A survey of art stuff
Researching Filipino Art + Being confused about it + Finding out a meaning of a word = Ramblings straight to your inbox!
I don't know what I've been looking for…
but for the past few weeks I've been letting my curiosities lead the way. I've since found articles about Philippine Art History, browsed so much syllabi, and found different forms of media I'm very interested in researching more about (more on that next time.) It's like school minus deadlines and stress… and I don't really know what I'm doing; whatever it is I'm really content that I have the time to do this.
This is something I wrote in March:
I signed up for an online course with a University I was eye-ing last January. I figured, if I couldn’t afford to move and do Masters, I might as well try a few courses to test my intent and interest for real.
I'm over the politics of heritage, but the concept of “decolonising” narratives (remember this for later haha) has been popping up in the programs I'm interested in. In this course, Heritage Under Threat (at Leiden University), has really given me a sense of importance for intangible heritage, and a deeper understanding of heritage values.
Another interesting thing: I found something on a Heritage FB Group that really piqued my interest in Material Culture. There are profs who got funding to virtually repatriate the library of the Convent of San Pablo that “during the British siege of Manila, the treasures of the Convent of San Pablo were ransacked and its library collection pillaged. The items were sorted and picked through, some auctioned off on site and others left behind.”1 This was really interesting because I've never thought of mapping and finding books (or objects) that are not located in the Philippines. It makes 100% sense that it’s possible to recreate such a library. It would've been even better to actually repatriate these but an online version is just safer I guess.
Let's rewind
Like I said, the concept of “decolonizing” narratives has been an interesting topic for me. Let's check out what it means to decolonize:
Using this definition, to be free from the dominating influence of a colonising power, I ask y’all: Is this possible for a country like the Philippines? Flashback to 1521, we weren't even a /country/, we're just a bunch of different cultures with different languages that had proximity to each other and we had priestesses. To decolonize ourselves we are asking ourselves to go back to our “ethnic tribes” — which negates what is means to be a "Filipino”. Anything “Filipino” person, place, thing, food, architecture, art is a mixture of all the influences be it Western in practice and Asian at heart.
Transnationalismist
ˆ2
It took me a long time to understand what “transnational” meant (perhaps two-years because I never bothered to look it up) until I read Whither Art History in the Non-Western World: Exploring the Other(s) Art Histories by Florina Capistrano-Baker; which I found while I was researching about the Exposicíon General in Madrid (1887) for my Spanish class presentation.
But the first time I encountered the term “transnational” was in Asian Place, Filipino Nation: A Global Intellectual History of the Philippines3 by Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz. The literal first page of the book slash title of the first chapter is “A Transnational Turn of the Century in Southeast Asia”.
In the first chapter she cites two Visayan examples: One where in Samar in 1881 “rumors spread that there was a new king named Conde Leynes, and that a German steamship would arrive and declare that Spain did not own the Visayas Islands”. In the second example, there was a man from Zamboanga in Negros Oriental, Ponciano Elopre, was known as Dios Buhawi (God Watersprout) “announced himself as God, freed his followers from "the obligation to pay Spanish tribute and organized an upland regime.” He also was “reputed to be able to summon rain and to produce coins from a squash or from leaves floating on a river — these coins said to come from America”. From these two examples she derives that there is already a transnationalized setting “in which ideas of social regeneration, and, later, anti-colonial revolution evolved in the Philippines.”
I only really came to understand what all this shit meant when the Capistrano-Baker highlighted works from Juan Luna, Amorsolo, and Fernando Zobel in her article.
Here is an example of Juan Luna's paintings
She says “The European-looking woman, while framed by these two Spanish landmarks (Paseo del Prado, Parque de Retiro), wears accessories that evoke transnational Asian connections. Sumptuously draped around her shoulders is a Chinese silk shawl of the type brought to Spain via the Manila galleon trade, eponymously known as Mantón de Manila. With her back to the viewer, displaying the shawl’s rich embroidery, folds, and fringes to full advantage, she gazes to one side, the contours of her profile in counterpoint to the dramatic sweep of a large Oriental fan she holds up to her face.”
To me transnationalism is basically who we are as Filipinos. Instead of peeling back the layers of colonisation, why isn't it more celebrated to come to understand the connections between us were made? In the article she mentions a very interesting thing: As early as the 19th century, instructors from Spanish art academies came to teach in Philippine academies. The Philippines was making Western-style art and it even led to a point where the Chinese founder of the Singapore Academy studied in the Philippines to Western Art.
Another point I got from reading her article was the fact that Juan Luna knew a lot of Spanish painters. And they probably influenced each other in style. It has been weird to see the names of schools in my town (because schools’ names are important Spanish ppl) be mentioned while reading. Aside from that, this guy probably knew Joaquin Sorolla (a Valencian painter?!?) It was a happy geek moment.
Embarrassing but!
I've learned this before *clown emoji*. Decolonisation still remains to be an interesting topic, but a lot more research can be made after we accept that our colonised influence is a part of our identity. Anyway here's an excerpt from my college thesis just because:
The built heritage influenced by different architectural styles of the colonial era doesn't make the structures any less of "Filipino". Nick Joaquin also problematised these notions, but aside from pin-pointing the pit-falls of how we have come to perceive our identity (or ourselves), he challenges us to accept our colonial past as a sign of our progress. Using different materials and different styles for example, those present in the old buildings we see are still very much "Filipino". Joaquin emphasised that identity can and should be viewed as dynamic, he says that our view of identity has grown to become different, “because we tend to regard culture and even history as static happenings."
For non-Filipinos reading this, yes the British occupied us too.
Those who get it, get it lmao
My copy kindly gifted to me by Clark <3