“Babae” is an interactive installation involving scent and taste. The main component of this piece are 70 shot glasses that are shaped like the female reproductive organs in honor of the liberated and sensual feminine. Focusing on the body, particularly women and women identifying bodies, this project is a celebration of the many layers of the woman, particularly the immigrant woman.
It is in direct response to the censoring and injustice of women that is occurring in the current political climate in the Philippines, the artist’s country of origin.
The artist collaborated with chef Tessa Liebman of Scents of Plates , in order to create a drink that should change in flavor depending where the viewer is standing within the installation.
The installation is composed of two separate rooms focusing on two scents.
The scents are dispersed through scented fog. Each drink’s taste will alter depending on the scent within the space.
The first scent is a derivative of the Philippine flower - the ylang ylang. Sweet, sensual and floral - the ylang ylang was chosen by the artist as a reminder of home and also of herself as a Filipina immigrant. The flower itself, has been patented by numerous Western companies despite its tropical origins yet no rights have been given to the farmers that first propagated this flower.
The second scent Lapsang Souchong - a smokey , woody tea from China. The leaves are usually smoked over a pine fire, which gives it its potent aroma. The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves in the Wuyi Mountain. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the process by drying the leaves over fires made from local pines. According to some sources, Lapsang souchong is the first black tea in history. After the lapsang souchong tea was used for producing black tea, people started to move the tea bush to different places, such as Keemun, India and Ceylon. As with the ylang ylang flower, the artist sees this tea as a metaphor for immigrant life. Change brought from necessity, and an appropriation and transplanting of the original seed or plant throughout the globe.
Visit https://goldieland-studio.com/ to purchase this collection.
top photo by JL Javier, 2024
bottom photo by
Anna Frumenti, 2021
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Email goldiepoblador@gmail.com for inquiries
Goldie Poblador is a visual artist who merges glass sculpture, performance, and video into multi-sensory installations that address themes of climate change and the emancipation of the female body.
Artist Biography
Goldie Poblador is a Filipina visual artist who creates multi-sensory installations that merge glass scent, sound and performance that address themes of ecology and decolonization as it relates to the emancipation of the female body.
Her work has been exhibited and performed internationally at such institutions as Artpace, The Corning Museum of Glass, Urban Glass, 601Artspace, The Knockdown Center, Saudi National Museum, The Rubin Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Fine Art Museum of Hanoi, Lopez Memorial Museum, Art Fair Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The National Museum of the Filipino People and The Cultural Center of the Philippines.
She is the first Filipino artist to be acquired by the Corning Museum of Glass. She has received grants from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, the University of the Philippines, the Puffin Foundation and a President’s Scholarship from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has completed residencies at Artpace, the Corning Museum of Glass, Oakspring Garden Foundation, MASS MoCa, and the Cité International des Arts. She received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2009. In 2015, she obtained her MFA in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Registered as Goldieland Studio / New York, NY