Pacific Asia Museum - "Fashioning Domesticity; Weaving Desire - Visions of the Filipina" - Part 1

[Note - This post was originally supposed to go out early February. Had to learn how to transfer my photos files to Flickr.   Update - I added more photos from the exhibit and they are not centered. Oops.]

With the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains in the backdrop, TORC's husband drove us (TORC, me and the Prof) to sunny Pasadena, home of the Pacific Asia Museum. We were there specifically for this exhibit, Fashioning Domesticity, Weaving Desire - Visions of the Filipina which ran from October 24, 2009 up to February 8th of this year. When Bert, TC and I went to Pasadena last weekend, the exhibit was still up. It's down now....

The Museum is an incredible piece of architecture. It used to the home of an arts patron and dealer, Grace Nicholson. When she died, she left her home to the city for use as an arts center/museum...We got there bright and early, around 10 a.m. 'ish.

View from the West side of the street (North Los Robles) above and below, cool paintings on the side of the building facing their free parking lot.

The museum is a Historical Landmark...the sign by the entrace double doors.

Admission was $9 and we had to fill out a brief questionnaire on how we heard of the museum and our purpose there. Plus we had to give a DNA sample from a cheek swab, as well as hand over an eyelash hair and trace our family tree. Just kidding. Well, actually, one of the questions was, "Are you of Chinese descent" and another asked your ethnic background.

Above is the inner courtyard. I bet it looks even more beautiful when the trees are in full bloom. The pond is stocked with several koi fish. I learned during my 2nd visit there a few weeks later that there are three koi in the pond. They are each a decade apart at 20, 30 and 40 years of age.

According to the museum's website (more info on the garden here,

"Since it is believed that evil spirits travel only in straight lines, the zig-zag design of the bridge is no accident. Underneath the bridge, the pond contains carp (or, in Japanese, koi), the traditional fish found in a Chinese garden. Legend says that a carp who is able leap past the rapids of the Yangtze River will transform into a dragon."

There was a pensive Buddha on a bench holding a tiny bird's egg. There was actually a nest way up in the tree next to the bench.

TORC, a history teacher at a local middle school was interested in this exhibit as well as the 2 pm showing of the documentary, "Memories of a Forgotten War". We are all pretty much Filipino American history buffs (the Prof teaches it up at Miramar College), so of course we wanted to do the road trip.

By the way, flash photography isn't allowed in the museum but photography IS allowed in almost all of the galleries. The special exhibition (which was being prepared at the time) is the only exception.

As you can see from the turn of the centery photo below, the woman is bare breasted. She also has African features (short kinky hair, dark skin, full lips). Filipinos are comprised of many groups of peoples, the earliest inhabitants being the Negritos who were followed by waves of Austronesian peoples (from Oceania and Southeast Asia), as well as Chinese and Islamic traders, and of course, later on the Spaniards and the Americans.

The exhibit focused on the juxtaposition of the modern and the primitive, using turn of the century images of Filipinas and contrasting them with  modern clothing styles rendered in traditional materials such as pina (pineapple fiber) and jusi (raw silk). Click on the photo if you want to read the placard.

The next photo features a beautiful terno. This is a style seen famously on Imelda Marcos, notorious shoe whore and former Philippine first lady and widow of deposed Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. These are formal dresses which have stiff "butterfly" sleeves.

Isn't this gorgeous?

Close up of the panuelo...you can see the hand embroidered designs.

I believe this placard was for the next terno...

More photos of turn of the century Filipinas...

The cotton gauze terno. This is a back view of the hand embroidered panuelo.

Another view of the terno:

Train detail:

More photos of native women including the Negrita...there were four photos in all, two on each main wall.

Here is another beautiful terno...

I forget what material this was made of. I want to saw it was made of jusi (raw silk) but don't quote me on that.

Butterfly sleeve detail:

Another placard...

This terno was made of pina cloth (pineapple fiber), which is stiff and scratchy. Pina is not a comfortable fabric to wear.

Detail of the panuelo. You can see the stiff meshlike pineapple fibers.
There are more photos but I will post those separately...Too many to put in just one post.In addition to the ternos and vintage images, there was also a glass exhibit of Philippine made artifacts which included purses, jewelry, postcards, a rosary, slippers, and more. To be continued...