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By Rome Jorge, Lifestyle Editor
It is nothing less than sorcery. Ann Tiukinhoy
Pamintuan turns tendrils of steel into cocoons that nestle the human
form. She applies a Midas touch to petals, reeds, grains and even
insects to transform them into gilded brooches, bracelets, and
necklaces. A disarmingly gentle and delicate lady, Pamintuan is no
necromancer who freezes life with a precious death mask. Instead,
she is an alchemist, bequeathing timeless beauty to steel and gold.
Alchemy is the most recent exhibit of Ann
Tiukinhoy Pamintuan—internationally awarded designer and founding
member of the prestigious design group Movement 8—at the Yuchengco
Museum at the RCBC Plaza. Showcasing both massive works in welded
steel and precious wearable art, the exhibit also launches the Davao-based
designer’s jewelry line in Manila. “I want to go back to where I
started,” she explains.
Pamintuan reveals that her fascination with
organic forms began with the Japanese art of flower arrangement and
dwarf ornamental plants: “I started in the early 1990s. I was
doing ikebana arrangements. I really wanted to do sculptural things.
So all the ikebana and bonsai that I had, I dipped them in gold and
copper. I liked the finish and I wanted to preserve them. Sometimes
I would have nice arrangements for an ikebana show. I started from
that.”
She recalls, “My designs evolved. Citem
[Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions] saw me
doing this and asked me to join the show.”
In 1999, then Citem head Eli Pinto convened the
country’s most promising designers—Pamintuan included— into
Movement 8, which included Budji Layug, Kenneth Cobonpue, Tes Pasola,
Tony Gonzales, Milo Naval, Carlo Cordaro. The poerhouse group reaped
awards and recognition for the country, laying a firm foundation for
the country’s design industry for the world market.
With the pressure to produce a large volume of
work for the global clientele, Pamintuan was spurred to go beyond
precious metals. She recalls, “It was so expensive. So I decided
to do it with another metal. I went from small jewelry to photo
frames to vases until there was Movement 8 and I tried it on
furniture.”
From electroplating with gold, silver and
copper, she went to welding steel. “Design is common sense. I
borrowed a welding machine. There were no artisans yet. There was my
guard and I recruited him. I pretended to know how to weld and told
him what to do. Up to this day, if you ask them, they will tell you
I taught them,” she confides.
Pamintuan is best known for her welded steel
cocoon chairs. These won the Best in Craftsmanship for the Cocoon
Collection at the New York Editors Guild, International Contemporary
Furniture Fair in New York in 2001; the Best Product in the
Furniture Design Exhibition in Moscow in 2002. It earned a place in
the International Design Yearbook 2002 and the Graphics Product
Design Series of 2004.
She reveals that even her furniture designs
derive their form from her seminal work. “This bangle is the
inspiration for the cocoon chair,” she points to an electroplated
reed that wraps around her wrist that she designed in 1991.
“It started as a cocoon vase. Then while it
was in pieces, I said, ‘Don’t touch it. Give it to me and I’ll
try it on.’ I had to do it in the crudest way. I had to try it
myself. It has my shape. I don’t have any formal training. But
always said that design is common sense. It’s based on my
proportions. But then, when it was exhibited, the Germans in Cologne
said it was perfectly engineered. That made me very confident,”
she says.
Today, she returns to her roots, her leaves and
her petals all gilded and precious. It is a cycle in her life. For
Ann Tiukinhoy Pamintuan, even her creative process and artistic
direction are organic.
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