At the CCP: Looking Back at Martial Law

Jaime de Guzman, "Sabbath of the Witches", oil on canvas, 1970

How to encapsulate a pivotal decade in our recent history?  Recollection 1081:  Clear and Present Danger (Visual Dissent on Martial Rule), the exhibit now on view at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, attempts to capture the climate of protest under Martial Law. Not an easy exercise given the broad timeline and the complex issues that marked that period, from 1972 to 1981.

Forty years ago this September, President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081, the declaration of Martial Law that marked the beginning of his one-man rule. This is an exhibit of mostly paintings and prints produced in reaction to the curtailment of political freedom under a dictatorship.  The show does not claim to be all encompassing and complete.  It barely skims the surface of work that remonstrated against the oppression of that era.

The pieces range across various periods, from the 1970s, the early Martial Law years, to the mid-1980s, circa the EDSA Revolution that toppled the Marcos government.  Students of Philippine history know that these different spans of time fostered distinct modes of protest.  You don’t get a sense of those variations in this show, though, nor does the viewer get a context from which the artists practiced. Did any of them work together, influence the other? The exhibit does not seem to delve very deeply or expound on those questions. There seems to be no demarcation between work done before or after the Aquino assassination, an important catalyst for the protest movement.

What the exhibit does give us are rarely seen choice works from private collections.  I enjoyed viewing Jose Tence Ruiz’s political cartoons from the 1980s, from his own collection, and Benedicto Cabrera aka Bencab’s etchings from the 1970s, from the CCP’s collection. Also great to see: paintings by Charlie Co from the early 1980s, darker and more sinister than his work today, and Ang Kiukok’s series of works on paper, Scream I and II.

Both Tence Ruiz and Bencab also presented new work, the only two artists who did so.  Bogie’s Revolution Evolution Pixelation is a digital print on tarpaulin with portraits of Martial Law’s two key figures: President Marcos in 1972 and his secretary of National Defense, Juan Ponce Enrile, in 2012, now the Senate President.  Their images have been enlarged to a point that they appear so pixelated, you can only distinguish their forms from behind a camera’s lens.

Ben’s 21st Century Proclamation is a digital drawing based on an etching from the 1970s that carries a similar composition.  The original centers on a soldier shown from behind, marching on to confront both government and political protesters.  The later piece depicts the ordinary citizen, also from behind, marching under a profusion of yellow ribbons.

Elsewhere in the CCP: works from Rick Rocamora, an award-winning Filipino American photojournalist at the Pasilyo Vicente Manansala, the 2nd Floor corridor, and Tony Dezuñiga, the late Filipino comics book illustrator, creator of the Jonah Hex character, at the 4th floor’s Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo.

Recollection 1081:  Clear and Present Danger (Visual Dissent on Martial Rule) runs from 14 July to 30 September 2012 at the Bulwagang Juan Luna (Main Gallery) and Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino, 3f, Cultural Center of the Philippines, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City.  Phone (632) 832-1125 to 39 or visit http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph

Ang Kiukok, "Scream II", pen and ink on paper, 1983, and "Scream I", oil on paper and collage, 1980, Private Collection

Bencab, "21st Century Proclamation", digital drawing,2012 and "1080", etching aquatint, 1975, Artist's Collection

Bencab, "Untitled (Philippine Flag)", etching, 1975, CCP Collection

Bencab, "Pinoy Worker Abroad", etching, 1975, CCP Collection

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Revolution Evolution Pixelation", digital print on tarpaulin, 2012

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Boxing With The PCO: Macoy Vs. The CCP", pen and ink on board, 1983 for WHO Magazine, Artist's Collection

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Inhuman Wrongs", pen and ink on paper, 1985 for National Midweek Magazine, Artist's Collection

Charlie Co, "Political Prostitute", oil on canvas, 1984, Artist's Collection

Al Manrique, "Untitled", oil on canvas, circa 1980, Vir O. Montecastro Collection

Anna Fer, "Favali At Ang Iba Pang Biktima", oil on canvas, 1987, Ateneo Art Gallery Collection

Anna Fer, "Paano Maibabalik ng Eleksyon Ang Demokrasya Kung Ang Bayan Ay Gapos ng Diktadura", Offset print on plywood, 1984

Pablo Baens Santos, "Panangis Ni Ina", acrylic on canvas, 1973

Pablo Baens Santos, "Malumbay Si Ina", oil on canvas, 1983, Rafael Benitez Collection

Pablo Baens Santos, "Krista (Female Christ)", oil on canvas, 1984, Ateneo Art Gallery Collection

Benjie Torrado Cabrera, "For Hire", A/P, intaglio, circa 1981, Artist's Collection

Brenda Fajardo, "Salvaging", pen and ink and tempera on paper, 1986, Artist's Collection

Antipas Delotavo, "Itak Sa Puso ni Mang Juan", watercolor on paper, 1978, Alex Tee Collection

Edicio dela Torre, "Notes for a Theology of a Struggle", acrylic on canvas, 1984, Artist's Collection

At the foreground, Edgar Tulusan Fernandez, "Kinupot", wood and fabric, 1978, Ateneo Art Gallery Collection

By Heber Bartolome

Junyee, "Mate N Four", published at The Philippine Collegian, 1972 and 1973

Onib Olmedo, "Sakada", oil on canvas, 1978, Private Collection

Orlando Castillo, "Iba't Ibang Uri ng Torture ii (Alay sa Bilanggong Pulitika)", etching, 1978, DLSU Museum Collection

Virgilio Aviado, "Molotov Cocktail", lithograph, 1970, CCP Collection

Renato Habulan, "Kaayusan Sa Aguilang Pananaw", oil on canvas, 1983, Private Collection

Santiago Bose, Untitled, mixed media on paper, 1981, Manuel Buncio Collection

Detail

Phyllis Zaballero, "August 21", acrylic on canvas, 1983, Artist's Collection

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