User:Klausius/Lady of Iloilo

The Lady of Iloilo “Ang Lin-ay Sang Iloilo”. The icon of Ilonggo pride.
Since the unveiling of the bronze sculpture at the City Hall of the City Iloilo[] – Philippines, August 25 2011, the citizens of Iloilo are proud to have their new Icon.

The bronze statue weighs 1.7 t and measures 5 meters in height and was manufactured in the Philippines. Based on the idea of ED Defensor, a well-known Philippine Artist and was casted by Herbich International Arts and Manufacturing Corporation located in the city of Liloan on Cebu Island.

Ed Defensor describes the Lady of Iloilo as followed: “What you will see is a Lin-ay wearing the traditional bandana usually worn by farm girls to protect them from the heat of the sun. On her neck she wears an ethnic necklace, symbolic of her ancestry, as she comes from a rich mythic past, from the Maragtas, the “Barter of Panay”, and the long line of heroic datus that peopled the island of Panay.

Her right arm cradles a bunch of harvested rice, symbolic of our prosperity. Her left hand holds another symbol of prosperity, the scythe or “garab” which has long been the traditional harvesting implement of Western Visayas. I remember when I was a child in the farms of Mina, Iloilo, whenever I saw a “garab”, I knew right away it was “good times” for it was harvest time. She wears an embroidered blouse, symbolic again of one of the popular traditional arts of this city and province. On top of it is a “sablay” of “hablon”, the textile which contributed to Iloilo’s becoming the second city of the Philippines, second only to Manila, at the onset of the 19th century.

The whole figure of the Lin-ay is highlighted by the “patadyong”, our native hand-woven wrap-around skirt, for which no other province is better known than Iloilo. As a bona fide art historian I dare say that Iloilo has the best patadyong in the whole country. The Lin-ay is standing on a pedestal with four sides. Carved in relief on those four sides are the four major assets of Iloilo. Front of the pedestal shows our rice-farming industry. Right of the Lin-ay, the pedestal shows the sugar cane-farming industry. The left side shows our fishing industry, both deep sea and brackish water, while the back side depicts education, since Iloilo is considered as the educational center of the Visayas and Mindanao.”

The Lady of Iloilo was sponsored by an anonymous donor. The realization of the whole project was possible as the Mayor, Honorable Jed Patrick Mabilog decided to get something unique and remarkable for his Town and the entire Region of Ilonggo. Ed Defensor received major help from Harry Mark Gonzales of Mandurriao, Iloilo, and Jose Amora of Rumagayray, San Enrique. Both sculptors helped to execute his ideas to perfection.

The technical engineering was executed by Engineers of FF Cruz and Co. Inc. Engineer Pablo Y. Antonio, Jr., Project Manager, Engineer Apolonio Calubayan, Engineer Eduardo Gil, and Engineer Jocelyn Manlapaz. Franz Herbich and his father Karl were executing the casting and managed to assemble and transport the 1.7 t heavy and 5 meter high bronze sculpture to its final location in Iloilo. His Family has a long tradition of art foundry in Germany and is well known for the restoration of the “Angel of Peace” in Munich and for the sculpture garden on the roof of the Grohmann Museum Milwaukee.