primitive art.

“SPONTANEOUS AND STRONGLY INVENTIVE CHARACTER.”

How West met West through East was, in fact, the thesis of—“Angels, Demons and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet,” the very important exhibit of the Phillips Collection in Washington and Parrish Art Museum in New York in 2013. It showed Ossorio’s pivotal role in the meeting of two movements that were both similar and disparate at the same time.

miscan / 25

Tropically Made is an outdoor + travel brand inspired by a generation born to thrive in never-ending adventure. We design products to give you the freedom to move from the city, the sea and everywhere in between.

A PUBLIC SERVICE ADVISORY

28 / miscan

miscan / 29

inventory This email and its attachment are confidentialprivileged and are meant for the sole use of the designated recipient. If you are not the intended addressee, you may not copy, disclose, distribute nor disseminate this email and its content attachments. follow @miscananaolang_ on instagram

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

hide and seek screen print poster by gary baseman postcard (set of 5) by raxenne maniquiz vegan skull soap by hardineras postcards (set of 6) by Brand x Kimi and 12 misc. juice digital poster vintage coldplay screen print poster misc black llma tote bag spank the monkey coffee table book old bear pocket knife

30 / miscan

SAMPLE A D

WE DELIVER WITHIN BACOLOD CITY !

miscan magazine is a concept derived from “miscan ano lang (misc.)” a mini tiangge that started last quarter of 2018. It has an online and offline (sometimes) presence. The idea for “miscan” magazine is simple. It attempts to explore a diverse genre of topics from design, arts and culture. Hence the name miscan which is a reference from a dialect that translates to “whatever”. The concept is to share curated and lasting content.