Sea Yarns from Elmer Borlongan and Plet Bolipata

Plet Bolipata, "Le Taxi" and Elmer Borlongan, "Story of the Constellations" (at back)

Crochet is certainly having its moment. Last week, I saw pictures of Agata Olek’s work in Barcelona. She wrapped one of Fernando Botero’s hefty animal sculptures, a monolithic tubby tabby, in camouflaged-patterned crochet. She did the same thing to Wall Street’s iconic bull a few years ago. Street artists have transformed the old fashioned craft into another medium for graffiti. Dubbed yarnbombers, they use knitted lace to leave their mark on public structures, and these prove just as potent as cans of spray paint.

More mainstream artists have long explored crochet’s possibilities. Joana Vasconcelos has swathed objects in crocheted doilies, while Manila’s Patricia Eustaquio’s best known sculpture are constructed from stiffened lace. Enter Plet Bolipata and her scene-stealing, crocheted-covered bathtub-cum-sofas now on view at Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery.

Plet fabricated the vivid functional pieces for a two-person show with husband Elmer Borlongan. With all due respect to the great Emong, I thought his wife delivered the exhibit’s excitement.

Emong and Plet live by the water. In their home within the art enclave of Casa San Miguel in Zambales, they witness how the sea ebbs, flows, and provides livelihood. Late last year, Typhoon Pedring showed them water’s power to destroy. They conceptualized this exhibit, When The Earth Smelled Of Water, as they examined water’s capacity to give bounty and wreak destruction.

While Emong turned to his notebooks of drawings for inspiration, Plet looked to Breakfast At Tiffany, to the scene where Holly Go-Lightly naps in her tub. Plet acquired spreads of vintage crocheted lace to cloak four cast iron bathtubs. Sealed with resin, supported by decorative steel pegs, and finished with a swimming pool’s steel bars, she has succeeded in creating attractive sculpture that can be put to good use. You get a shabby chic, crafty vibe from these pieces redolent with Plet’s vibrant personality.

For her most ambitious piece, Plet cut through a Volkswagen beetle to install her lace-covered tub within its shell. Painted bright yellow and embellished and given its texture by more bolts of vintage crochet that run across from hood to trunk and cover its windows, Le Taxi gives us a playful feast for the eyes; fun and function in one go.

Emong’s paintings could be from a totally different show. He told me he went back to old studies as references for the images he translated onto his canvases. Dynamite Kid, the 4×5 ft. piece at the gallery’s entrance, harks back to Emong’s grittier subjects of the last decade, a twisted figure of a man who lost his arm by using explosives to fish. The exhibit also resurrects Emong’s female subjects, long absent from his recent work. They grace two of his pieces, Ocean of Happiness and Melancholia. Needless to say, collectors went crazy. Aside from the aforementioned three, they had five more paintings of various sizes to covet.

When The Earth Smelled Of Water runs from 12 April to 3 May 2012 at Alliance Francaise Total Gallery, 209 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo), Bel Air 2, Makati City. Phone (632) 895-7585 or visit www.alliance.ph