Kadena- Chains of Love

Goldie Poblador

Curated by Wangui Maina and Mo Kong

November 18-December 11, 2021

Kadena- Chains of Love is Filipina artist Goldie Poblador’s latest collection of sculptural work that explores the intersection of two subjects deeply exploited by the effects of colonization: the female body and the flower. 

 Kadena —  a word that means “chains” in Filipino, has its root in the Spanish word cadena. This exhibition features sculptural interpretations of the Cadena de Amor  (meaning “chains of love”) — a vine-like plant with small pink flowers that is widespread in the Philippines and is also found in Southeast Asia, Mexico, Africa and the Caribbean islands. The Cadena de Amor, is an invasive weed that destroys the endemic plants within its environment. Yet, it has been cultivated and shipped due to its decorative properties. Poblador often explores how both women and flowers from recovering countries become symbols of beauty for the consumption of the capitalist and male gaze. Her work is an attempt to re-appropriate these stories and own the narrative around them. 

 From 1934 to the 1960s, the Cadena de Amor was used as a symbol of the preservation of  Filipino womanhood according to moral values imposed by the Catholic, Spanish friars. Poblador’s work exposes the degree to which Filipina women wrestle with agency over their own bodies, captive to imposed moral values around virginity or perceived as objects of sexual desire and violence in Western society. Through exploring this dichotomy through the lens of the Cadena de Amor, the flower becomes an ally in releasing Filipina women and women of color at large from these chains.

 In addition, selected pieces from Fertility Flowers are included in this exhibition. Fertility Flowers is an ongoing series involving an interactive installation of glass, scent and video that uses mythology to address the theme of fertility in the context of the female body. The pieces included in this exhibition from this series focus on the Philippine myth of the Dama de Noche. In this myth a queen is ignored and poorly treated as a result of not being able to produce an heir and is then turned into this flower, which produces one of the strongest and distinct smells that we know today - the night blooming jasmine. 

Goldie Poblador is a New York based artist Filipina artist who uses glass blowing, performance,  video, installation and scent when considering themes of feminism, the environment, and decolonization as it relates to the body. She received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2009. In 2015, she obtained her MFA in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally at such institutions as 601Artspace, New York;  the Yangon Secretariat Building,Myanmar;  Knockdown Center, New York; Islip Art Museum, New York; The RISD museum, Rhode Island; Cemeti Art House, Indonesia; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok; Museum Atelierhaus Mengerzeile, Berlin; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Fine Art Museum of Hanoi, Vietnam; Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, Manila; Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines; The National Museum of the Filipino People, Manila; and The Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila.

She has received a grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, a  President’s Scholarship from the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Philippine AIR Prize from Alliance Française de Manille.