TravelswithCharie

Timbulan ng Laya at Diwang Dakila, Carlos Botong Francisco, 1968, oil on canvas In 1963,  Mayor Antonio Villegas wrote a report, Building a Better Manila, where he indicated in detail his accomplishments on his first year as Mayor of Manila and his vision for the future of the city. Villegas aspired for a prosperous Manila by providing its residents access to health, family and housing services, opportunities for education and employment and improved infrastructure for water and road systems. *Notice the hands at the top of the painting. These hands symbolize the protective reach of God over the city of Manila. Central Panel On either side of the seal of Manila are the former mayors of the city. At the bottom are the city’s old seals. Seal of Manila adopted in 1965 under Mayor Antonio Villegas Timbulan ng Laya (Beacon of Freedom) at Diwang Dakila (Noble Spirit) are written on the seal. A sunburst with 15 rays cast light across the canvas. Below the sun, in red, is the Baybayin let...

Seagull/Talking Heads, Villu Jaanisoo, 2006 It was certainly an eye opener for me to see the permanent collection of the KUMU. As if that wasn’t enough, I was also treated to the Latin American Art temporary exhibition with works by Diego Rivera and Fernando Botero. On this post, I’ll show images from the permanent collection only as there was quite a lot of Latin art on display that merits a separate post. Come back to read all about it. Villu Jaanisoo is a sculpture graduate of the Estonian Academy of Arts where he also served as the head of the Department of Sculpture in the 2000s. He uses non traditional materials for his sculptural pieces like rubber, plywood, sound and others. In the Seagull installation, he took 86 busts of children, heroes, Stalin from the Museum collection to create a roomful of “heads” backed by an archive of interviews conducted with these subjects playing on repeat and creating a cacophony of sounds in the exhibition room, hence the moniker Talking Heads. ...

I have visited Cologne Cathedral at least three times and yet, I haven’t seen all it has to offer. As I write this post, I have come to realize that there is so much more to learn about this Gothic shrine that took more than six centuries to complete. But it isn’t really complete in every sense of the word. Scores of workers are hard at work every day maintaining, restoring and conserving this medieval structure. There’s always a section of the Cathedral with a scaffolding. (Note ongoing work next to Gerhard Richter’s window discussed in this post.) According to a local saying, “when the Cathedral is finished, it will be the end of the world”. Door knocker Main Portal Trivia: the Cathedral has 456 doors. View from the main portal of the central nave leading to the high altar. Notice the vaulted ceiling and the arched columns.  Main Altar and the choir stalls A closer look at the massive granite columns that line the nave. Floor mosaic of St. Kunibert holding a model of the old cath...