Women and the Transnational Trade of Contemporary Philippine Textiles

Fashioning Frontiers in Artisanal Trade:
Social Entrepreneurship and Textile Production in the Philippine Cordillera

Developments in the multi-platform character of contemporary Cordillera woven textiles of the northern Philippines have been ongoing since the early 1990s when the Philippine government promoted policies to ‘fast-track’ the development of the countryside. Subsequent regional and national government policies, especially those relevant to indigenous peoples’ (IP) knowledge and technology, continue to support communities to document and revitalize local cultural practices. Individual entrepreneurs and leaders of non-government organizations (NGO) with expertise in craft production have thus been encouraged to establish businesses that can take advantage of the rising global demand for local artisanal goods. In this light, a new group of Philippine social entrepreneurs have emerged who champion business transparency, quality production, ongoing producer–buyer relationships, and community welfare. Yet, in order to facilitate artisans’ work and social welfare options while responding to shifting consumer trends, these social entrepreneurs must adeptly manage the constraints of local production within the broader political and economic context of periodically variable state support.   

This project investigates these frontier enterprises in Ifugao and Benguet provinces. I argue that to understand the nuanced dynamics of such contemporary textile production and trade means exploring how Philippine artisans and entrepreneurs operationalize work opportunities and negotiate market precarity given shifts in raw material availability, labour conditions, market demand and the material representation of local cultural identity. I suggest that these interdependent forces keep entrepreneurs and artisans in a reciprocal relationship of trust – but one that experiences periodic ruptures, such as when financial need sees artisans sell to one entrepreneur goods promised to another. To meet changing consumer tastes, artisans and entrepreneurs also refashion any concept of a static ‘authenticity’ by incorporating textile designs that speak both of modernity and local indigenous identity. The cultural turn privileging ethical consumption thus suggests these social entrepreneurial initiatives can resolve push-pull tensions to yield an industry for, and more responsive to, artisans’ and consumers’ needs.

 

See Published Journal Article:

2020    Fashioning Frontiers in Artisanal Trade: Social Entrepreneurship and Textile Production in the Philippine Cordillera. South East Asia Research 28(4): 413-431. (Special issue: The Philippine Cordillera. Cristina Juan, guest editor).

https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2020.1834336

 

(under review) Other Journal Articles & Book Chapters on this topic:

1. “Gender and Advocacy: Assessing Marketing Alternatives for Contemporary Philippine Textiles.” In Gendered Threads of Globalization. Melia Belli, ed. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press.

2. “Marketing Contemporary Textiles in the Rural Northern Philippines” In Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles. Volume 6: Trade and Industry.

3. “Assessing Digital Alternatives and Social Entrepreneurship in the Transnational Trade of Philippine Design.” In New Media & Society. Griet Steel, ed.

 

This project has been supported by:

1. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant (2015-2019), entitled: Alternative Transnational Economies (ATE): Exploring the Progressive Potential of Canada-Philippines Migrant Connections. PI - Dr. Philip Kelly (York U); Co-applicant: Dr. B. Lynne Milgram (OCADU).

2. OCADU Faculty Research (SEED) Grant (to March 31, 2022), entitled: Engaging Social Entrepreneurship Through Philippine-Canada Artisanal Trade.

 

SSHRC Logo

 

Photo Captions: All photos by B. Lynne Milgram.

Figure 1 (Banner). A woman weaves on a backstrap loom in her home. Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines. 2015.

Figure 2. Women weave on backstrap looms in a workshop. Kiangan, Ifugao, Philippines. 2019.

Figure 3. Women sell their woven textiles in a town street market. Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines, 2019.

Figure 4. A man weaves on a floor loom in a workshop. Baguio, Benguet, Philippines. 2019.

Figure 5. Textiles displayed in a workshop showroom. Kiangan, Ifugao, Philippines. 2019.

Figure 6. Philippine entrepreneurs display northern Philippine textiles at City Hall, Toronto. 2016.

Woman weaves on a backstrap loom
Women weave on backstrap looms
Women sell their woven textiles in a town street market, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines.
A man weaves on a floor loom
Textiles in a showroom
entrepreneurs sell textiles in Toronto
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - 2:45pm
https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2020.1834336

History of Textiles Since 1800s Exhibition

Photograph of dress with prominent sleeves that were in fashion. Sleeves are shown in indigo dyed hemp.
Friday, January 12, 2018 - 8:00am to Friday, January 26, 2018 - 6:00pm

This exhibit features research based textile works created by students of Lynne Heller's third year Materials Art and Design course called Textile History Since 1800s. Each of the textile pieces respond to historical processes, techniques, materials and fabrics or iconic fashion styles from the 19th to 21st centuries while "addressing the traditional and contemporary role of textiles in culture.

Using stitchwork, beading, dyeing, quilting and sewing techniques, the students were able to examine and incoroporate ideas on language, grief, identity or social conditions and cultural movements from the punk movement of the 70s to Abrstract Expressionism movement after World War ll.

Participating students are: Ayesha Babar, Molly Fletcher Berman, Stephanie Cloutier, Emma Enright, Elliot Grover, Shiemara Hogarth, Akash Inbakumar, Nomi Juhasz, Rajetha Kalatharan, Kendra Martyn, Rida Rajani, Saman Salman, Jenn Wingfield, Kye-Cha Yang and Ruitong Zhu.

Venue & Address: 
Learning Zone, Level 1, 113 McCaul Street. Also accessible from 122 St. Patrick Street.
Website: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/336394023510790/
Email: 
mchudolinska@ocadu.ca
Phone: 
416-977-6000, ext. 2529
Cost: 
Free

Weavers Art Launch Party

Thursday, September 28, 2017 - 4:00pm to 8:00pm

Weavers Art in collaboration with six students from the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD University) have designed a limited collection of rugs. 

To kick off this project, Weavers Art is hosting a launch party at their Designers Walk showroom to reveal these dynamic new designs.

See the work of Mariam Ben Belfadhel, Alexandra Gregory, Domenic Sgambelluri, Mohammed Mudassir, Hatley Walker, Rachel Babineau.

Join us for an evening of cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and mingle with the next generation of designers.
 

Venue & Address: 
Designers Walk Showroom, 162 Bedford Road, Toronto
Weavers Art Launch Party
Digital Screen: 

Dorie Millerson, Profiled in the new book Artistry in Fiber, Volume 2: Sculpture

 Artistry in Fiber, Volume 2: Sculpture edited by Anne Lee and E. Ashley Rooney. Published by Schiffer.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017 - 9:30am

Dorie Millerson (Assistant Professor and Chair, Material Art & Design) has been profiled as one of 76 international artists in the new book Artistry in Fiber, Volume 2: Sculpture edited by Anne Lee and E. Ashley Rooney. The book is published by Schiffer.

 

About the book:

Nearly 500 photos of artwork with personal insights from 76 of today’s most noteworthy artists show the tremendously broad range of possibilities that working in three dimensions can offer. In conjunction with the other two books in this acclaimed series, it invites readers to re-examine fiber art through a multifaceted contemporary lens. Both established artists and emerging artists whose work is attracting notice are gathered here. Carol Milne’s knitted glass and Peter Gentenaar’s technique of vacuum forming and air-drying paper fibers are but a few examples of artists using new materials with traditional methods.

Extra Baggage - new exhibition of work by IAMD Alumnus Omar Badrin

Omar Badrin, See Me, approx. 34x15.5x11.5", 2016
Friday, January 6, 2017 - 7:00pm to Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 7:00pm

Artspace presents:

Omar Badrin
Extra Baggage
January 6 – February 23, 2017
Gallery 1

Please join Artspace on Friday, January 6, 2017 from 7:00 - 9:00pm for the opening of Extra Baggage, an exhibition of new work by Omar Badrin.

Then, on Friday, February 17, 2017 at 7:00pm please join us for an artist talk and closing reception with Omar Badrin.

Through his textile and sculptural work Omar Badrin creates an autobiographical exploration of race and cultural identity. Throughout his childhood and adolescence as a transracial adoptee in Newfoundland, Badrin was perceived as an outsider by many of the people around him. As a child and young man, Badrin longed to fit in to his adopted culture. However, Badrin was frequently teased by others for his Asian physical traits, and constantly reminded that he was a racial minority in a mostly white, homogenous province. The complex desire to belong and the frustration of not being able to are brought forward in Extra Baggage. Badrin’s brightly coloured, monster-like crocheted masks and figures represent the warped self-perception that resulted from Badrin’s experiences as a youth coming of age in Newfoundland. The body of new work in Extra Baggage is a manifestation of Badrin’s perception of his race and cultural identity, and the ways in which these feelings become internalized and embodied.

Bio
Omar Badrin is an interdisciplinary artist born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His work stems from his upbringing in Newfoundland and focuses on cultural identity, as well as its construction and representation through the use of visual metaphors. Badrin received his MFA at OCAD University in 2015, where he was awarded a graduate medal for his work in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art Media and Design program. Since graduating, he has also received project and travel grants from the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Badrin currently lives in Toronto.

If you have any questions please contact:

Jon Lockyer (MFA 2014, Criticism and Curatorial Practice)
Director
Artspace
jon@artspace-arc.org
705-748-3883

More on the Interdisciplinary Master's in Art, Media and Design program: http://www.ocadu.ca/academics/graduate-studies/art-media-design-masters.htm

Venue & Address: 
Artspace, 378 Aylmer Street North, Peterborough, Ontario
Website: 
http://artspace-arc.org/
Email: 
Jon Lockyer, Director, jon@artspace-arc.org

Hard Twist

Hard Twist
Saturday, November 8, 2008 - 5:00am to Sunday, January 4, 2009 - 5:00am

The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto presents its 3rd Annual Juried Textile Arts Exhibition including work by OCAD alumnus Gareth Bate, Amlie Brisson-Darveau, Nadia Li Chai, Laura Endacott, Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Ann Marie Hadcock, Peter Harris, Susan Harris, Tricia Johnson, Lisa Keophila, Vanessa Li, Lesley Loksi Chan, Emily Martin, Amanda McCavour, Bev McNaughton, Gordana Olujic Dosic, Tammy Osler, Ingrid Paulson, Meghan Price, Laura Smith, Ilona Staples, Casey Ann Wasniewski and Bonnie Whitehall. Curators: Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell.

Venue & Address: 
The Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen St W Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Process: Mixed Media

Mixed Media
Friday, July 4, 2008 - 4:00am to Sunday, August 3, 2008 - 4:00am

As part of a group exhibit, OCAD alumni Kim Dayman and Hali St. Louis offer their respective works to round out a discussion on the evolution of an artist's craft through process.

The subjects of Kim's work have focused strongly on the female rites of passage and tying connections to customs, heirlooms and family.

Merging skills in textile art and traditional painting, Hali's deliberate application of colour and shape evoke sentiments of hope, despair, and celebration.

Venue & Address: 
Studio Nine Gallery at Headbones Gallery 102-260 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
director@studioninegallery.com
Cost: 
Free

Sarat Maharaj: Puckering, Billowing, Stuttering: Thinking Through Textiles

Sarat Maharaj
Friday, March 28, 2008 - 10:30pm

OCAD's Faculty of Art, in partnership with the Textile Museum of Canada, presents an evening with cultural theorist Sarat Maharaj.

Sarat Maharaj is a South African cultural theorist based in the UK who has written prolifically on textiles as expressions of cultural translation and globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has held many academic positions, among them Professorial Fellow, Goldsmiths College, University of London and Professor of Visual Art and Knowledge Systems, Lund University, Sweden.

Maharaj will look at visual arts practice/textiles and textiles
processes as forms and modes of knowledge production. But what sorts of
knowledge do they generate? What ways of 'knowing the other' and 'other ways
of knowing' are spawned in these spaces of the knowledge economy? He will
try to explore this in relation to the contemporary migrations - the scene
of translation, the demand for assimilation and the ethics of difference shaping up today.

Material Witness is a groundbreaking lecture and workshop series, developed by the Textile Museum of Canada. This series brings together international thinkers and artists who will address textile concepts and practices through several lenses, including those of ethno-anthropology, current practices by artists who use textiles as media and inspiration and theories of cultural translation and diversity.

Presented with the support of the Jean A. Chalmers Fund for the Crafts.

Venue & Address: 
Auditorium 100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
general@ocad.ca
Cost: 
Free

Ice Cream Pop-Up Shop

Sunday, April 3, 2016 - 8:30pm to Monday, April 4, 2016 - 12:00am

Come out and support 3rd year MAAD students and the Pop Up Shops they are launching across the city from Friday through Sunday. These pop up events are student projects that are part of the MAAD Professional Practice course.

 

#niceteamicecream is a group of OCAD U Material Art and Design students. We will be hosting a Pop-Up event where we will showcase handcrafted textile and jewellery products.

Our event is MORE than just a Pop-Up shop - in addition to the sale of our wonderful handmade, ice cream-themed products, our visitors will also get to experience a whole bunch of ice cream making and tasting activities. All ice cream will be vegan (as well as some kosher options!), to ensure that everyone can enjoy!

 

Venue & Address: 
D-Beatstro 1291 Bloor Street West
Ice Cream Pop Up poster with event info and mockup of a gold ring and pin inside an ice cube

MAAD Faculty Lecture Series

Image of a hallway with blue carpet and art lining the walls
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 5:00pm to 6:00pm

Material Art & Design program

Textile print designer and sessional faculty Ana Galindo will talk about her experience attending Surtex 2014, an industry focused event that takes place every year in New York City. Ana is well acquainted with the show, having had her industry start as winner of the student competition back in the day. She will share tidbits about the competition, the dramatic change industry has taken towards licensing, the actuality of digital versus hand-made designs, and the other shows happening simultaneously during SURTEX at the Javits Center.

Ana is a member of the Contemporary Textile Studio with a multidisciplinary background including surface design, fibre arts and book arts with keen interest in Mesoamerican textiles, having just returned from the First Mesoamerican Textiles Symposium in Oaxaca, México.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD University 100 McCaul Street Room 201 - Fibre Studio
Cost: 
Free

Pages