Social Realist Art Inspired Costume
National Museum of the Philippine’s 137th Anniversary
For National Museum’s Anniversary, we got to wear a costume based on our division. I took inspiration from social realist works from the Fine Arts Division.
The first is “Sabbath of the Witches” by Jaime de Guzman. I find this piece intriguing because of its backstory and how it raises many questions. After attending a dinner at Malacañang’s presidential palace in 1970, the artist scribbled his sentiments in a drawing which he then attached on the reverse side of the dinner invite. That’s why I wear a Filipiniana and Philippine flag earrings and carry a letter envelope as if I’m attending the dinner.
This small but haunting picture possibly draws parallels between the occult ritual of human sacrifice with the Christian ritual of communion, where the bread symbolizes the body. Eleven skeletal figures, one victim, and Elias from Noli Me Tangere–the same number of people in The Last Supper. It makes us wonder what transpired during the dinner, what is Elias doing there, who is the victim, and is this a commentary on society and politics under the guise of the macabre and surreal?
My second inspiration is a diptych: “Bihag” and “Piglas” by Edgar Talusan Fernandez. It has the colors of the Philippine flag which I incorporated into my outfit. I wear ropes around my torso and chains on my wrists just like the man whose hands are tied. I placed the yellow ribbon from the painting in my braid. Instead of formal shoes for a dinner party, I wear combat boots and a tattered red scrap of cloth around my waist, representing times of war. And since I didn’t have the time to make a taxidermied eagle, I placed feathers around my eyes and drew wings using eyeliner.
Over all, the artworks depict a portrait of the Philippines participating in the Sabbath of the Witches on one hand, and the struggle to separate oneself from it on the other.
