It's truly more fun with Rachy's fans

If Midas’ hands can turn everything into gold, Rachy Cuna’s touch, on the other hand, can transform everything into a delightful piece of art. Rachy, celebrated as the country’s one and only floral architect, makes something extraordinary out of the ordinary.

This time, with the classic Chinese folding fans as his canvas, Rachy made 17 installation masterpieces for his AbaniKo exhibit at the lobby of the Hotel InterContinental Manila in Makati City. His works are at once dreamy and playful with the underlying message of love for nature and heritage.

His Fishfull Thinking is a display of the artist’s wit that will surely play in one’s mental acuity. In this installation, a school of little jade fish swims on the blades of a malachite fan, whose stand, no less, is a century-old jade fish sculpture from Rachy’s own collection.

In the Denizens of the Deep, electro-plated bivalves and starfishes take center stage on an exquisitely airbrushed black fan.

Whimsical is the artist’s take on the Musical Chair. Rachy’s carefree imaginings brought him to a musical landia depicted by a hot pink fan from whose surface his collection of miniature musical chairs are suspended. This particular artwork, with a fuchsia chair as its base, is at once amusing and fanciful — two words that also contribute to the sum total of the artist’s take on life.

“I’m always pregnant with ideas. I see ‘found’ objects and ‘everyday things’ as works of art,” he says. In his past exhibits, the lowly bakya, bilao, bote, palayok or kawad, even dried leaves and twigs, are given a new shape, a new form, a new life. In Rachy’s spellbinding prowess, the mundane becomes meaningful. “Well, you have to have a crazy mind to think about these things,” he says with his signature crusty guffaw.

Inspiration for Rachy comes like a thief in the night. It steals Rachy’s attention from his day-to-day world and he finds himself lounging on ideas — tons and tons of ideas.

Take for example his inspiration for AbaniKo. The unrelenting heat, which, according to Rachy, he felt as early as February, made him bring out one of his favorite fans in his collection to cool himself even if the air-con in his room was in full blast. It was when he was swooshing the fan that the idea of exhibiting his fans germinated in his mind. So, that night, Rachy and his “crazy mind” started listing down ideas on his sketchpad. With all the ideas written down, he went to bed and dreamt breezily. That dream culminated last Thursday when AbaniKo, which will run up to June 8, opened at the InterCon. There are plans to bring AbaniKo to Paris, Beijing and other Asian cities.

Rachy’s love for life is both inspiring and infectious. In Buddha’s Blessings — a black fan dashed with ancient Chinese coins and majestically sits on a Smiling Buddha base — he celebrates prosperity “because it is our birthright to have a better life.” 

His partiality for oriental inspirations is evident in his other works like Golden Dimsum, a golden fan with chopsticks and a base made of siopao and hakaw steamers; Green Nirvana, a green fan festooned with dainty green flowers that royally sits on a celadon Kuan Yin head; and Bambusa, a fan decorated with bamboo-looking weed and a real bamboo stand.

“I’m a proud Pinoy. In my blood also runs my Chinese lineage. So in my installations, it is my intent to celebrate my heritage,” says Rachy. He adds that there are 17 installations in his exhibit “because the number 17 totals to 8. And 8 is the number of infinity.”

In AbaniKo, Rachy whips up ingenious masterpieces that leave the audience amazed, intrigued and suspended in joyful disbelief. But more than that, his thrust is to elevate the pride and heritage of the Filipino people with every artwork that he makes. Rachy is one proud Filipino whose consciousness is always governed by highlighting the soul and spirit of his country and the artistry of its people in his designs — be it a huge floral installation, a humble flower arrangement or a simple yet classic Chinese folding fan.

With the magic touch of his hands, he continues to create his exquisitely crafted artworks to promote Filipino pride. And with the sincerity of his heart, Rachy also becomes a gift that continues to give.

(AbaniKo will be on view until June 8 at the lobby of the Hotel InterContinental Manila in Makati City.

 E-mail the author at bumbaki@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter @bum_tenorio.

Have a blessed Sunday!)