Karl Aguila’s ‘Furnisculpture’

Awelcome new addition to the attractive display spaces and galleries offering a cornucopia of art, furniture and design pieces at the LRI Design Plaza on Nicanor Garcia St., in Makati is Atelier Aguila.

I happen to have a couple of friends who have long maintained spaces in this three-story building right across that of Alliance Francaise  which by the by also enjoys extension space for its French language classes in LRI Design Plaza.

Artist Ross Capili runs One Workshop Studio Gallery, which has hosted numerous art exhibit openings of a memorably merry nature, such as that of our common friend, Los Angeles-based artist and basketball commentator Rod Samonte last year. Earlier, there was a drag-down affair featuring the multi-media artist-provocateur and performance guru Ynot or Tony Pigott of New Zealand, which even jumped to another workshop space for the music and performance attractions.

Then there’s Baguio-based friend Pynky Magsino’s shop that always has a variety of splendid furniture items and unique craft works, many of them bearing her refreshing stamp of creativity.

Last Monday, there was a special art show by young students of Assumption College, among them our friend Jennifer Jacinto Webber’s 16-year-old daughter Isabel. The girl, and more so her mom, were thrilled over early success, as two of Isabel’s works, oil paintings, were immediately purchased.

But last week’s visit at the building that draws homeowners and interior design professionals was for the express purpose of catching up with and welcoming dear friends from the South.

Karl and Ophanie Aguila, whom I usually see only in Dumaguete or at their idyllic haven in Siaton, Negros Oriental, had just staked space for what has been called “Furnisculpture.” These are remarkable pieces of old wood that have been recycled and transformed into utilitarian works of art. They’re one-of-a-kind products of sheer genius in conceptual design and faultless technical execution.

It remains a privilege to have met Karl and Phanie a few years back, thanks to Annabelle and Edo Adriano, during one of our dreamy sojourns at Antulang Beach Resort.

A particularly rewarding feature of an Antulang honeymoon is a sunset cruise on the 65-foot trimaran Annabelle Lee to Tambobo Bay, where dozens of international pleasure craft lie in placid anchor. Visible from the bay, apart from the dramatic twin peaks of Cuernos de Negros or Mt. Talinis, is a residential structure sprawled on a ridge amidst hillside greenery.

Well, that home and art haven was built practically by hand from the ground up, by sculptor Karl Aguila. He traces his roots to Negros Occidental, where he initially developed his affinity for old wood — from railroad ties we call travieza to hardwood remains of traditional hacienda houses — and other found objects like circular stone grinders and other farm implements.

Karl went on to study sculpture in Europe and California. Upon his return, he devoted himself entirely to the creation of his “furnisculpture.” Discovering Siaton, he acquired a ridge property overlooking Tambobo Bay. Here he has fashioned an incredibly unique artist’s home that now also enjoys a professional workshop station set amidst a bamboo grove.

From this haven may be enjoyed, on a daily basis, the spectacular sunsets that highlight the resplendent panorama framing Tambobo Bay. Across the Aguila home, where Prince Rafa romps about towards his second birthday, other artist-friends from Dumaguete have also started building their own workshop studios — among them the eminent and peripatetic painter-sculptor Kitty Taniguchi.  

So many other artist-friends, singers, musicians, dancers, poets and writers have enjoyed afternoons and evenings hosted by the Aguilas over sundowner cocktails and occasional dinner — often at that central terrace on what is a wide parapet bookended by a couple of great terracotta lions created by Kitty.

Visitors to the place also marvel at Karl’s creations — one-of-a-kind tables, sculptured chairs, benches, cabinets, dividers, doors, bookshelves, hat racks, what-have-you. All of these incorporate old wood, driftwood, stone, and inspired design that serve up every piece as a sterling example of functional art. They are masterpieces, each one of them.  

Atelier Aguila was established in Bacolod in 2004. Affiliation with the Association of Negros Producers led to participation in the annual showcase that is the Negros Trade Fair, of late conducted at the Rockwell Tent. 

That was where I had last seen Karl and Phanie (without Rafa, alas!), at the 27th Fair last September. An aborted trip to Dumaguete (darn that Supertyphoon Pablo!) and again last January prevented us from directly exchanging notes on art and literature, good wine and single malts, glorious food and sunsets. Our correspondence was limited to an exchange of wind chimes and kinky erotica for bookshelves. 

I’ve always admired and greatly envied sculptors, especially those who romance wood, our wood and all its lore. Now that we’ll sadly miss Gerry Araos, we can only hope that wood romancers like Benjie Reyes, Claude Tayag, Rey Paz Contreras, and Karl Aguila will continue to enthrall us with their masterpieces that showcase our natural patrimony.

And so I’m glad that Atelier Aguila now has an evolving exhibit at Suite 321 in LRI Design Plaza, where Karl’s “Antiquated Art Furniture” is on daily display. For her part, Phanie offers samples of her latest creative projects, among these African-inspired throw pillows with cow and goat hide.

The couple recalled how they had to fill up a container van at the Dumaguete port for eventual transport to Makati, where it took several helpers to haul up from the street from midnight to dawn.

As each showpiece is purchased, Karl has to replace it with another among his often massive pieces that utilize a wealth of nature’s and history’s materials: molave railroad ties and house posts, yakal floorboards from demolished old houses, excavated petrified ipil, red lauan, rosewood, balayong and bogo materials.

Karl’s inherent curiosity serves him in good stead. The petrified ipil and some lauan he found a decade ago under the ground by a riverbank in Negros Occidental.

Only recently, as he recounted with boyish glee, up there in big-sky Siaton, he stumbled upon an indigenous species: what is called balinsuha, a wild pygmy camachile that looks like a bonsai shrub. He lost me upon mention of “morphological species,” but I took it that the hardwood’s naturally twisted branches were what caught his eye.

“Barbecued” carefully above a bonfire to prevent disintegration, then quickly sandpapered and soaked in olive oil, the material now complements other recycled wood — his trademark sunken logs and driftwood, planks from shipwrecks, lumber from demolished antebellum homes, century-old travieza, and excavated prime timber.

Altogether, in Karl Aguila’s hands as impelled and propelled by design vision, they constitute a splendid showcase of art furniture, or “furnisculpture.”