India Legaspi

India Legaspi is known for her paintings which use traditional textiles such as piña and abaca as canvas, and for developing the piña seda which is a textile blend of pure piña mixed with silk. Her notable works and contributions towards promoting traditional piña weaving brought her to Europe, the United States, and in a number of Southeast Asian countries. She was also invited as a resource person on piña weaving at the Osaka International University in Japan.

While working as an artist at United Laboratories, she developed an interest for Chinese painting, which some of her contemporaries were studying. Legaspi stuied the art for 4 years, during which she was mentored by Professor Chen Bing Sun, who introduced her to the classical style of Chinese painting. Aside from classical Chinese painting, Nay India also studied contemporary Chinese painting or the Lingnan style under Hau Chiok.

Initially, Legaspi would use silk imported from China as her canvas in her Chinese paintings. Her grandmother would later gift her with locally woven piña. After seeing the fineness of the textile, Legaspi had the idea to use the piña cloth instead as her canvas.

When asked about the usual subjects of her paintings, Legaspi says that she draws inspiration mostly from nature and still life such as flowers, animals, bamboo, and sceneries in the locality. At times, she added, her composition takes one element and incorporates or compliments it with another element, such as, for example, a separate flower which is integrated into a scene containing other flowers or ornamental plants.

Legaspi’s artworks and her advocacy on traditional weaving show us how tradition and innovation can be negotiated, and that how the practice of age-old traditions are needed to be institutionalized and continuously transformed for it to flourish (source).