The Celebration of Philippine Art. Part 3

It is a tricky task to highlight the most prominent works of the project Sari-Sari as all the designs and card-holders are inventive and lowkey brilliant, but this is our third and final part dedicated to the project, so let’s dive in for the last time. A user picture

Klaris

Klaris’ key character’s name is Maria. Maria is a combination of Philippine folklore motives and urban fashion. Maria Makiling is a legendary spiritual guardian of the Makiling mountain from the folk stories. In a vision of Klaris, Maria is a modern girl with long black hair wearing urban style brands (the most frequent is Off White, so the other name of the character is Off-White Lady). The image of Maria in a vivid and dynamic style of the artist is placed on the card of the Queen of Spades.

The toy behind the card is a ‘Game of Thrones’- coded figurine. This time Maria is the Mother of Cats, whose KAWSean figures are placed around her, sitting on the throne as a queen should. Despite being a queen, Maria is shyly peeking from the card deck; the composition is combining the innocence of a little girl plunged into fashion, everyday life, pets and other staff, shy and as if a bit scared even, and power of queen and spirit, as this is where her roots are. Lovely dynamics.

Clari Quismorio

Clari is an artist, who works with digital and physical media, such as acrylic, clay, plaster. Her main character, Redrum is an homage to Stanley Kubrick, the devil, which is resolved in surrealist and contrasting red-and-black design. The card-holder is her first ever 3D-printed art toy. The composition is unusually (for the art toys imagery) and usually (for the artist aesthetics) unstable, as the character is sitting bowed to the card-deck with a sword impaling it. Therefore, as Clari Quismorio is not a solely art toys designer, more like a mixed media artist, she offers a new angle, sustaining the exchange of visuals between the arts.

Valvee

Val Villaflor is a graphic designer, artist, illustrator. Her personal style is characterised by vivid colours, geometric shapes and symmetrical order. The figurine behind her card deck design (Val prepared the box cover for the “Harmony” edition) holds a quintessence to the style she created: the abstract forms, suprematist shaping and simplistic posturing, lively shades and a hint of Philippine folkloric motives. The “Sari” figurine has two sides, like every traditional card.

This design is a good choice for the cover. Bright and rich with motives and simplified patterns, distinctive by choice of forms, it does represent the Philippines and their cultural industry, full of life and creativity, its wide range of influences and its original roots, combining beautifully in a flamboyant flow of art.

Visit the RunItdecks website to see all the toys and card art from the project (and to purchase, obvy).

Make sure to check out their instagram to hear some of the artists talk about their contribution as well.