mula sa blog ni karl castro
In absentia (Democratic space)
Paper installation on brick wall
Ishmael Bernal Gallery, UP Film Institute
Edition 2
Collaboration with Ivan Reverente, Kendrick Bautista and John Francis Losaria
A part of the exhibit Fact Sheet
organized by Artist's ARREST and KARAPATAN
for Cine Veritas 2008
This installation remains dedicated to Karen Empeño, Sherlyn Cadapan and Manuel Merino.
About the work
The
use of materials relating to children and education hint at Karen and
Sherlyn's home life, as well as their aspirations. Sherlyn was pregnant
at the time of her disappearance. Karen's mother is a primary school
principal, and was at school when she received news of her daughter's
abduction. Both were student leaders during their stay at UP, active in
the youth's fight for basic rights like education, housing, health care
and freedom of expression. Their shared struggle, one tacitly yet
obviously deemed unacceptable by the state, is for a better future for
Filipino children.
By using pages from history textbooks and
language workbooks, the installation deals with the disjuncture between
what is taught and what is learned. In our primary school years, we are
taught the rudiments of language and an extremely simplified, even
inaccurate version of history. As we grow older, we either see through
this and develop a deeper sense of history, or we remain limited by and
within this simplistic historical framework. We develop our language
skills, and informed by our historical understanding and consequent
ideological development, we use them for various ends. Thus, the In
Absentia portraits, like the two women in real life, are more than just
the sum of their parts. In Karen and Sherlyn's cases, they were able to
see beyond the confines of the system they were raised in, and their
disappearance is proof of just how far beyond they have went.
The
inclusion of children's artwork adds to the sense of contradiction
within the work. Children's drawings are often happy and colorful. Yet
in this case, they are drab and monotone. The veneer of innocence is
ruptured by the fascist gesture of tearing, in the same way that lives
are violated by political repression.
Karen and Sherlyn, along
with almost 200 other desaparecidos under the Arroyo regime, are gaping
cracks in the state's humane facade. This work aims to keep their memory
in the university alive, albeit in absentia. And like how paper and
diluted glue poorly adhere to a brick wall, this gesture will never be
enough; it will peel and come off in time. Like Karen and Sherlyn's
struggle, it is an act which must be continuously repeated and
intensified until success renders it unnecessary.
About Karen and Sherlyn
On June 26, 2006, bonnet-wearing
armed men, suspected elements of the 7th Infantry Division, forcibly
entered a house of local folk in Hagonoy, Bulacan and forcibly abducted
Sherlyn, Karen and Manuel Merino, a local farmer. The armed men
introduced themselves as ‘vigilantes.’
Sherlyn, who is two months
pregnant, was hit in the stomach as she was shouting for help.
Witnesses related that the armed men removed Karen’s shirt and used it
to cover her face. They dragged the two women outside and rode off in a
passenger jeepney vehicle.
Until now, Sherlyn and Karen have not
yet surfaced. While the military denied their involvement in their
forced disappearance, Major Gen. Jovito Palparan, head of the 7th ID,
immediately accused them as members of the New People’s Army. In a
statement released after the abduction, Gen. Palparan insultingly said
that ‘they are better off gone.”
Sherlyn and Karen are student
volunteers who went to Bulacan to conduct research on the peasant
situation in the province. They are also known student leaders from the
University of the Philippines (UP).
Sherlyn is an award-winning
triathlete and a former College of Human Kinetics representative to the
UP Diliman Student Council. Karen, on the other hand, is a Sociology
major who was conducting reaserch in the province for the completion of
her thesis. They are also active members of Anakbayan and League of
Filipino Students, respectively. These youth organizations have been
maliciously tagged as ‘communist front organizations’ by the Armed
Forces of the Philippines.
