All History is Connected

British-based Filipino artist Pio Abad mines history and current events to produce expressive everyday objects such as scarves and wallpaper. He weaves visual narratives in imitation Hermes scarves and locks cultural history in a perfume bottle.
One of the emerging stars in the UK art scene, Abad, 29, likes compressing large, complex ideas in the most banal objects. Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein’s gold-plated faucets, for instance, become the central motif of his imitation Versace silk scarf. It’s art that’s accessible.
Perhaps it is inevitable that politics and history find their way into his works. The son of Philippines budget secretary Butch Abad and Batanes Representative Dina Abad, he grew up listening to political discussion at the breakfast table.
But the artist strives to turn narrative links into expressive visual work without being too preachy.
“I’ve always been a student of history,” he says. “I try to expand the historical connections, because nothing is ever really autonomous. But I don’t want to be an activist. I’m an artist. I’m more interested in the link between the artist and the archaeologist.”
His recently concluded one-man show at the Zabloduwicz Collection in London, where he was one of six artists selected for this year’s Invites Series, was inspired by his father’s 1989 visit to the World Festival of Youth and Students in North Korea, a quasi cultural Olympics. The younger Abad saw his dad’s photos of the event and constructed a replica of Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel – the “hotel of doom” begun in 1987 as the future “world’s tallest tower” and never completed.
 “I didn’t plan to do a show about North Korea, but the exhibit opened when Pyongyang was making headlines again,” he says. “It’s about how personal photos can actually end up discussing larger things. There is no message there – you have to let the viewers interpret the work – but it’s trying to find the relationship of that singular event to the rest of history.”
A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Abad considers himself lucky that his emergence was greeted with a lot of support and interest. So much so that his exhibition sold out, earning him the equivalent of more than Bt1 million in just one day.
He remains level-headed, though, working every day from 9 to 5. “There will always be a romantic view of the artist because of the nature of what we do, but at the end of the day, it’s work,” he says.
Abad also recently wrapped up an exhibit in Hong Kong titled “Oh! Oh! Oh! (A Universal History of Iniquity)” at the Osage Gallery, as part of an exhibition called “Market Forces: A Friction of Opposites”.
A chandelier at the Philippine International Convention Centre inspired one example of the printed wallpaper he designed, which also featured perfume bottles and Middle Eastern references such as the camel, the Burj Al Arab and the Burj Khalifa.
“Like a lot the work I make, the piece brings together two different historical narratives that initially don’t seem related. But, put in the same space, you begin to unpack the relationships that link them.
“For instance, it’s the use of cultural spectacles, in this case architectural pieces de resistance, to mask harsher political realities and the role that individuals can play in manufacturing the representation of national cultures, whether they are authentic or not.”
Pio Abad’s next exhibit will be in October at Silverlens in Makati City, the Philippines. He will also be in Manila to do projects for a grant programme from Deutsche Bank.