Never a dull movement

NEARLY 20 YEARS after the people's power revolution and the height of the social realist movement, politically and socially engaged painting remains vibrant in the Philippines. Nowadays though, it expresses itself as much through mixed media and installation work as through traditional painting.

'We want to make a cultural contribution. If there is something wrong in the Philippines, if the government is dysfunctional then maybe in a small way I can help nurture the consciousness of the masses,' says Alfredo Esquillo Jnr, a popular contemporary painter.

Esquillo explores themes related to desperation, emigration, colonialism and religion through figurative paintings. 'I guess I'm fortunate that I paint what I like. I carry these messages and people appreciate them and relate to them,' he says.

The Philippines' social realist movement and its protest works, led by artists such as Orlando Castillo, Antipas Renato Habulan, Pablo Baens Santos and Edgar Fernandez, evolved after the fall of president Ferdinand Marcos' regime.

The spirit of exploring issues surrounding the struggles of daily life moved on and spread to other art forms like performing arts. In the early 1990s, Grupong Salingpusa, a collective of student artists, took the baton of socially engaged painting and introduced the method of 'interactive mural painting' - creating large murals in minutes and making it performance art. Exploring themes such as isolation and the disconnectedness of urban life, the group split in the mid-90s over disagreement on how political it should be.

Since then, social realism has become one of many expressions among young Filipino artists, with many favouring conceptual and installation works. One such artist is Nona Garcia, who comments on the state of hospitals and medical care through installations.