Walcha born artist Gemma King flew into Manila last week, ahead of typhoon Rammasun, for a cultural exchange between Australia and the Philippines.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Founded in 2007, the Ub Ubbo Exchange is a non-profit organisation that facilitates artistic and cultural sharing between Australia and the Philippines. Gemma is travelling as a guest of the Australian and Philippine Embassies and is accompanied by her friend, and former exchange participant, photographer Henry Garriock.
Mr Garriock has been photographing Gemma on her trip in the Philippines in Sagada, where the head quarters of Ub Ubbo Exchange is based. On site is a wood fired kiln, studio, workshop, gallery and artist residency living quarters.
Upon arrival in the Philippines the pair were picked up by Pablo Capati III and taken to Batangas to visit Pablo’s clay farm they will then visit clay studios in Luguna, Manila, Artalyer and Baguio City before attending an event at the Australian Embassy. They will return to Australia at the end of the month.
Gemma’s work is predominantly figurative, in bold black and white lino-cuts, etchings, and lithographs. King also creates narratives with figures in charcoal on paper, adding colour occasionally in both the printmaking and drawing mediums.
She throws romantic memories of farm life with horses and rodeo carnivals from a childhood, combining more sinister recollections of first experiences living in a city, to more recent tales of trial and error, with clarity between tribulations.
There is always a sense of mystery in Gemma’s pieces, an aftermath of something having just happened, a querying the audience must deal with, resulting in a struggle to accept they may never know the answers.
Early last year, Gemma was asked by staff at the Tamworth NSW Technical and Further Education College to hold an intimate and intensive workshop concentrating on multi-plate colour reduction linocutting.
Later in 2013, Gemma spent time in an artist collective in Berlin, the Teufelsberg Collective.
Thousands of people living in coastal areas of the Philippines evacuated on Tuesday July 15 as the first major storm of the rainy season barreled towards the archipelago.
Typhoon Rammasun made landfall on July 16 in the eastern Philippines, and passed over the capital Manila of more than 12 million people and packed peak winds of up to 120 kilometres an hour and gusts of up to 150 km/h.
Rammasun, known locally as Glenda, hit fishing communities in the eastern Philippines and brought heavy rain to Manila and other heavily populated northern areas.
The death toll is still rising and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power one week later authorities said.
Reports of fatalities from the typhoon on the archipelago continued to come in from isolated areas, bringing the number of dead to 97, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement on Tuesday.
While both artists are fine, one of their hosts had his house damaged and is currently without communications.