The Good Wood

Monday, February 14, 2011

LONG before art cafes and establishments serving as artist’s havens and the cafe culture became a fad there was Kukuk’s Nest.

For decades, the renowned hangout for artists was located along Gorordo Ave. near the Escario St. intersection.

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This year brings a new age and the start of a new decade for the popular watering hole after it relocated to Talamban Centro. It seems that everyone and everything is heading up north. And why not, when the downtown area seems too aged and boring, mid-town is to crowded, cramp and populated and uptown’s traffic is impossible. Hence the north is the direction to go.

The place is now known as Kukuk’s Nest North. The northern sector is now bustling with life and activity. The artist-friendly Kukuk’s Nest in the past has been hosting works by artists from all over the region. The place is often used artists for their meetings and gatherings and concerts. And little has changed in the set up in its new location.

Yes, it continues to do what it does best, which is to be a place where art can be enjoyed while people are dining, and drinking their favorite brew. When the brand new Kukuk’s Nest opened, it played host to the social realist paintings of Nune Alvarado.

That exhibit was followed by a show of sculptures by Jet Florendo.

The sculptor’s creations are free-standing, three-dimensional abstract pieces made of the finest wood and rare hardwood.

Florendo exploits the natural form of the material and explores in his artworks the internal qualities of the wood. His wooden sculptures expose what lies beneath the bark and brings to light what is there to be found within the wood grain.

He digs, and bores holes where available light may pass. It’s a different experience to examine the many intricacies on the wood’s surface as well as to look deeply into caves and caverns that are carved like tunnels. Take a look at the photos here and be amazed.