Medium: The T-shirt
2014
Below is an excerpt from Dennis Aguinaldo‘s review on seasons change published in Center for Art + Thought’s collection of essays entitled Hidden: Absences and Presences.
“I wish to discuss the shirt Mae had sewn in response to the Philippines, the one she named “Seasons change,” for the following reasons:
a) because she said it was “inspired by the resiliency of Filipinos”
b) because it systematically approaches home with external (or, externalized) lenses, and
c) because the family helped launch the shirt at the park, one drizzling Saturday morning, with red yarn and 67 balloons.”
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“Apart from resembling a parachute pack, the embellishment on the shirt also resembles the armor vest that early Filipinos wore.” According to Mae, she fashioned this embellishment from indigenous textiles, namely the Tinalak of the T’Boli tribe of South Cotabato and the Abel Iloco. She sewn by hand for it was “basic in most traditional costumes.”
Walis tambo
Rosary
Tabo
“From that list, I chose those that spoke Filipino to me,” she said. She crafted the selected objects into beaded forms then sewed them onto the shirt. Apparently, aside from the textiles, Mae had also appropriated the indigenous practice of sewing onto their clothes important symbols and images, emblems charged with personal meaning or communal resonance.”
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Wear of Needs 