Amalgamation of Tenderness
Presented by Paulina Caspari
Liste Art Fair
Basel, Switzerland
2025
Installation views of Amalgamation of Tenderness at Liste Art Fair Basel, 2025
Exhibition Text
Courtesy of Paulina Caspari
"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, this 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.
Exhibited Works
Delicadesa, 2025
80cm x 100cm
Ink on cocoon silk, acrylic on Piña, burn marks and ink on chiffon, pencil on gesso, burn marks on silver gelatin prints, lace trimming, waxed thread
Devotions, 2025
87cm x 133cm
Acrylic on piña, oil on canvas, ink, charcoal, and burn marks on chiffon, linen, waxed thread, burn marks on silver gelatin, woven fabric, poem on paper, lace trimmings, silk thread
Mañanita, 2025
82cm x 102cm
Ink on embroidered cocoon silk, acrylic on Piña, laser print on Pinyapel, burn marks on silver gelatin print, burn marks and ink on chiffon, lace trimmings, charcoal on gesso, waxed thread
Quiet Moon, 2025
Ink on silk, embroidered Piña, ink-stained pine wood
90 x 90 cm
Paraluman, 2025
54cm x 44cm
Piña, Cocoon Silk, Oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, Lace trimmings, lace, chiffon, Ink-stained pine wood artist frame
I want you to live forever, 2025
33cm x 66.5cm
Oil on canvas, oil on wood panel, lace trimming, silk ribbon, inkstained beech wood
Periphery, 2025
100cm x 100cm x 6cm
Ink and charcoal on chiffon, embroidered Piña, lace, lace trimmings, ink stained beech wood
In an embrace,
2025
75cm x 38 cm
Oil on wood panel, lace trimming, ink-stained beech wood
Perpetually, 2025
100cm x 100cm x 6cm Acrylic on canvas, burn marks and ink on chiffon, silver gelatin print, imitation pearls and burn marks on abaca fabric, Piña, lace trimmings, ink stained beech wood
Every thing that ever moved will eventually be still, 2025
170cm x 70cm
Burn marks on embroidered Piña, distressed and burnt silk
Prayers for a Good, Good Boy, 2025
65.5cm x 121.5cm
Oil on silk, piña, burn marks, lace trimmings, laced beech wood artist frame
Singkil, 2025
54cm x 44cm
Piña, Cocoon Silk, Oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, Lace trimmings, Ink-stained pine wood artist frame