About
Skilled Administrative Support Professional with 10 Years' Experience
A Mindanaoan Painter-Sculptor-Visual Artist, Archibald Pacana has won numerous art and photography competitions and excelled in the creation of environment-friendly art pieces from recycled and re-purposed construction and electronic materials.
Previously based in Dubai, as Maintenance Manager for Fire, Life and Safety of the world's most luxurious hotel, Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Archie seasoned himself as an HSE professional with over ten years of extensive experience in steering the implementation of fire, life safety systems for hotels, hospitality and tourism facility management.
Background
Archibald Joel G. Pacana comes from the province of Misamis Oriental, of the Southern Philippines. The island Mindanao has a colorful, culturally diverse population speaking various languages. The island’s culture and arts especially those of the Muslim and Lumad groups almost remain untouched by Western influences. This is why Mindanao has close affinity with Southeast Asian nations in terms of culture and arts, religion and languages.
The ‘Okir’ design is common among the Tausug, Maranao and Maguindanao tribes which has in turn close similarities with Southeast Asian designs. The vine and floral designs of the okir are dominant in Pacana's own works and the okir has become his inspiration even in his visual content projects.
His formative years as an artist were done at the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG), the resident theatre company of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology located in Iligan City of Southern Philippines.
IPAG is the premier repertory company and is the most travelled theatre group in the Philippines. Pacana first auditioned for its laboratory signature productions “Sarimanok” under the directorship of Dr. Steven Patrick Fernandez. IPAG integrates music, dances, art traditions and expressions in the Southern Philippines and defines its 40 year existence with engagements and collaborations here and abroad. It has collaborated and linked with countless performing art companies, organizations, networks and schools all over the world.
It was in this highly creative environment that Pacana developed his passion for the visual arts, integrating ethnic art forms that tell stories. In between rehearsals and performances, he also worked as a property and costume master, stage manager, house manager, janitor, and wrote of press releases which, he often personally delivered to different publications at the time. He also had the chance to display his knack for production and stage design aside from designing and executing costumes and props.
Pacana’s signature art designs took a new level when he began work in Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Burj Al Arab, trading name of Jumeirah Beach Resort LLC, is constantly improving, and as a result, has discarded items or items removed from the Guest areas. These items remain of the highest quality and, therefore, gave Pacana motivation to recycle and use them for new creations.
As an example, he found a spare board lying around in his work area and he asked one of his Engineering colleagues to cut it for him thinking that it would come in handy for one of his art projects. As he began to work on it, gradually, the ideas flowed and the dull board started to come to life. Ramadan was approaching and inspired with the religious tradition, he tried to integrate the pillars of the Islamic faith with the five layers of the piece. He made an Islamic prayer symbol out of transistors, which were colorful, at the same time, he used salvaged spoons as rays coming out from the prayer symbol to symbolize “zakat” (charity). The varying colors of the completed piece also reflected the colors of Burj Al Arab.
While in Dubai, UAE, Pacana won several art competitions, among these are: Dubai Holding’s Sustainable Destination Art Competition in 2016 with his entry -“Majeed Kabeer” ; Burj Al Arab Jumeirah’s Culturally Connected Photography Competition in 2013 with his entry -“Dubai Khor” ; Jumeirah Group’s Ramadan Art Competition with his entry -“Subhaanakah Aalahummah” ; Jumeirah Group’s Waste-to-Art Competition in 2009 with his entry -“Trash Butterfly”.