'Beautiful things can be vessels for painful stories' – Pio Abad | Tate

Within his work, Pio Abad considers cultural loss and colonial histories, often reflecting on his upbringing in the Philippines and his parents' role in the anti-dictatorship struggle. Featuring drawing, etchings and sculptures, the work highlights overlooked histories.

In this film, Abad explores power, storytelling and how jewellery can be seductive. As he says, 'we're all magpies, drawn to these shiny objects.'

[aatt]

Speaking specifically as a Chinese descendent myself, given that I rarely meet Chinese who protect and treasure the artistic heritage this old culture has to offer, has led me to appreciate whoever took possessions and preserved any Chinese artifacts in the past for later generations to study and see. This way, in some important sense, any museum and private collectors have allowed many cultural heritages to continue to exist.

[sebastiaoedsonmacedo]

A lot of conceptualization over material history but zero inventiveness in the drawing itself, to the point that without his explanation his art has no meaning and breaks no new grounds.

[JJONNYREPP]

'Beautiful things can be vessels for painful stories' – Pio Abad | Tate 0855am 1.8.24 i always get the impression these guys are just old admin staff of the BBC or some media rep company thrust in front of a camera to follow their painterly hobbies or some such. that block of flats was once featured in the tv show: minder or the sweeney or sommat like that... i'm never convinced by artists - they're always faux and totally insincere which allows me to muse upon the mispent notion of their being total con merchants or just acting out a bad joke (rather like the monsters and overlords they utilize as inspiration for "parody" or "serious" scrutiny)...