Everyday Pinoy Culture Writ Large

by Augusto Villalon
Sept 20, 2004 :: Inquirer News Service

IT'S a common misconception that preserving cultural heritage happens within a vacuum.

Preserving old buildings or historic towns as monuments is pointless when daily life is excluded from the heritage structures. Heritage goes beyond old buildings, historic towns and traditional landscapes. It includes the visual arts, music, literature and crafts. Fashion, cuisine and even our political and social history are part of heritage as well.

The ordinary is heritage, too. What we see as ordinary, everyday street life is a reflection of our shared heritage that is the basis of our unmistakable Pinoy identity.

Brilliant color

Prints by Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi (on view until Oct. 5 at the Hiraya Gallery, 530 UN Ave., Ermita, Manila) seize images from our collective memory to show that tradition does provide the basis for us to make sense of our turbulent present.

The imagery of her prints reinterprets some of the deep-seated currents in the Pinoy collective memory, particularly Christian and folk religious beliefs. Although the images are rooted in the past, nostalgia is absent from her work, which is skillfully executed in brilliant color viscosity.

The other misconception that she disproves is that culture is for the elite. Her images-among them anting-antings, Madonnas, pinball machines-are all everyday objects that are part of the lives of the ordinary Pinoy. She digs into this eclectic store of traditional Pinoy folk imagery and surfaces with incisive social commentary on our present situation.

While each day brings our present national situation closer toward Doomsday, her sense of humor diffuses the situation, a reaction typical of Pinoys when faced with difficult situations.

The childlike simplicity of her polychromed Madonnas cradling fat babies remind one of centuries of blind Filipino faith that the Blessed Virgin will always work miracles for those who believe.

The anting-anting takes on new meaning. No longer an amulet to hang around the neck, the item is blown up, enlarged and stretched to take over entire T-shirt fronts. Thus, Gelvezon Tequi transforms it into a bigger, improved talisman with increased protective power for its bearer.

Her series of pinball machines promise heavenly rewards for those who have taken the time to acquire the skill to overcome the uncertainty of the game. Dropping another coin into the slot instantly offers a second chance. Nothing is ever lost.

Redemption and resilience

The theme running through her work is that redemption is always at hand, and that the Pinoy always bounces back.

As the exhibition notes state: "The proverbial resilience of the modern Filipinos during times of crisis is the piece de resistance in the humor and wit of the graphic works of Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi.

"In her earlier prints, she sets a subjective scenario of the Doomsday fears with a take-off from video games littered with Hollywood sci-fi sets. Here she digs into the smugness of Filipinos who adapted themselves to the escapist graphics of video games.

"In her next series, she picks up the reliance of the Filipinos on the wishful invocations to the protecting spirits of the lowly anting-anting (talisman). She suggests that the fantasy lies in the relationships of shapes and the etched graphics.

"On the same level of pun, she takes up the pageantry of the Marian icons as a figure of succor for various personal needs.

"Overall, Tequi's works are a sly and impudent look into the extravagances of the Filipinos' imagination as a face-off during moments of crisis. The so-called resilience is, in fact, a lackadaisical attitude and a circumvention away from realities.

"...Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi [is] a sensitive observer of the Filipino spirit."

Yes, she strikes that chord of collective memory that resonates in all of us Pinoys. Her images bring memories and shared values back to life, strong reminders for us that our heritage is, indeed, unique and special, and worth preserving.