Offering and deity

MANILA, Philippines - On a rare occasion, a scientist and an artist come together.

Dr. Jurgenne Primavera and PG Zoluaga, both Iloilo-based, comprise one of the pairs of women environmentalists and male artists brought together by Norma Liongoren for this year’s “Walong Filipina” exhibit, which is on view until April 15 at Liongoren Gallery, 111 New York/Stanford sts., Cubao, QC. It will travel to Liongoren Gallery in Dagupan City, Pangasinan where it will run from April 17 to May 1.

The other seven pairs are Tacloban-based artist Rico Palacio and marine biologist, UP-Tacloban Dean Margarita dela Cruz, Mindoro-based anti-mining advocates Efren Garcellano and Evelyn Cacha, Dagupan-based artist Jojit Solano and Dagupan-native eco-waste management expert and herbalist Dr. Dea Millora, social realist Renato Habulan and Antipolo Assumption Sister Luz Emmanuel Soriano, well-known environmentalist educator, social realist Egai Talusan Fernandez and environmental lawyer Ipat Luna, artist Mario de Rivera and Philippine butterfly conservationist Lydia Robledo, and young Mark Salvatus and eco-waste management lady Luz Sabas.

True to the meaning of her first name “Jurgenne,” which means “earth worker,” Primavera has committed herself to the protection of coastal and upland areas, especially Philippine native trees and mangroves. The 63-year-old scientist especially worked on the development and promotion of sustainable tiger prawn farming, for which she was lauded as one of Time magazine’s 2008 “Heroes for the Environment.”

First held in 1990, “Walong Filipina” has shown the works of close to a hundred women artists, as well as that of many other women achievers in other fields. But what was most unique for this year was the inclusion of eight researchers-writers from a University of the Philippines Art Studies class under the mentorship of Prof. Flaudette May Datuin. Aside from acting as liaison between honorees and artists, the students also wrote the exhibition wallnotes, helped install the works, provided the artists with information, at times editorializing and synthesizing the works of the Filipinas, and understanding the works, and watching how they evolved from concept to finished artwork.

I am one of those students, and I was assigned to work with Primavera and Zoluaga, and be a privileged witness of a rare occasion of a scientist and artist teaming up.