conquering corrupt colonized minds

The diaspora of the Filipino started long ago and continues today. The tragic tale of a people's love-hate tug of war for their beloved country. Even through all its violent and constant chaotic upheavals - natural and man made.

In the premiere episode of ATIN: Stories from the Collection, the question raised is who and where is the Filipino? Launched on Philippine Independence Day or Day of Freedom - June 12.

La Liga Pilipina

The Philippines and its Filipinos are a complex, complicated amalgam of too many moving parts in perennial movement and morphing - sleek and slithering, in ebb and flow, evolving and devolving.

Even before Western influence and colonial rule, the archipelago was inhabited by different polities. A melting pot of ancient Asian cultures and trade. Defined by diversity and transit where nothing is black or white - literally and figuratively.

Farcical Philippine Politics &
Senate Shenanigans of corrupt officials

ATIN is an original production that tells the story of the Filipino through images and videos of Ayala Museum's archaeological, ethnographic, fine arts, historical, and numismatic collections and Filipinas Heritage Library's archival and documentary holdings.

WEEK PICK | lost illustrations of Kay Nielsen

Long loved and revered as a pioneer of Art Nouveau and the golden age of illustration, it may be hard to believe that this gifted illustrator was barely recognize in his lifetime and died in penury. 

The cover of Kay Nielsen's A Thousand and One Nights.
Courtesy of TASCHEN

Kay Nielsen (1886 to 1957), long ignored [for 40 years], unappreciated [for 60 more years] was denied the fame and fortune he so richly deserved. 

Kay Nielsen original watercolor from “The Tale of the First Dervish”

Nielsen filled his illustrations with expressionist, nearly surrealist characters and whimsical landscapes. Even today, his mysticism-tinted graphic art breaks pushes boundaries of what visual storytelling is supposed to look like. 

Noel Daniel, Cynthia Burlingham, Margaret Sironval, Colin White

Here at wonder | wander | world we are delighted with the recent release to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nielsen's work. Taschen published all 21 of his original illustrations, reproduced directly from the never-before-seen original watercolors. 

The collection includes a book of essays
adding context to Nielsen's illustrations.

This extra large extra luxe coffee table tome matches in appearance and feel the wonder filled fantastical worlds Nielsen's art immersed us in. The prints are meticulously curated and presented in a blue velvet box, as if the book itself was a tale to unveil. 

Visayan women of myth

Among the Bisayan creation stories recorded from various Spanish accounts, each of the Philippine islands had their own local variants of the same myth. 

The myth it tells the story of the creation of the islands, the first man and woman, the beginning of the social classes, the creator of war, the reason for death, why people steal, why there is concubinage in the world, and the creation of the laws that were passed down through the generations by the demi-goddess, Lupluban. 

The Pinoy Culture Blog

From a reed pecked open by a hawk Si Kalak (the first male) and Si Kabay (the first female) emerged and they became the original ancestors of the Bisayas. 

Known as the “Eve of the Bisayans”, Si Kabay is the first woman in the Bisayan creation story. This reed was planted by the primordial sky god Kaptan as a sign of peace and of marriage with the primordial sea goddess Magwayen. ⁣

This is the basis of our very own wonder | wander | women tale of Lidagat - the first Bisaya Babaylan. 

Impressionism: light and water

Seeing paintings in the country where they were painted is pure magic. The French Impressionists especially were obsessed with the exact colours that reflected off their rivers and lakes and shimmered in the sky.

Regatta at Argenteuil, Claude Monet (1872)