Furniture depicting strength and resilience

CEBU, Philippines – As exhibition spaces, art galleries are often characterized as venues dedicated for the display or the sale of art – where art in the form of illustrations, paintings, sculptures or creative installations can always be found.

Since the opening of its first exhibit in 2012, Cebu’s Qube Gallery has effectively lived up to this formal definition of the art gallery, having presented its share of “traditional” and “non-traditional” exhibits.

Within its roster of “non-traditional” shows, Qube has managed to showcase a vast mélange of “unconventional” works – from triptychs to floor-ceiling-and-wall mountable installations; digitally rendered works, iconography pieces and one-of-a-kind designer furniture sets.

A new addition to Qube’s revue of “non-traditional” exhibits is “Tacloban Prevails,” highlighting a select range of furniture pieces by Costa Rican furniture designer Bernardo Urbina.

The exhibit early this month doubled as the launching of Urbina’s new collection. “Tacloban Prevails” showcased furniture items made from re-purposed materials – materials which Urbina himself bought from Tacloban locals who were affected by last year’s super typhoon.

Though “minimalist” in terms of their overall design, the pieces presented in the show have their own unique stories to tell, making them more than just veritable examples of functional art.

Combining re-purposed wood debris with glass, the designer carefully picked “scrap wood” that would have otherwise been thrown away – giving them new life as furniture pieces with soul, infused with a history of strength and resilience.

In essence, the exhibit broke the myopic boundaries that constrain the visual art and design arena’s being – saying something about how art can be both be functional and be steered by the virtue of altruism, told without the intonations of crass.