The image of Eileen Tabios as a Barnard College undergraduate student (1982) is a detail from "The Brown Paper Bag Series. (Photo from author's files)

Later drawings, however, show the transformation of the circle into an abstracted outline of a vegetable gourd (this abstract icon is essentially a small circle atop a larger circle). The gourd image references an Ilokano indigenous myth that describes how the first human came out of a cracked gourd. For me, the gourd image came to symbolize "Filipino/a poet," as reflected in the drawings that conclude the series. It is worth noting, however, that my gourd icon did not erase but only incorporated the reference to the enso. This is significant because I believe that the exploration of one's identity or culture is not synonymous with rejecting other cultures.

Creating "The Brown Paper Bag Series" led me to making other drawings where my drawing "mark" is consistently the gourd icon (for instance, if I drew a horizon, I would use tiny gourd images lined up closely together to form a horizontal line). After making about 20 more drawings on more traditional drawing papers, I realized that I had created enough material to form an exhibition. With that in mind, I met with and proposed the idea of a visual poetry exhibit to Joey Ayala, the musician and poet who then was serving as the director of the Pusod Center in Berkeley, CA. Shortly after receiving Ayala's approval, I then began "Poem Tree" by sending out a Call for Poems in anticipation of the happening that would open the exhibition at Pusod Center in 2002.

*****

But as a result of receiving a commitment for an exhibition, I also reconsidered the underlying concepts to Six Directions. I initially planned an exhibit devoted to my poems, drawings and sculptures. But I realized that in order to fully reflect Six Directions' concepts and particularly how I create poems to reach out to others, I should engage with other visual artists. It seemed most apt that a Six Directions exhibit should feature the works of others, just as "Poem Tree" incorporated the works of other poets.

Alice Brody created a quilt based on Tabios' Six Directions poem, "Zero Gravity." Brody's interpretation hangs next to Tabios' drawing entitled "9 1 1." (Photo by Michelle Bautista)

As a result, Six Directions ultimately came to include collaborations with a variety of artists reflecting a wide variety of disciplines. These include the quiltmaker Alice Brody, the painters Patricia Wood and Thomas Fink, and poet/installation artist Michelle Bautista who made works in response to some of the sculpted poems in Six Directions; Joey Ayala and Allan Sondheim whose poems were incorporated in some of my drawings and sculptures; Paolo Javier and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen who wrote poems in response to Six Directions' poems and concepts; and Venancio "V.C." Igarta (paintings), Max Gimblett (drawing) and Cal Strobel (photograph) whose works provided visual metaphors for various Six Directions poems.

Of special significance to me was the ability to feature the abstract works of Igarta. By presenting the works of a dead artist, Six Directions widened its expanse to incorporate the past, which is to say, history. Indeed, the two works exhibited were abstract paintings by Igarta who is more known for his figurative works. Thus, the exhibit allowed me to continue practicing cultural activism through the recovery of this artist from the Manong Generation who is mostly unknown today, as well as to focus specifically on the abstract works that he always felt had been slighted by those who did know him during his life. (For more information about Igarta, see Eileen Tabios' article in the premier issue of OOV under Archives).

Two untitled abstract paintings by Venancio Igarta exhibited for the first time through Six Directions. (Photo by Michelle Bautista)

Six Directions' collaborators also include those who participated in the happenings, such as a diverse set of musicians: the bands Mango Kingz (who performed at the opening of a March 2002 Six Directions exhibit at Sonoma Student Union Intercultural Center Gallery), the Dynamic SPAMSilog who performed at the opening of the Pusod Center exhibition and poet Annabelle Udo who performed drumming music for the "Poem Tree" performance during Interlope 8's launch. Other collaborators were the following poets who, in the primary wedding happening that occurred at Pusod, read poems (including, of course, love poems) or participated in the event through the following roles:

Bride: Barbara Jane Reyes
Wedding Minister: Oscar Penaranda
Best Man: Tony Robles
Second Bride: Dori Caminong
Wedding Sponsor: Michelle Bautista
Reception music provider (through the ukulele): Catalina Cariaga
Mr/s Poetry (Groom Stand-in for purpose of cutting the cake): Jaime Jacinto

Pusod Bridal Party (left to right): Tony Robles, Oscar Peñaranda, Barbara Jane Reyes, Eileen Tabios, Dori Caminong, Michelle Bautista, and Catalina Cariaga. (Photo by Mike Price)

It was most meaningful to me that other poets supported Six Directions, in order to reflect the community and literary tradition that a person joins when one chooses to be a poet. The participation of other poets in the Six Directions happenings is similar to how verse-poems can reference other poets' works. This is one of the paradoxes of Poetry: that the poem is written in isolation and yet may be birthed through a communality that occurs from the history of poems previously written by others.

Cultural activist Dori Caminong served an important purpose for acting as a second bride during the opening of the Pusod exhibition. Caminong wore the original wedding dress of Malou Babilonia, the founder of the nonprofit Babilonia Wilner Foundation (BWF) whose activities include Pusod. During the Pusod happening, audience participants were asked to pin actual money as well as poems onto the dresses of the two brides; all monies raised then were donated to BWF in order to aid its activities that include cleaning up the environment. This aspect enabled an extension of the Six Directions concept that Poetry feeds the world by, indeed, bringing very tangible benefits (money) back to the "world" as physically manifested by planet earth itself.

Audience participants pin poems on Dori Caminong's bridal dress whose low back reveals her compelling Eye-tattoo. (Photo by Michelle Bautista)

At Pusod, I turned its gallery into a virtual "womb of Poetry." I wanted all aspects to reflect the Six Directions concepts and that each visitor would be moved, after experiencing the exhibit, to consider Poetry in a new, or renewed, way. Even the traditional guest book during the exhibition was replaced by a guest book designed for an actual marriage. In the guest book, visitors not only signed their names but were encouraged to write out their wishes for this person who bore my name and who is marrying someone named "Mr/s Poetry."

The resulting comments in the guest book ranged from traditional best wishes to the ribald to the dubious to the comic. Comments were not limited to those who physically visited the exhibit, but also included e-mailed commentaries to symbolize how the four-wall constraints of a gallery do not limit the reach and span of Six Directions. Some selected commentaries in the guest book from other poets include:

"Congratulations to Eileen Tabios on her marriage to Poetry, the many tentacled figure and wandering spirit."—John Yau

"Congrats, many happy returns, I'm sure it'll be a long beautiful struggle."—Del Ray Cross

"STOP THE WEDDING. SHE'S MINE! FUCK POETRY! THAT BRIDE'S ALL MINE!"—Alfred Yuson

"Does Mr. Poetry look like Franz Kafka or Nicholas Cage? If like Kafka, I send my blessings!"—Nick Carbo

"My dearest Eileen. Are you sure you want to go through with this? All of your aunties are whispering, but I'm the only one brave enough to say this—we all know Poetry is a cheat and a drunk. What if Poetry makes your life miserable? What about marrying a nice Encyclopedia? A Best Selling Novel? I know, you're young—when I was your age, I thought I knew what I wanted too. Remember you can always divorce the bastard and get half of the stanzas. Love from your Aunt Denise."—Denise Duhamel

"Where are we going for the honeymoon?"—Tony Robles

*****

It is also worth offering more descriptions of the poems created by Javier and Kervinen. Javier took my one-page Six Directions poem "The Erotic Angel" and used it as a springboard to a new 30-page poem entitled "I Sculpt." Javier not only wrote text but designed his poem's length so that it would hang as an installation. The concept of hanging a poem against the wall, as visual art and not just text that one reads, manifests one of my original Six Directions goals of creating physicality or a "body" to a poem.

The installation of Paolo Javier's 30-page poem "I Sculpt" extends the art historical trend of white-on-white works. (Photo by Michelle Bautista.)

Kervinen wrote his poems, "#290" and "#291," based on one of the press releases about Six Directions. But Kervinen also relied on a computer program to generate the text of his poems. Consequently, Kervinen extended Six Directions' goal of featuring the multidimensionality or expansiveness of the poem to incorporate latest developments in technology.

In addition, Kervinen's poems were hung on a brown paper bag that was partly covered by another site-specific installation, "Bridal Train With Poems" created in collaboration with Bautista. Bautista conceived of hanging my 12-foot wedding train and then pinning on it either money or print-outs of various poems sent by the more than 100 poets who participated in the "Poem Tree" sculpture. A placard next to the train suggested that viewers can unpin poems they like to bring home for their reading pleasure, as well as pin their own poems on the train - an interaction that again extends Six Directions' desire to integrate the world into a poem(-sculpture).

The installation "Bridal Train With Poems" features Eileen Tabios' wedding gown train pinned by poems printed on yellow pieces of paper; Tabios chose the color yellow to reference yellow-gold as the Buddhist symbol for consciousness. (Photo by Michelle Bautista)

Just as "Bridal Train With Poems" is meant to be an interactive piece, so is the work that presents Kervinen's poems. That is, in order to view Kervinen's poems, the viewers must move aside the train that partly obstructs the view of Kervinen's poems. The enforced physical engagement of the viewers reflects the notion that a reader of a poem must actively participate in its experience (instead of passive reading).

"Eileen Tabios draws aside the wedding train to reveal the poems written by Finnish poet Jukka-Pekka Kervinen; for his poems, Kervinen used computer technology to manipulate text from a Six Directions press release. (Photo by Michelle Bautista.)

Poet Catalina Cariaga would come to describe Six Directions as a "pinakbet" type of event, where all sorts of elements were thrown into the stew that is the poem. This was exactly my goal: to bring in as many ingredients from the world into the Six Directions project which, as a poem itself, was something I conceived for engendering a space of pleasurable, meaningful experience. I conclude now with a poem entitled "M. Poetree" by Joey Ayala who shared it as his wedding present for my marriage to "Mr/s Poetry." I integrated his poem into a paper bag-based sculpture, "Poem = Gift," that I structured to look like a gift bag from a wine-related store. I created "Poem = Gift" because the poem is always a gift to be toasted, and shared with all:

M. POETREE

May your lives orbit
in far off yet attainable
collisions, collusions
and comet-tailed conclusions
connecting dots
taking shapes
filling blanks
and signing names
to family upon family
of exposed nerve
and pleasure
a multitude
of comings and goings
punctuated deftly
with pregnant ellipses
intimate turns
and phrase

Phrase the Lord!

 

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