At Art Fair, Paintings of Sari-Sari Store Snacks are Making Visitors Nostalgic
The works took Lance Gokongwei back to his salesman days.
(SPOT.ph) The Art Fair Philippines vernissage is usually attended by various VIPs—from National Artists to government officials, society figures to the country’s business leaders. So it wasn’t surprising to see JG Summit Holdings President Lance Gokongwei among the early birds at the Art Fair preview Thursday afternoon at the Ayala Triangle Gardens. And it wasn’t surprising, too, that among the artworks that caught his eye were the ones in the J Studio booth: Carlo Tanseco’s homage to the sari-sari store snacks of his youth.
At first glance, the works just look like outsize versions of familiar Filipino candy and chichiria. There’s a Chippy, there’s a Piattos, and the popular chocolate bar Cloud 9–all products of JG Summit Holdings business Universal Robina Corporation (URC). No wonder Gokongwei got all three pieces.
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'They just jumped out at me'
But they’re not really just bigger copies and art versions of Pinoy childhood treats, or in this case URC bestsellers; each of the artworks bear inspiring, sometimes funny, always positive messages that can lift the spirit of anyone who encounters them. The Chippy one actually has the word “happy”—instead of Chippy—inscribed across its red and white body, with the words “Just Be” above it. The Piattos piece doesn’t actually say Piattos but Pilipinas, albeit in the same familiar URC type that looks like neon lights; and it’s prefaced by the words “Mahal Kong” on top. Finally, there’s the big Cloud 9 bar which actually says: “If you could dream it, you can achieve it,” with the word “could” taking the place of “cloud.”
“I have always liked Carlo’s pieces - the thought and technique behind them,” Gokongwei tells SPOT.ph. Proof: he’s also a fan of the stained glass Tanseco did for the Xavier Nuvali chapel “which my late Auntie Lily and myself had the chance to support.” And he's a fan, too, of the toy soldiers the artist showed at last year’s Art Fair, but he was too late to avail of any of the pieces.
So he requested that Tanseco alert him next time he was staging a show.
“I was fortunate to be early to this year’s art show and bought the art because of the subject matter obviously, but more so because they just jumped out at me and made me reminisce about my younger years when I was starting out as a salesman for URC. So clever and fun. I plan to hang the pieces in my office, but my sister Marcia already wants them for the condo we use for family get togethers.”
Childhood memories at Art Fair
Just like Gokongwei, it was also the thought of his younger days that made Tanseco—whose work is always tinged with nostalgia and cheeky panache—create this new 20-piece collection. Almost each painting represents a chapter in his early life: from the Choc-nut bar which he used to give to other kids so he could join their games, to the Lucky Me pancit that was the staple of his post-party nights with friends. “I guess I had a happy childhood,” the former product designer tells Spot, “and it’s all I know to cull from.”
His previous collection was called Canned Thoughts, which he showed at Art Cube and which had a similar nostalgic, pop culture feel to it. It referenced de lata items that Tanseco’s generation of kids grew up with, but with text that have all been tweaked to give either inspiring messages (“Do More of What Makes You Happy” inscribed on a can of Del Monte tomato sauce) or messages with a bit of political bite to it (“Huwag Angkinin Ang Hindi Sa Iyo. Protect Sovereign Rights Over our Seas” on a sardine-can shaped canvas).
Taking on childhood snacks seemed to be the natural, inspired follow up. “I want to surprise people each time with a new show and new ideas,” he says. Sari-Sari, Sabi-Sabi brought him back to memories of the sari-sari stores of old, with their pabunot and plastic balloon prizes, where men lit their cigarettes on heated coils connected to a buzzer. “I grew up near a sari-sari store,” says the artist. “It was the mall of my childhood.”
Tanseco’s booth seems to be one of the most popular ones in this Art Fair located at the Ayala Triangle tents. There are always people having their pictures taken with the candy paintings and “bags of chips,” or with the artist himself who is now based in Siargao where the canvases were completed. There’s a fun atmosphere here, and if unlike Gokongwei you’re not lucky enough to bring home a work or two, Tanseco has set up a “candy store” in one corner, with clear garapons full of sweet treats like White Rabbit and Choc-nut—which guests can just get from, and which doubles as context to visitors who are otherwise unaware of the stories of the touchstones to Pinoy childhood displayed on the wall.
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