I. RODEL TAPAYA (PHILIPPINES, B.

1980)
The Girl Who Turned Into A Fish
signed 'Tapaya' and dated '2011' (lower left)
oil on canvas
192 x 152 cm. (75 5/8 x 59 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2011
What do you see in the artwork?
At the beginning of our imaginary journey through this exotic
thicket, the banal question is necessary: what do we actually see or
recognize? Besides the trees reaching into the air, we see also
expanding bushes. Unidentifiable undergrowth. Hills. Lakes. Flowers. Not
only delicate or dainty plants, but also huge leaves or, in the midst of
these, a still life with fruits and vegetables like a proffered gift: all motifs
that could refer to the opulence of paradisiacal nature and
simultaneously to the increasingly incalculable breadth of the cosmic
world. And in addition to this, we see the emergence of animals:
among them are fish with the head of a lady

What is happening in the artwork?

The emergence of the girl-turned-fish is depicting the eldritch narrative
in Philippine mythology. It is inspired by the eight classic water tales
from the Philippines that tell the story of why the sea is salty, how
waterfalls came to be, how a girl turned into a mermaid, and of
human interactions-- punishments for vanity, rewards for humility, and
the triumph of the underdog. Although the painting depicts a man
catching a fish that drops tiny droplets in the body of water and the
emergence of the girl-turned-fish lamenting on the rippled waters
around the vibrant colors of the horizon.

What does each object in the artwork symbolize? What is their

meaning?

Vibrant Colors- It symbolizes the country as a tropical and archipelagic

country
Lady Turned into Fish- My take on it would be Rizals famous quotation
"Ang taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa
mabaho at malansang isda.” which depicts that the girl turned into an
actual fish. The embracing of western culture to the filipinos turned
brown to white.
Tears- Saltiness to one's own self-imagery
What is the message of the artist to its viewers?
The Philippines is an archipelago and consists of 7000 islands. It is Given
that it is diversified in terms of culture, language, and race. In the
bigger picture, diversification must not be a hindrance for us Filipino to
look down on each other but rather embrace our indifferences and
unite as one with a very rich cultural background. The more we are
exposed to a globalized mentality the more people grow “ashamed”
of their lineage. A business of mockery towards their own bloodline. As
new products and cultures are introduced many new experiences like
music, fashion, food, and objects. These products or trades are
hindering our mentality towards our own crafts. The issues paved the
way to even more issues such as mental health and societal
indifference. Beauticians, artisans, and even society based the color of
beauty on western standards. The biased judgment has been the
source of different advertising strategies and business schemes that are
focusing on other people’s insecurities (ex: Color of the skin). The
Filipino society is undoubtedly filled with prejudice mainly on beauty
standards that came from the west with the color white as its constant.

Beyond traditional folktales, the paintings from the series aim to reflect
the reality of today’s Filipino society, although always in a metaphorical
and allegorical manner, highlighting, in particular, its post-colonial
heritage, political dysfunctioning, blatant social inequalities, and
ecological degradations.

According to Tapaya, the Spanish colonizers perpetuated a feudal

system based on Haciendas (landed estates, originally plantations)
that is still at the origin of a current mindset among Filipinos, who tend
to feel infantilized and dependent on the government rather than
seeking their own emancipation. Besides, this system of patronage,
linked to corruption, has led to growing inequalities, increased poverty,
and economic backwardness. “While the Philippines enjoyed a
two-party democratic system, patronage prevented the removal of
corrupt or ineffectual officers, and the Congress populated by mostly
landowning families often delayed passing important land reform
legislation. Towards the end of the 1960s, while many of the country’s
neighbors were industrializing rapidly, economic growth in the
Philippines slowed down, hampered by import substitution policies
favored by the elites.” At independence and during the 1950s, the
Philippines was one of the most advanced countries in Asia. However,
in 2016, 90% of the Filipinos were classified as lower or working class, of
which 27.9% lived below the poverty line. “Despite the economic gains
in the last few years, the poverty situation remained dire. (…) Around
thirty-three percent of children under the age of five had stunted
growth due to malnutrition”
II. Ronaldo Ventura's Human Study (2005)
What is beautiful about the painting?

Introduction to the painting.

Ronaldo Ventura’s Human Study (2005) is a work of big, bold
iconography paired alongside the smallest details. A cornerstone
example of Ventura’s distinctive, heterogeneous artistic style, Sotheby’s
is honored to present his work for auction this season, this piece having
won the 2005 Ateneo Art Award for Visual Arts – one of the Philippines’
most prestigious awards for modern art – and has been publicly
exhibited in both the Ateneo Art Museum, Manila and the Art Center in
SM Megamall, Quezon City as part of his exhibition Human Study. Born
in Manila in 1975, Ventura has rapidly established himself as one of
Southeast Asia’s most audacious contemporary artists, integrating
pressing social phenomena into a diversified range of images and
expressions – whether it be European old master traditions, pop culture,
or caricatures. The present work portrays a sweeping scene of disarray,
all rendered in his signature monochrome palette and disorientingly
realist method. It is especially distinctive and rare for his use of graphite
on canvas, eschewing his customary oils in favor of graphite’s opacity,
yet this piece still retains the signature blending and fluidity of his oil
efforts. The work is sprawling in scale, spanning up to three meters in
length and two meters in height, which grants it a broadly cinematic
perspective. It is no less evocative for its lack of color, and Ventura
constructs his scene in a spectrum of intricate shades spanning from
opaque blacks to translucent whites, to elegant yet haunting effects.
The figures are enclosed in a stark stone chamber, its walls marked by a
network of stains and deep shifting shadow, creating a rippling sense
of movement across the canvas.

This work channels his long-time preoccupation with the shape and
composition of the human form, but also with human conduct or the
acts they commit by extension. As such, bare bodies sprawl and
dominate the canvas, showcasing picturesque reproductions of the
human body in all its anatomical clarity, reminiscent of the
Renaissance-era glorification of the body. However, upon closer
observation, these bodies have become subtly, unsettlingly altered,
such that something so intimate and familiar is now made foreign. A
woman lies stretched across the table in the foreground, her form
classically proportioned, and her pale skin is particularly luminous and
unmarred in contrast with the grime of her surroundings. Strikingly, the
woman lies next to a collection of alcohol bottles and neatly arranged
fruits, while her face and all its features have been obscured by a
barcode, stripping her of all her individualistic ‘identity markers’ and
leaving her anonymous on the table. Above her, a suspended man
hangs within empty space, prominently missing arms and his feet
detached from his calf. His face too is blurred into ambiguity, with
fragments of computer codes or script. The artist demonstrates his
interest in the role and effects of the fast-changing digital world, which
increasingly integrates into real lives and society.

Finally, in jarring contrast to the intricately shaded main figures, the

image is punctuated by minute, cartoon-Esque illustrations of both toy
soldiers and cross-bearing priests in unexpected places on the
periphery, and on the horse’s saddle itself. The work is rife with hidden
symbolism and implicit social criticism.

In the end, Ventura’s piece first commands an audience’s attention

with the richness and gravity of its images, only to progressively reveal
their darker symbolic meanings. A powerful example of Ventura’s deep
artistic vocabulary, the work channels the classical Western obsession
with perfect forms, only for him to viciously subvert them in service of his
larger social consciousness, showing how ideal beauty becomes
deconstructed or distorted. Human Study is an award-winning display
of the artist’s technical and thematic boldness, establishing him as an
icon of Southeast Asian contemporary art.

What is ugly about the painting?

Abstract, but overall disturbing. Blatant nudity in its highest form of

showmanship. The picture transcends into abstract imagery of
profound nudity and transformation distortion of the body.

What is happening in the painting?

The left of the frame is occupied by a figure impossibly suspended in air
and wrapped entirely in plastic. This very image almost seems
womb-like, yet the man is full-grown and visibly constricted as he
pushes and kicks to escape, but ultimately remains entrapped. Finally,
the last man on the right is the only figure whose face is revealed to the
viewer – albeit in side profile and rather stoic. However, this normalcy is
offset by the startling two-headed horse he sits within - rather than
upon. The horse’s naturalistic features are sharply juxtaposed with its
intricate mechanical legs and the wheel attached to them. This
whimsical creature is a product of fragmentation and later
transformation, fusing together polar opposite parts to create a new
imagined object. Ventura’s habit of reconstructing man and beast is a
recurring theme across his career, depicting his post-modern vision of
cyborgs and human-altered nature. This work is a prime example of
what he describes as his ‘layering of realities’ on top of each other,
reproducing, then later subverting conventionally accepted images or
ways of seeing them in dramatic fashion.

Ventura’s painting displays his mastery of a precise, hyper-realistic style,

recreating forms with the fidelity of a photograph. His detailing of light,
shadow, and texture build up the illusion of three-dimensional reality in
the confines of two-dimensional space, such as where light reflects off
the plastic bag’s creases, the soft folds across the tablecloth, or where
the shadows cast the horses’ heads in sharp relief. Yet, this
photorealism is also mingled with graffiti, digital, and pop art sensibilities
throughout, creating a sense of heightened, fantastical reality. The
vertical bars of code and digital distortions are intentionally placed on
the figures, just as if the scene is rendered on a glitching computer
screen.

What is the artist's message to its viewers?

The truth doesn’t matter on a blank canvas which can easily be

painted by the colors of perception. What is important is how other
people see you. Truth is more than meets the eye. Philosophically the
truth is a social construct of common knowledge thus, what is the truth
if the common knowledge is false? The social dilemma is that if you
always see something whether it is true or not, physiologically and
psychologically it is deemed the truth. This has affected many Filipinos
not just the people but the political landscape as they slowly rise back
into power. It would be likely for the past to repeat itself mostly it is not
the rationality and mission that empowers them but rather a delusion. “
Women being underestimated and that it’s useful “ looks can be
deceiving. With those algorithms that show altered information and
fake news. It has the power to disrupt the balance in reality. Many
aspects of our lives are affected, cognitive, psychological,
physiological, and political.
III. Agnes Arellano: The Three Buddhas

Describe the works of Agnes Arellano: The Three Buddhas

Three Buddha Mothers (Tatlong Buddhang Ina)

Maiden, wife, crone. The cycle of birth, life, and death.
My trinity of mothers derives from the many mother-goddess paradigms
in religion and literature - the most important to me being Robert
Graves's Triple Goddess'... This edition (in cold cast marble) is now in the
collection of the Singapore Arts Museum, while the artist's plaster
original is in the safekeeping of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila
where it stands guard at the entrance to the pre-Hispanic gold
collection. The juxtaposition Her works are womanly and divine, yet
have an aura of the grotesque and macabre. The art replicates the
worth feminism that focuses to make society respect the sacrifices that
all the women have been making for their families, parents, and many
others.

Feminism was all about giving respect to women and Equality in

society. But as you read I wrote “ Feminism was “ because nowadays
feminism is not just about this it's have even become a community in
which two types of feminists are there.

What stories can you tell about the works of Agnes Arellano?

A Buddha is someone who has realized the enlightenment that

ends the cycle of birth and death and which brings liberation from
suffering. Buddha is a Sanskrit word that means "awakened one." He or
she is awakened to the true nature of reality, which is a short definition
of what English-speaking Buddhists call "enlightenment."A Buddha is
also someone who has been liberated from Samsara, the cycle of birth
and death. He or she is not reborn, in other words. For this reason,
anyone who advertises himself as a "reincarnated Buddha" is confused,
to say the least. The three Buddhas are the living reincarnates of true
enlightenment of feminism the Real Feminists - This is the belief, the best
type of feminists in this community. because their main aim is to get
women respect and Equality in society. They respect everyone and
they don't want women to be above men, they just want women to be
equal to them in everything whether it's sports, jobs, business, media
reporters, and the government. That is what they want. To ascend into
a higher state of being the three buddhas remind them of the
profound meaning of being a woman.