IT was in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached Philippine shores under the banner of the Spanish Empire after pledging allegiance to King Charles I, following a fallout with Portugal’s King Manuel over rewards for his services. His arrival sparked more than three hundred years of Spanish rule and led to the establishment of a new religion in these parts.
This year marks 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, which remains the only major predominantly Catholic nation in Asia. In line with the quincentenary, Art Cube Gallery presents the latest solo exhibition of acclaimed Filipino visual artist Emmanuel “Manny” Garibay, titled Repaso.
Despite its definition, Repaso is not so much a straight examination of Christianity in the Philippines for the past half-millennium as it is an extension of Garibay’s extensive critique of the dark colonialism from which it stems. The satirical storyteller once again presents rich visual narrations about faith and its complex truths veiled under convenient ignorance promoted over centuries.
These stories—this struggle—after all, as Garibay suggests, remain pervasive precisely because they are cyclical.
The son of a Methodist preacher, and an alumnus of the University of the Philippines Diliman who actively participated in the protest movement of the late 1980s, Garibay understands the Christian mission as well as the plagues of society. The scholar of theology and social realist has often woven the two over his prolific career as he explores the forces that shape the Filipino psyche.
In Repaso, Garibay challenges the viewers yet again to keep their eyes peeled and see things for what they are, and not what they are presented to be.
The artist utilizes three mediums and a range of biblical and literary references to advance his discourse. He created artworks using oil on canvas, oil on wood and acrylic on paper to tell stories that depict the exile of Eva and Adan from the proverbial garden, allude to the rape of Maria Clara, and more.
We see in the oil painting, titled Sa Kabila, three higher powers sharing a seat on a yellow couch, impervious to the small souls surrounding them.
Suot, meanwhile, shows a man in the guise of the divine.
Indeed, as the exhibition note reads, Garibay’s latest one-man show “highlights how celebrating the past five centuries successfully hides the extractive and violent colonization that made Christianity possible, as well as how the institutions that sustain Christianity also miss its underlying messages toward creating a more just and equal society.”
Repaso opened over the weekend and is on view until July 17 at Art Cube Gallery on a by-appointment-only basis.
Art Cube is at Second Floor, Building B, Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue Extension in Makati City. More information is available via 8816-7758 or info@artcubephilippines.com.