Organized biennially by the Design Center of the Philippines, the Good Design Award Philippines (GDA) champions a distinctly Filipino approach to design rooted in malasakit (caring). It posits that good design goes beyond balancing form, function, and innovation—it creates meaningful solutions that respond to society’s most pressing challenges. The awards also advances the United Nations […]
‘Creatures of Apathy’ Explores the Grotesque Sides of Humanity
Illustrator Paul Eric Roca is known as a political cartoonist and for his book illustration. Both roles utilize bizarre, fantastical images to contrast with the mundanity of everyday life. For Creatures of Apathy, however, Roca finds himself tapping into creating monstrous images to reflect the horrible natures hiding within every society.
Showing at Altro Mondo Creative Space until February 22, Creatures of Apathy finds Roca conjuring surreal images of torture as familiar shapes become freakish and alien to our typical feelings. At times, Roca plays around with hellish art that would look appropriate for something like Disney’s Fantasia, if hopelessness was a part of the Disney brand.
“Roca conjures monstrous figures that reflect the fragmentation of contemporary society,” the write-up said. “These figures, strangely familiar yet disturbingly unfamiliar, are metaphorical signposts of a world on the brink, offering cautionary tales woven from personal experience and the daily onslaught of political turmoil.”
Embodying the Decay of Society
With Roca’s experience as a political cartoonist in publications like The Manila Bulletin, one would think that would take center stage in the exhibition. And at times, it does; “Birth of Malaise,” for example, would definitely fit in alongside caricatures of politicians and such.
But while every painting here feels larger than life, Creatures of Apathy reminds one more of his children’s books like Si Ching na Takot sa Dilim. In that book, the child feels haunted by different fearsome visions of the night, only remedied by the light. In the end, the child finds comfort in the vastness of nature and the light it emanates.
Unfortunately, no comfort like that exists for Creatures of Apathy. Roca gives us what amounts to a nihilistic depiction of a flawed society where anger and unrest is the norm. There is no comfort in these images; only horror.
Some of the shadow work found in Si Ching na Takot sa Dilim can also be seen in “Incantation 01-04.” Those are a series of paintings by Roca that portray the melted visage of a human face, hovering across a background of hellfire and darkness. It is haunting and hopeless, looking like surrealist interpretations of quasi-religious exploitation films like Manos: The Hands of Fate.
“His works are steeped in the tension of an unpredictable future, where each brushstroke underscores the precariousness of existence,” the exhibit write-up said. “The chaos of ever-escalating news, the widening gaps between social classes, and the profound sense of societal stagnation all find their way into his haunting canvases. The artist presents these ‘creatures’ as exaggerated, grotesque forms, their monstrous distortion mirroring the very instability of the world we inhabit.”
Jumping into Our World’s Ugliness
Most of the other works portray human-like figures consumed by different chimeras that represent aspects of Philippine society. “Paens of Despair,” for example, contains a three-faced carabao-like creature with fiery hands coming out of its body. Another painting, “Confluence of Despair,” provides a skinless creature with an eye on its tongue. It seems to be in the midst of eating a shadowed man with multiple heads coming out of their body.
Paul Eric Roca crafts these images in deliberately cartoony ways, with disproportional head and body sizes as well as exaggerated emotional poses. But it doesn’t take away from the shocking nature of the art. In fact, it may very well invite viewers to revel in the grotesqueness as it sticks to one’s mind like gum on your shoe.
“His fantastical and surrealist works serve as haunting allegories,” the exhibit write-up said. “[They are] grotesquely twisted visions that transform the familiar into the bizarre and the strange.”
Fighting Against Apathy
Most of the human-shaped beings in the paintings remain passive participants in the atrocities done to them. It appears to be a bigger point that Roca seems to point out in how ordinary people respond to them. Instead of fighting back, they slink away into nothingness, afraid to fight back.
How do we cope with the ugliness of this world? Creatures of Apathy suggests that the only way to fight it is to fight it. The passive creatures in many of Roca’s works here allow themselves to be grinded up by the horrors. But only through pushing back can one really find a way out of the cycle of violence in our society today.
Creatures of Apathy will be exhibited at Altro Mondo Creative Space until February 22.
Photos by Elle Yap.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The exhibit explores the “grotesque” and “nihilistic” sides of human nature and contemporary society. Roca uses monstrous, surrealist imagery to act as an allegory for societal decay, political turmoil, and the widening gaps between social classes. The “creatures” are exaggerated, distorted forms that mirror the instability of a world on the brink, transforming familiar domestic or societal scenes into nightmarish cautionary tales.
Roca’s experience as a cartoonist for publications like The Manila Bulletin and The Straits Times is evident in his use of “vividly cartoonish” depictions and “poster-like” accessibility. He employs the sharp, critical eye of an editorial artist to skew reality—using disproportionate bodies and exaggerated expressions—to make the ugliness of humanity impossible to ignore. His transition from ink to acrylic on canvas allows him to expand these critiques into larger-than-life “Social Surrealism.”
The title refers to a “general feeling of uninterestedness” or a sense of being sanitized to the prevalence of evil and injustice. Roca suggests that when people are confronted with horrors they feel powerless to correct, they become “paralyzed” bystanders. The “creatures” in his paintings often represent passive participants who allow themselves to be consumed by atrocities, slinking away into nothingness rather than pushing back against the cycle of violence.
While Roca’s children’s books, such as Si Ching na Takot sa Dilim, explore fears and nighttime visions, they typically conclude with the comfort of light and nature. In contrast, Creatures of Apathy offers no such resolution. It utilizes the same mastery of shadow work and “whimsical yet haunting” textures but strips away the hope, providing a “hellish” vision where chaos is the norm and comfort is entirely absent.
Roca’s work is a stylistic melting pot. He draws inspiration from Mexican muralists for their social scale, circus tarpaulin posters and “freak show” imagery for their garish, attention-grabbing colors, and Surrealism for its ability to visualize the irrational horrors of war and unrest. Some pieces even evoke the aesthetic of Disney’s Fantasia or cult-classic “exploitation films,” merging the familiar with the freakish to create a distinct visual language.
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