We have dignity, too,” said couple weavers John Rey Sanchez and his wife Mymy, who have spent the past 20 years quietly working behind the loom. They carried the weight of years seen only through the product but rarely through the name.
So much is said about the final product, but so little about the process that shaped it.
At ANTHILL Fabric Gallery’s newly relaunched space in Cebu City, that silence is finally being unraveled. The exhibition “Habol, Hablon, Hinablon: Until Now, We Learn” marks ANTHILL’s 15th anniversary and a deeper commitment to honoring the people behind the weaving.
“We can’t continue to tell the story of the Philippines without the weavers,” Sanchez said. For him and Mymy, the exhibition is about reclaiming dignity and space. “We’re used to being behind the scenes,” Mymy added. “But the curator, Kaye, encouraged and challenged us to step out. This journey is really our personal story as weavers.”
Fabric gallery re-launch
For co-founder and managing director Anya Lim, the transition from fashion brand to fabric gallery has been years in the making.
“Before we renovated the place, people knew us as a fashion store,” she said. “But we’ve evolved through the years. We really want to push the value of fabrics that are handwoven all over the Philippines. This year, we relaunch ANTHILL as a fabric gallery.”
The gallery’s relaunch includes not just exhibitions but also workshops and educational tours designed to shift public understanding. “Weaving has long shaped Cebu’s material landscape,” Lim said, “but its role in identity and livelihood remains complex. Through its gallery, ANTHILL deepens its commitment to elevating weaving beyond utility, honoring it as an art form, a language of identity and a medium of self-expression for memory, movement, and meaning.”
Material vocabulary of care
Curator Kaye Yuvallos, who guided the exhibition’s development, reflected on how the act of weaving carries language, memory and legacy. “The word ‘hablon’ traces its origins to ‘habol,’ a word for blanket,” she wrote in her curatorial note. “It could have been a shirt, a pillowcase, a tablecloth. But it’s a blanket: a symbol of comfort, warmth and protection.”
She described the exhibition as a shared offering, shaped over weeks of conversation with artists Sanchez and Durano. “Our dialogues and explorations tugged us into something more interior,” she noted. “We realized the weaving we inherited is a process of personal becoming, of remembering and reinterpreting ourselves through making.”
Yuvallos also pushes back against the idea of viewing woven textiles as static craft. “Weaving is rigorous,” she wrote. “The finished pieces in this show appear delicate. I push this juxtaposition by resisting the urge to merely frame pieces on the wall and instead mirror their fragility.”
First-time exhibitors
The exhibition features six works, three from fashion designer Jessica Ouano Durano and three from Sanchez, whose pieces were co-created with his wife.
“I’ve been behind the scenes for 20 years. Now it’s my time,” Sanchez said. “I’m stepping out of the cave.”
Durano, who is known for her work in sustainable fashion, took the opportunity to reflect inward. “Typically when I create designs, I take inspiration from things such as nature,” she shared. “But this time, I was thinking about my life and how I want to project that into the textile. There’s a part of me in it. These textiles are the first time I’ve truly infused myself into the work.”
One of her pieces, “Luwas” (Safe), subverts expectations of comfort using coarse abaca fibers. Another, the “Diwa” (Spirit) series, incorporates dried flowers and local materials to trace emotional transitions. “I understand myself better,” she added. “In a way, I was able to heal certain parts of myself through weaving which I’ve never done before.”
Sanchez’s works, ”Kahupayan” (Comfort) and “Pagsubang” (The Sun Rises), reflect not only technical mastery but also familial tenderness. As Yuvallos observed, his woven panels “push the boundaries of deceptively simple techniques to elevate what is often overlooked or unrecognized as valuable.”
During the opening reception, both artists performed a live weaving session. The resulting works, ”Unta” (Hoping for something to finally happen) and “Yano” (Basic), were exhibited at the end of the hour.
“‘Habol, Hablon, Hinablon: Until now, We Learn’ is a space where weaving becomes not just a method of making, but a way of sensing,” Yuvallos wrote. “Of tracing where we’ve been. Of hoping for where we might go.”
Behind every thread lies a story and finally, their names are being stitched back in. The fabric gallery exhibition will run until Oct. 3, 2025.