Filipina: A Racial Identity Crisis

By: Pacita Abad

Presented by: Kurt Palacio - MEE21

 TOPIC OUTLINE

ARTIST THE PAINTING

SUBJECT AND CONTENT CONCLUSION

ARTIST
PACITA ABAD
(FILIPINO, 1946–2004)

A contemporary painter from Basco, Batanes, Philippines. She

attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and The
Art Students League in New York, NY, where she studied painting. A
well-known painter and activist knew for her prismatically colored
canvases and defiant mixed-media techniques. Her early works
were primarily figurative and social or political, addressing issues
such as hunger. Her work then evolved to encompass naturalist
subjects, which she was inspired by during her trips to far-flung
locales.

She is a painter who paints intuitively, but with strong social

awareness, and my early work frequently addressed global societal
themes. She firmly believes that, as an artist, she bears a societal
responsibility for her artwork to improve our society.
ARTWORK
PACITA ABAD’S FILIPINA:
A RACIAL IDENTITY CRISIS
(1990)

Analysis

Subject: Social Status

Factual meaning:
Racial discrimination/Gender inequality

Conventional meaning:
Sexism keeps women at a lower social status than
men.

Subjective meaning:
Equality applies to everyone, regardless of skin color,
culture, or religion.

Subject:
It refers to two women: the austere mestiza Maria Isabel Lopez and the
earthy kayumangqi Liwayway Etnika. They portray the contrasting racial
strains that end up making the modern Filipina unique and unsure of who
she is beyond her skin color.

Content:
She tries to deconstruct how identity is formed, particularly in the
context of male-dominated experiences, sexual abuse and exploitation of
women, and the unique challenges that women face when traveling abroad
for work. Ever since people tend to see women as less of a person than
men. Discrimination based on sex or gender favors or prioritizes one sex or
gender over the other.

Form:
She makes flat and trapunto paintings (three-dimensional artworks
created by stitching and filling canvases) called "The Filipina: A Racial
Identity Crisis," which are painted in acrylic on handwoven cloth and
adorned with colored yarn, beads, and gold thread demonstrating a free
and resourceful personality.
CONCLUSION
Women are still discriminated against in some societies based on their gender.
They don't have the same rights as males do. Women are still held to a high
standard by their society and family. Women are unable to go out late at night or
with men.

Giving women the right to be enabled is what empowerment is all about.

Women can have equal access to education, society, the economy, and politics.
Women can participate in society because they have the freedom to select their
religion, language, work, and other activities. Empowerment also helps to prevent
domestic violence since people value and promote women. Women are not
abused in any way, including sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.

There are lots of things that are women can do that men can't. Close-minded
people are the ones who are degrading the rights of women. Acting superior
because of masculinity is a toxic trait that a person can have.
 REFERENCES
Artnet. (n.d.). Pacita Abad. Retrieved March 22, 2022 from
http://www.artnet.com/artists/pacita-abad/biography

Brittany. (n.d.). Capturing the Essence of Feminism Through Artworks in the Philippines.
Retrieved March 22, 2022 from https://www.brittany.com.ph/blogs/feminism-through-
artworks-in-the-philippines/

FILIPINA: A RACIAL IDENTITY CRISIS, 1990. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2022 from
https://pacitaabad.com/artworks/categories/4/224-immigrant-experience-filipina-a-racial-
identity-crisis-1990/

Ocula. (n.d.). Pacita Abad. Retrieved March 22, 2022 from https://ocula.com/artists/pacita-
abad/
THANK YOU!