Customer Reviews

My Romance

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Eileen Tabios offers a wonderfully interdisciplinary way of looking at art, understanding visual art both as pure experience and as metaphor: for language, poetry, process, cultural politics, religion, and history.

Art , being a creative act, should be written about creatively! Not within a bubble of formalism or theory, but in relation to other spheres of existence, from the most quotidian chores to our dreams and fantasies.

Her approach to considering art reminds the reader that there is quality in all of our experiences -- that even international banking can relate to the creative process! Certainly poetry, music, and dance are all natural fits with the visual arts, and sometimes it's easy to forget that.

And I especially enjoy when Tabios is "naughty," playing with the inherent irreverence and absurdity in Tom Friedman's work! One would never find an essay like that in an art magazine!

MY ROMANCE (Giraffe, 2002) is more than a collection
of essays on Art. Each of the 16 critiques ends with a
"related poem" by the author, a carry-over so to speak
of the emotive themes in each artist's exhibit
allowing the reader a transition to ponder over the
artist's works.

Eileen Tabios claims that like Art, poetry is a way
for her to engage with the world-- "with capitalism,
politics, history and issues of identity." She engages
the reader to be involved in and curious about
Philippine politics, history and the Filipinos'
evolving process of decolonization.

This book IS Romance with a capital R, a wild fling
24/7 by a poet-artist vibrant with epiphanies after
steeping herself in each featured artist's soul/sole
intent of lifetime devotion to Art.

What makes MY ROMANCE a unique experience for
me is the way Tabios introduces the reader to a
variety of poets, whose pieces articulate and give
meaning to the artist's thematic attempts. Surprise,

surprise, this too is a poetry anthology bound in a
pink(!) soft cover! Toting the book with me on the
Metro, I self-consciously cover the title. Far be it
for me to be seen as a blooming romantic; not when the
commuting public's concern is on more serious and
pragmatic matters, i.e., should I trade in my car for
this year's model. But my sighing gives me away.

I had high expectations for this book, and was terribly disappointed. It is poorly written. The author has a pretentious way of writing.