The politics of the barong Tagalog
WHO WEARS the barong Tagalog most often? Presidents and other political figures. Using the national men’s shirt as her metaphor and metonymy for politicians, artist Ninel Constantino unpacks the meanings and messages of the garment in her solo exhibition, Facade.
Currently on view at the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, Rizal, Facade uses the
barong Tagalog as a canvas and conduit for criticism. Here, the artist, whose background is in industrial design, sewed the
barong by hand into symbols of political power like keys, gavel, and batuta (a policeman’s club). The pieces are beautiful, but you can see that they are hollow and seemingly fragile. The artist intentionally designed them that way.
“My main purpose is to use the barong as a material. I didn’t want to use wire frame or structure or any stuffing. It’s to mirror our leaders today — parang walang (as if they have no) substance, no big plans for the Philippines, and all about self-interest. Kumbaga parang ampaw (in other words, like the hollow rice cake). From there, doon na ako naglaro (that is where I played). My discipline was that I shouldn’t use wire frames no matter how tempted I was. Syempre gusto mo nang mas complicated structure, pero hindi eh, kailangan tahi lang talaga (of course you would like a more complicated structure, but no, it really had to be sewn only),” Ms. Constantino told
BusinessWorld during her exhibition’s launch on Oct. 14.
The daughter of historian Renato Constantino said the statement behind Facade isn’t necessarily a reaction to the upcoming national elections in 2019. “It’s not really about that only, or even about the current leadership, but, it’s all about the start — kung sino man ang leaders natin ngayon (whoever are our leaders now), it’s a result of our past leaders before them. It’s all about that,” she said.
The artist’s father, back in 1959, wrote a classic observation of Filipino politicians. As quoted in the exhibition’s notes by art critic and writer Carlomar Daoana, Mr. Constantino once wrote: “With a few notable exceptions, the Filipino politician presents a pitiful figure. Because of the shallowness, vulgarity, lack of worthy purpose, and unashamed corruption of many politicians, political leadership in the Philippines has lost prestige.”
“Everything has become a facade, a pretense,” said Ms. Constantino.
The process behind making her works was elaborate. She used heat for the barong to take shape, and then she handstitched the structure she formed to reinforce the shape.
“Maganda sa barong (what is nice about the barong is) the structure stays after ironing it. But instead of using [an] iron, I used [a] heat gun, so it formed a structure, and then, I sewed it.”
The artist has already had more than 10 solo shows, but this is the first time she has done a social commentary.
“Before, it has always been very personal, about my personal memories and relationship. This is my first time to go beyond that,” said the artist who is a faculty member of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Fine Arts.
She said she started out doing paintings. “Feeling ko it’s a natural progression. I am an industrial designer by training so we always work in 3D objects but I have always wanted to do paintings. Slowly, it’s becoming objectbased. Hindi ko na lang pinipigalan ang sarili ko (I stopped holding myself back),” she said.
This is the first time she has used barong Tagalog as a medium. “I’m always excited about exploration, which becomes the impetus for my works.”
Facade runs until Oct. 28 at the Pinto Art Museum. —