Phillippines-born artist Christina "Goldie" Poblador is currently exhibiting a multi-media interactive installation at the Phillippine Center Gallery, her first solo exhibition in New York City. Running through April 15, 2016, the exhibition entitled "Venus Freed" uses interactive blown glass objects, flowers, and found materials to examine the Philippine myth of the ylang ylang, a distinctly shaped and scented flower used in many perfume formulations but rarely identified or sourced from the Phillippines. Earning her MFA in glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015 Poblador finds rich metaphoric associations in the complex Colonial history of her native country, and employ the unique scent and shape of this distinctive and mythic flower as an object specific resonance for the exploitation of Phillippine women.
“I use glass, scent, sound, installation, and performance to explore themes of oppression, reclamation, and freedom,” said Poblador. “ I am motivated by a desire to express an emancipation of the body, a sense of freedom in movement and emotion and redemption.”
The exhibition announcement reads: "Through her work, the artist attempts to examine the loss of identity and empowerment of the Filipino woman in a global setting where consumerism and foreign cultural imperialism."
Outside of her native Phillippines, Poblador's work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the Asian countries of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, as well as in Germany, Spain, France, Italy.
IF YOU GO:
"Venus Freed: Christina Poblador" March 21- April 15, 2016 Philippine Center Gallery 556 5th Avenue New York City Website