Whitestone Gallery Singapore is pleased to present “Happy Together: Visions of Gladness from Southeast Asia”, an exhibition that explores how happiness is expressed, shared, and celebrated across cultures. From immersive installation to bold visual expression, it captures the rich emotional landscape of Southeast Asia — where laughter, tradition, and togetherness converge. It reveals happiness not as a fleeting emotion, but as something intentionally nurtured, shaped by the strength found in unity, even in adversity.

Goldie Poblador is a Filipino artist whose practice explores the interactions of scent, glass, performance, and the female body. She is best known for her multi-sensory installations rich in symbolism. In this conversation we explore how the artist unpacks themes of colonial history, ecological loss, and cultural memory, offering sensory experiences that are both intimate and provocative through her glass flameworking. Poblador’s delicate, perfume-infused sculptures and immersive installations engage the senses beyond sight, becoming vessels for storytelling that reimagine myths and reassert narratives through the lens of femininity, identity, and indigenous knowledge.

Goldie Poblador “Turbinaria Peltata V with Hypseodoris Apolegma” 2025, 35.5 x 28.0 x 20.0 cm, Hand blown glass

- What initially drew you to working with glass as a medium, and how has it shaped your artistic voice?

Poblador: I started working with glass when I was an undergraduate at the University of the Philippines. I wanted to create an ironic perfume bar then, and it made sense to learn to make my own bottles. From the moment I first tried it, I was hooked. I knew, I just had to learn more. Now I have regular glass practice, like practicing the piano or a sport. The discipline of glass is a lot like dance. There is a set choreography you must know, learn and imbibe and it only comes through when you practice… a lot. This quality of glass is exciting, and it keeps me wanting to be able to outdo my last work somehow or do it better. I believe my focus on glass also led me to performance. I started to realize part of my work is attunement, embodiment.

Close up

- Your works invite the audience not just observe but to feel, smell, and remember. How do you balance this integration of scent, glass, and narrative in your sculptures? 

Poblador: When I made my first scent based work in 2009, I knew there were so many more elements that could have worked better. I just kept experimenting since then. When I get an idea sometimes it takes time to grow. Sometimes I’ll get a sound idea or a scent idea when doing everyday things like walking down a busy sidewalk. Then part of my work I know is finding experts I can collaborate with in their specialized fields. For this piece at Whitestone, the scent you have is made by the artist and perfumer M Dougherty.  Then, when it comes to glass, I just try to be consistent. Even during less busy seasons, I like to maintain a practice that keeps me sharp and ready for when I’m called on again. 

Goldie Poblador “Turbinaria Peltata IV” 2025, 29.0 x 28.0 x 22.0 cm, Hand blown glass

- What challenges have you encountered working with such tactile and sensory materials like glass and scent, and how have they pushed your practice?

Poblador: I had to leave my home to learn them all! That has definitely been the most difficult part, is learning to assimilate in new cultures, not just materially but socially as well. Glass and scent are both things associated with luxury. Both art forms require enormous patience when it comes to access to materials and the costs associated with that. Access to studio time, and knowledge have been challenging, especially not being from a culture known for either glass or scent. However, I believe the gift of this practice is grit, and the joy of learning and mastering something.  

Goldie Poblador “Hypeselodoris Apolegma V” 2023, 46.0 x 35.5 x 20.0 cm, Hand blown glass

- Are there any new materials or disciplines you are interested in exploring in the near future?

Poblador: This is a little bit of a teaser, but I’ve just decided to incorporate a new artform into my next performance. A lot of the work for ROM involves human body parts morphing into the endangered coral from the Verde Island Passage. This is inspired by Filipino folk traditions of attributing human-like qualities to plants and animals through the transformation of human to plant or animal. In the case of ROM, its animals, by the way - since corals look like plants but are actually animals! I have decided to borrow from the oral tradition of passing down these myths through song. It's something very new so it's still rough. It is rooted in the personal family history of my grandfather on my father’s side publishing a book that included epic poetry and mythology and then my mother’s side being from a region of the Philippines that practiced the performance of reciting poetry. This was known as balagtasan, and is also the region where the national poet of the Philippines is from. Let's see where this goes!

Happy Together: Visions of Gladness from Southeast Asia