Anti-War Painting Pulled Out from Makati Exhibit

Not only a documentary film on the lifestyle of a public official and other controversial news are being censored or threatened with censorship nowadays.  Even a painting found by an envoy insulting to President Gloria Macapagal has been pulled out from a public exhibit.

By Ronalyn V. Olea
Bulatlat.com

Not only a documentary film on the lifestyle of a public official and other controversial news are being censored or threatened with censorship nowadays.  Even a painting found by an envoy insulting to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was ordered removed three hours before the opening of an exhibit in Makati City.

Dindo Llana's Naku! was removed Sept. 30 during the opening of  the exhibit Letras y Figuras: Contemporary Idioms on Idea and Identity. Spanish Ambassador Ignacio Sagaz refused to keynote the exhibit’s opening program where Llana's painting which he found offensive to President Macapagal-Arroyo is shown. 

Officials of Instituto Cervantes and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), co-organizers of the exhibit, and host Ayala Museum concurred with the ambassador’s position.

Letras y Figuras (literally, letters and figures), is a genre of painting that makes clever use of imagery to form texts that often spell out the names of people who patronize them.  It flourished in the Philippines from 1845 up to 1930, a period which marked the last century of Spanish rule and the first decades of American occupation. 

The press release on the exhibit reads: Letras y Figuras: Contemporary Idioms on Idea and Identity collectively refer to the basic formal elements of the Letras y Figuras without necessarily adhering to the intents and aesthetics of the traditional genre.  Overall, it shows how image and text are used by Filipino artists today to encode their perception of current dilemmas ranging from cultural and personal displacement, to tensions brought by living in a nation caught in constant political and economic flux.

Llana's work shows Macapagal-Arroyo with a U.S. warplane as her nose.  Inscribed are the words “weapon of masa (Filipino people) destruction.”  Large texts that read Na.Coup,Ha! provide the background, an allusion to the Oakwood mutiny.  The words “Dirty Laundry” and “Ang saya-saya Toh!” (Very happy Toh) refers to the Jose Pidal expose.  

Karen Flores, a member of the Committee on Visual Arts of the NCCA, said in a letter to fellow artists, "What is unfortunate is that none of these institutions wished to take official responsibility for the decision."

Informed of the decision, Llana only requested that a statement be placed in the exhibition explaining why his work was pulled out when his name had already appeared in the press releases and the invitation.

The request was rejected.  There was a suggestion from the directors to instead place in the notes that Llana’s work came late.  The was also rejected thus leaving no explanation at all for the 11^th hour decision to remove Llana’s work.

Llana brought his painting to the Ayala Museum as early as Aug. 29.  Bulatlat.com  

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