Hi Lena! Please tell our readers about yourself!
I'm a visual artist/curator/writer/pet butler, sci-fi and horror film/podcast binger.
Can you tell us about “Made of Stone” and “Decadence on a Budget,” your new zines?
Made of Stone is the complementary catalog for the show I curated at Modeka last October 2025 where the topic of that show is about celebrity/idol culture and how that affects our lives and systems of beliefs. I often make zine catalogs for shows I organize/curate as a way to document and expand the life of exhibits especially now with rapid exhibit turn-over and doom scrolling. It's a way to resist that, plus the show takes on a more layered dimension with a printed component.
DOB on the other hand, btw, I don't consider it actually a zine, but a book even if it's spiral bound as it takes on the form of a journal. It is a journal, a printed version of my WordPress blog (of the same name) from 15 years ago when I had aspirations of wanting to be a food/travel reviewer. At that time, my art projects were centered on about food, or using food as material. I was freelancing as well as a production designer/food stylist. In a way, it's a documentation of a life lived before the crash.
How (or when) did you learn about artbooks.ph?
Through Ringo & Katya*, I had zines consigned there before.
Off the top of your head, what book would you recommend to the artbooks.ph Community?
Nick Joaquin's Pop Stories for Groovy Kids - badly needs a reprint. This series is seminal. Top-notch illustrations by the likes of Gilda Cordero-Fernando matched with Joaquin's idiosyncratic storytelling. This spawned generations of weird creatives. Hahaha!!!!
Can you describe the Philippines in one…
Song? It Doesn't Snow in Manila by Deans December
Phrase? God knows Hudas not pay.
Meal? silog
Recipe? for disaster, always
Smell? tinapa
Time? Time-space warp ngayon din!
Emotion? 😵💫
Book? The Philippines is Not a Small Country by Gideon Lasco
Sentence? use in a sentence
Sound? brrrt brrrrt of motorsiklo (ugh!)
Where were you born, and where do you live now?
QC all the way until I die.
Do you cook Adobo? Sinigang? Anything Filipino? Is there a recipe you want to share?
I've cooked adobo before in Slovenia, it's in my Decadence on A Budget book. The only difference from the usual sauce combo of soy sauce & vinegar was, in lieu of vinegar, I used wine (what I just found from the pantry of my host).
Also I made adobo pate before for a Future Prospects event when Buboy Canafranca and I manned the bar for the night.
Cook adobo as usual without the soy sauce, but put in lots of garlic, and you have to have the vinegar completely drained. (This is best as a leftover before proceeding to the next step which is shredding the chicken meat.) After shredding the chicken meat, mix in with cream cheese. Mix well. Chill a bit. Spread on toast. That's it!
Sinigang? It's my fave, esp the one that's cooked with real sampaloc and cooked over wood fire. I don't have my own take of cooking this but I know how, like the basics.
Can you recommend one Filipino author?
Aside from Nick Joaquin? Reynaldo Ileto?
Film? Kisapmata, Violator.
What is your favorite time of day in Manila? Why?
Break of dawn, when it's still relatively quiet, and the sun is about to rise, the sky is a painting I can't quite render, as the deep blues and violets and pinks gently dissolve into each other.
* Ringo Bunoan and Katya Guerrero founded artbooks.ph in 2014.