INREVIEW: PROFILE: SANTIAGO BOSE

Moulded by Art

A Philippine artist tackles his country's past to help people come to terms with the present

By Suh-kyung Yoon/HONG KONG

Issue cover-dated December 14, 2000

WHEN A COUNTRY IS FALLING apart--both economically and politically--art may seem rather frivolous. But to Santiago Bose, a Philippine avant-garde artist, it matters even more.

Paintings and performances have more power to change the Philippines--and the world--he says, than stump speeches and political protests. Does anybody remember the names of the major politicians in late 19th-century France when the Impressionists were painting, the 51-year-old artist asks.

"Politics can move you in the moment, but art can influence you not only for a second but in a lasting way."

His works now on display in Hong Kong don't deal directly with President Joseph Estrada and the political crisis rocking the Philippines. But all silently comment upon it by dealing with what Bose says is the underlying cause--the country's colonial past.

Born in Baguio, a city built by American colonialists as a home from home, Bose is obsessed with this past. And coming of age at Manila's University of the Philippines during the late 1960s, he channelled his energy into political causes.

Activists "were the popular ones, invited to all the cool parties," he says laughing. But when then-President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, he realized that politics could go only so far and went into self-exile to become an artist.

Bose's most successful works are those that deal with post-colonialism. One work displayed in Hong Kong is called Colonizing Taste (Bubblegum). It depicts a group of smart-suited bubblegum salesmen in the 1930s posing in front of the Greek classical Senate Building in old Manila.

"Everything from the way we govern ourselves to even what we think tastes good has been colonized," Bose says. "We Filipinos need to be more grounded in our own culture, discover our own identities, and respect ourselves more."

But the black-and-white photograph is graffitied with hand-scrawled pictures of anting-anting, or traditional Filipino amulets and mythical creatures. Talking of the "yoke of Catholic domination," he explains that the graffiti is symbolic of a truly Filipino spiritualism that needs to be rediscovered and valued. Bose, who believes Catholicism and the Church have helped destroy not only native faiths but also the Philippine economy, declares: "I'm a born-again pagan."

Ayos Ba? ("Is it alright?"), which was created especially for this exhibition, deals with the many Filipinos who work in Hong Kong as domestic helpers. A photo of Hong Kong students is littered with hand-drawn mementoes of Philippine culture--movie posters and Catholic relics. Bose reflects upon the influence of the tens of thousands of Filipinas on the Hong Kong children they take care of.

But while Bose pontificates upon religious and historical themes, he's a child at heart. "All young kids are artists until they forget how to dream and play," he quotes from Picasso. And wearing a T-shirt and dark jeans, in battered boots with the laces coming undone, he certainly looks like he's never grown up. Nor settled down. His conversation covers everything from German Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer to Seventeen, a fashion magazine his daughter edits in the Philippines.

Though he creates art for his own countrymen, Bose has reached more people outside the Philippines so far--an artist of international acclaim, he spends only three months of the year at home these days. The rest of the time is spent pursuing the nomadic existence typical of artists today. "I'm like a rock star without groupies," he says with a grin, twirling an unlit cigarette in his fingers.

But his travels are not simply for his own sake. Bose believes art can be a "cultural lubricant for economic exchange" and hopes that he can get more people interested in the Philippines. "Look at the Chinese avant-garde painters--they are attracting more and more people to find out about China," Bose says. "We need that even more for the Philippines. And not only from others, we Filipinos need to become more interested in ourselves."