OT
GROUP EXHIBITION BY:
Anjo Bolarda, Sarah Conanan, Bam Garibay, Nina Garibay, Lance Gomez & Roger Mond
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Reconsider the Lilies
“Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud. Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.”
– Judyth Hill “Wage Peace”
In May 1, 1886, the Haymarket Square in Chicago was the site of union demonstrations in support of the eight-hour workday. On May 4 of the same year, a bomb exploded in the police ranks wounding 67 policemen, of whom seven died. The police opened fire, killing several protesters and wounding 200. This incident became known as the Haymarket Tragedy. In 1889, the tragedy as well as the struggle for an eight-hour working day was commemorated by declaring May 1 as International Labor Day.
Entitled “O.T.” abbreviation for “overtime” or working beyond the prescribed eight hours, the concept for this exhibit fuses the Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May), a Catholic festival celebrating the Virgin Mary, with Mayo Uno (Labor Day) as an ode to Filipina labor. The month- long Flores de Mayo culminates in the much-awaited Santacruzan, a religio-historical pageant that depicts the finding of the True Cross by Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. The pageant features the town’s local beauties, celebrities and patrons parading in lush gowns as “Queens” or different personifications of Mary. For the exhibit, each artist were assigned a specific Queen: Anjo Bolarda – Reina de los Flores (Queen of Flowers), Bam Garibay – Reina Esperanza (Queen Hope) , Nina Garibay – Reyna de los Martires (Queen of Martyrs), Lance Gomez – Reina dela Verdad (Queen of Truth), Sarah Conanan – Reyna Sentenciada (Queen Convicted) and Roger Mond – Reyna Elena (Queen Helena).
Flowers have traditionally been identified with feminine ideals owing to their resemblance to the female genitalia. As women have long been a symbol of life, by giving birth, breastfeeding and being fertile, so by association have flowers as reproductive organs of flowering plants. Through industrialization and the onset of global capitalism however, women began to play new roles as breadwinners by going to work as part of the labor force. In this system, they not only create and nourish their immediate family, they create and provide for the world. And yet, while they accomplish their new tasks, they are still burdened with traditional domestic roles. In neon- colored caricatures incorporating macabre and pop imagery, Bam Garibay and Anjo Bolarda tackle the invisibility and oppressiveness of domestic labor ironically in their reimagining of the Queen Hope and the Queen of Flowers as the housewife (“Simmer”), the provincial lass hired as nanny (“Shake Well”), and the flower (Slice of Life 2), fruit and food vendors (Slice of Life 3 and Slice of Life 2) respectively.
Following this colorful procession, Sarah Conanan, Nina Garibay and Lance Gomez interprets the Queen Convicted, Queen of Martyrs and the Queen of Truth in somber, dead hues reflective of their take on the loss of justice for most Filipina laborers working in the country or abroad. Conanan’s “Wings, Wings” an installation of pairs of white organza gloves with red strings as shackles, forming wings or an X-mark on an organza grid evoke the weightlessness of the pleas for justice of detained female activists, some of them mothers, who are victims of red-tagging.
At first glance, Roger Mond’s party-vibe tongue-in-cheek renditions of the 1980’s Hotdog hit “Annie Batungbakal” provide comic relief. You can almost dance to the disco tune’s upbeat lyrics about Annie, who is “Sa umaga, dispatsadora, sa gabi siya’y bonggang-bongga!” But upon closer inspection, the pent-up angst in the saleslady’s face is unmistakable even when she ‘transforms’ as the queen of the dance floor, wearing the bag she is selling at the mall while clutching a beer bottle.
Following this colorful procession, Sarah Conanan, Nina Garibay and Lance Gomez interprets the Queen Convicted, Queen of Martyrs and the Queen of Truth in somber, dead hues reflective of their take on the loss of justice for most Filipina laborers working in the country or abroad. Conanan’s “Wings, Wings” an installation of pairs of white organza gloves with red strings as shackles, forming wings or an X-mark on an organza grid evoke the weightlessness of the pleas for justice of detained female activists, some of them mothers, who are victims of red-tagging.
At first glance, Roger Mond’s party-vibe tongue-in-cheek renditions of the 1980’s Hotdog hit “Annie Batungbakal” provide comic relief. You can almost dance to the disco tune’s upbeat lyrics about Annie, who is “Sa umaga, dispatsadora, sa gabi siya’y bonggang-bongga!” But upon closer inspection, the pent-up angst in the saleslady’s face is unmistakable even when she ‘transforms’ as the queen of the dance floor, wearing the bag she is selling at the mall while clutching a beer bottle.
