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The Philippine STAR 05/30/2006
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Date Posted: 12:34:58 06/02/06 Fri
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Have our Artists found the Filipino Soul?
By Clarissa Chikiamco
The Philippine STAR 05/30/2006
(Winner, Lifestyle Journalism Awards 2006 sponsored by Philippine
Star, Stores Specialists, Inc. and HSBC.)
One of the greatest issues to arise in Philippine art is the search
for its national identity. What, in Philippine art, is Filipino? It
is a tiring debate and one that was particularly hot in the ’60s
and ’70s when art was strongly seen as an instrument in shaping
national consciousness. Despite an agreement that good art is good
art no matter what its context, the issue still haunts those of us
who work in the art scene today, particularly in launching
Philippine art into an international platform, where in a near
borderless world one tries to find the thin lines which delineate
one culture from the next.
More than anything else, subject matter instantly leaps to mind. The
golden sunlight streaming down on pastoral fields where a dalagang
bukid stands smiling – the paintings of Fernando Amorsolo were, and
actually still are, seen as the epitome of the Filipino soul in art.
While I respect Amorsolo, having him as the bastion of the Filipino
in Philippine art as many people uphold him to be treads on
dangerous ground. Still decades later, we have yet to loosen this
stiff fixation for genre. Contests and calendars still largely
revolve around this theme and opportunist artists chug out one farm
scene after another. This bastion is unfortunately being
bastardized. I’d like to think, too, that the Filipino soul,
especially in these modern times, encompasses more than farming,
fishery or beautiful maidens bathing in the river.
Abroad, the taste for the exotic seems alive and well if the e-mail
I received late last year is any indication. A Paris gallery/hotel
was looking for Filipino artworks to display but specifically
mentioned interest in "depictions of Philippine culture and not
works that are too modern or abstract." One young artist then wryly
suggested that they should just go to Mabini for such paintings and
I certainly can’t blame her for being put off. Filipino contemporary
artists feel, directly or indirectly, the pressure to produce
Filipino works, begging the question – can’t Filipino art simply be
good art or must there be something Filipino in it?
This insistence to create something relevant to one’s nationality is
not unique to the Philippines. Alice Miceli, a promising video
artist from Brazil, presented her video artwork "88 from 14,000" on
the Cambodian genocide during the Third Asia-Europe Art Camp last
year. In the open forum, she was peppered with questions – why,
since she is Brazilian, doesn’t she do something on Brazilian
issues? Why is she doing art on Cambodia? She answered wisely, later
reiterating this stance to me in a private discussion we had: "I’m
tired of being asked to produce works on Brazilian issues. An issue
like the genocide in Cambodia appeals to me not as a Brazilian but
as a human being."
Alice’s answer is a reminder that the boundaries for artists today
aren’t what they were only a couple of decades ago. The rapid
progress of globalization means today’s artist could be born in one
nation, raised in another, practice in several countries while
tackling issues on the other side of the continent and having the
art beam all over the world through streaming on the Internet. An
artist in any nation is a global citizen which makes the issue of
national identity a little ineffectual but, I suppose, all the more
relevant.
This brings to the fore an issue that must be reckoned with in the
search for the Filipino identity in art: the Filipino expatriate.
Some of our artists are part of the 10 percent of the Philippine
population who now live abroad, raising even more questions on art’s
Filipino soul. If an artist who has Filipino blood was raised abroad
and studied abroad but tackles Filipino issues – then is his art
Filipino? Or how about the international artist with Filipino blood
who was raised in the Philippines but left to practice abroad with
no obvious Filipino qualities in his or her work? Then there are the
artists with no Filipino blood at all who reside and practice in the
Philippines. Do location, upbringing and blood matter in determining
Filipino art from art made by a Filipino? Of course as far as the
National Artist awards are concerned, only Filipino citizens may be
nominated. (This has everyone clucking their tongues on what a waste
it is that Anita Magsaysay-Ho, a Canadian citizen, has been
disqualified from the race but I suppose a line must be drawn
somewhere.)
With subject matter being too constricting, one tries to find the
Filipino identity through style: there is the baroque mentality, the
love of color and the affinity for graceful and decorative lines.
While these are principally agreed upon as qualities that have
continually surfaced on paintings done by Filipino artists, one has
to ask how applicable are they when dealing with different media?
Nowadays, contemporary art deals with performance, installation,
video and sound and certainly, there haven’t been enough of these
works to see a common quality or to form a judgment on a Filipino
identity.
Putting aside art that directly tackles a Filipino issue or frames
it within a Filipino setting, sometimes trying to find the Filipino
in certain Philippine art is like trying to milk a cow when the cow
isn’t a cow after all. One can have some highfalutin explanation on
why a foreign-looking Philippine painting smacks of Filipino post-
colonialism or what not and occasionally these things are right.
However, also intermittently, they are overreaching. With so many
international influences and the variety of media the artist can
explore that are not endemic to the country, it should surprise no
one that – dare I say it? – sometimes there might not be much
Filipino to find in contemporary Philippine art.
One of my favorite artists Lee Aguinaldo has been said not to care
if his paintings could be deemed as Filipino because his primary
concern is ensuring that a painting is well made. I think this is
where all the best artists take off from as Filipinos are known for
their art all over the world, not because of the art’s Filipino
style or Filipino subject matter, but because of its creativity and
world-class excellence that echoes not just nationally but
universally.
So have our artists found the Filipino soul? I can’t say no, and I
can’t say yes, but, with all the issues that may never be resolved,
I think the answer will always have to be the definite maybe.
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/LIFESTYLE200606030504.htm
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