INAUGURAL EXHIBITION BY IMELDA CAJIPE ENDAYA ON VIEW UNTIL MAY 25
RIGODON, Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s inaugural exhibition at the Silverlens Manila gallery, is on view until May 25.
Rigodon bursts with color, rhythm, and vigor. A renowned feminist, activist and community organizer, Endaya is hailed for her large-scale paintings and mixed media works, as well as her strongly socio-political themes centering the plight of Filipino women throughout history.
Yet, not many people know that in the early years of her career, she created vivid abstract prints. “Almost always I was burdened with guilt at doing abstracts,” Endaya declared in 1987. Today, these abstracts from the mid-1970s reveal a side of the artist that she wants the public to see—one that embraces play, experimentation, and joy.
The works in the exhibition belong to the artist’s decades-long search for Filipino identity. The eponymous work Rigodon (1974) is named after a traditional court dance performed in the Philippines since the Spanish colonial era. It involves precise, elegant movements. Yet, filled with bold, intuitive strokes, Endaya’s Rigodon seems to subtly break free from the dance’s original rigidity—capturing how Filipinos took the traditions imposed on us, imbued it with vibrancy, and made it our own.