[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Dogs and symbols’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RHICK LARS VLADIMERALBAY
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#0a0a0a’]
Saturday, January 7, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=’custom’ color=’#0a0a0a’]
ON exhibit now and only until Monday, Jan. 9, at Casa Real Gallery is “Precious Memories,” the first solo show of emerging Ilonggo artist Leoniel “Sabrec” Cerbas.
“Precious Memories” is a gripping visual narrative of the struggles and harsh realities of a young painter coming from an underprivileged family. Sabrec, through his artwork, tells the story of taking on numerous odd jobs at a very young age — pedicab driver, warehouse laborer, scrap collector — to help provide for his family, living in a dilapidated informal settlement along the coast of Iloilo City.
A recurring subject in Sabrec’s show is the images of dogs. In “The Leftovers” feral askals (asong kalye) fight for bones and scraps thrown from a high mahogany table. “In the Realm of the Master” shows similarly ferocious dogs standing guard at the foot of a woman on a throne.
The symbolism is most telling in Sabrec’s visual odes to his mother and father. In “Maternal Machine,” dedicated to his Nanay Lorna, puppies crowd a maternal dog for milk and nourishment as an old Singer sewing machine towers above them. Sabrec notes that his mother used to toil at the contraption in their humble home until 3 o’clock in the morning to provide for her children.
“Dog Eaters,” inspired by Sabrec’s father, is a more visceral canvas: the painting of a suffocating sack is exhibited alongside the tools of a berdugo — a knife, a bat, a butcher’s block — retelling how his father was among those who took part in the slaughter and eating of stray dogs.
Oddly the most personal piece in the collection is not “Dog Eaters” or “Maternal Machine” but “The Breadwinner,” Sabrec’s self-portrait. It depicts him lying wide awake on top of a papag, seemingly bothered, anxious and restless, and surrounded by dogs in deep slumber.
It is not immediately apparent, but Sabrec has chosen to cast some of the characters in his life as dogs, giving his artworks a profoundly deeper meaning on second inspection.
I visited the exhibit with a friend, and she asked why I think Sabrec choose to substitute dogs for people in his paintings. My answer was simple: “Maybe because people often feel sympathy more toward animals than their fellowmen.”
In what has become an inescapable issue, the people behind “Oro,” which was part of the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival, allegedly slaughtered real dogs for a scene. This led the MMFF’s executive committee to recall the film’s Fernando Poe Jr. Memorial Award. Amid widespread public backlash, “Oro” was pulled out from major cinemas.
I am vehemently against animal cruelty. I also believe the filmmakers should be fined and punished for their malpractice, as well as apologize for lying to the public before the truth was revealed. But it speaks volumes when a country is hardly bothered by the rising number of drug-related killings (now at 6,000, according to the Philippine National Police) but is up in arms against the untimely fate of two furry creatures.
Don’t get me wrong. We have three pet dogs at home, and I care for one of them myself. I’ve had pets I love more than most people I know, and two years ago I bawled for an unhealthy amount of time when our puppy Khal died of parvovirus.
But it just baffles me why there is no similar outrage and uproar against the daily killings piling on the Philippines.
The controversy has also taken away the attention from the story “Oro” wishes to tell: the 2014 Barangay Gata, Caramoan massacre in Camarines Sur that left four small-scale miners dead at the hands of the government-sanctioned Task Force Sagip Kalikasan that wished to exploit the gold-rich community.
About a month ago, The New York Times published a hard-hitting front-page piece titled “They’re Slaughtering Us Like Animals,” referencing a quote from a local when a journalist visited the scene of a vigilante killing in Metro Manila. This alone is an ironic and telling sign.
Another discerning artwork in Sabrec’s “Precious Memories” is “Sunday Servant,” which is inspired by the painter’s experience as a houseboy cleaning after a rich woman’s pedigree dog. It shows a cute canine sitting on an ornate throne with plush pillows, and from beneath the chair emerges the battered limbs of a person, carrying the weight of the dog on his back./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
