Amalgamation of Tenderness
Presented by Paulina Caspari
at LISTE Art Fair Basel 2025
Amalgamation of Tenderness is a new body of work by Filipino artist Augustine Paredes, exploring different poetics of identity, vulnerability, and desire.
Inspired by the Piña fabric’s importance to the Philippines’ history and the post-colonial Filpino identity, this collection of new multi-media works are images and paintings based on photographs from the artist’s family archive from the conflict-ridden Mindanao, layered with different fabrics and trimmings sourced in the Philippines such as Piña and Cocoon Silk.
For the stand concept for LISTE 2025, the exhibition design appropriates the framing technique of Filipino embroiderers from Lumban, Laguna where wooden frames are wrapped with scrap fabrics to create a protective layer for the Piña fabric before it is stretched and made ready for embroidery. This frame is called “Bastidor,” and it is made to protect the fabric from unwanted scratches and tears.
The Piña fabric has become an integral material for the artist. Piña fabric—a delicate textile made from fibres of pineapple leaves—was introduced by the Spaniards during the 15th century and became a symbol of Filipino identity. During the Spanish colonial era, the fabric was cultivated and woven by local artisans to meet the demands of both indigenous traditions and colonial elites.
For Paredes, the Piña fabric symbolizes the perverse tenderness that comes from violence; and through the material’s opacity, he can imbue new ways of ruminating conceptions of concealment and revealment.
In some of the works, Paredes also appropriates the “Calado” embroidery, a distinctive feature of the Filipino traditional wear, Barong Tagalog. In this embroidery technique, fibres are taken out to decrease the fibre count, and the remaining intact fibres are woven into various open thread work patterns. However, Paredes uses fire to burn parts of the fabric and embroider the outlines of burn marks.
In LISTE 2025, the booth exists as a stage for his works where Paredes laments the violence of colonization while also celebrating resilience; as material and metaphorical layering carry the weight of post-colonial identity, reflecting the complex and multi-layered Filipinos. The works inherit the awareness of and the critical engagement with historical legacy, while on the other hand releasing an (artistic) potential to open up to a collective language and legibility through personal openness and vulnerability.
Special thanks to Hangping Yang, Arnaud Ferron, and Hanne Kaunicnik
