GABRIELA @ 40: Sovereignty and Peace offers an interesting retrospective that allows viewers to ruminate on the fight for human rights in the country. It shows the struggle as ever-evolving; a portrait of a never-ending battle to ensure that the people of this nation are put first.
Shown at Anima Art Space, it celebrated the 40th anniversary of the GABRIELA Women’s Party. The exhibit showcases a collection of posters and other art over the years from the organization’s archive. It spans decades, from the fight against US bases in the early 1990s to the current fight against charter change now.
The most provocative thing about the exhibit is how it showcases the evolution of propaganda in the Philippines. As a word, “propaganda” is a loaded term. In a neutral context analyzing political organizations, it merely means the promotion of specific ideologies and perspectives. When one says the exhibit shows the “evolution of propaganda,” it points out how the organization evolved in communicating its ideals to the world.
In the context of GABRIELA, their anti-imperialist stance shines through in the posters showcased. Multiple posters shown here circle against the idea of U.S. military bases within the country. It appears that in the forty years of GABRIELA’s existence, the U.S. military and the violence against women that follows has only continued unabated.
“… [There] are embedded social costs of military bases to prostituted women, their children, and women in general in and around the bases. GABRIELA consistently decried these costs from the case of Rosario Baluyot (a prostituted 12-year-old who died of infection from a broken vibrator inside her vagina) to those of Nicole and Jennifer Laude,” the exhibit write-up said
One poster explicitly portrays the Philippines as holding the boot of the sex trade of the U.S. military bases posted here. The hyper-realistic painting, taglined “Amerikanser,” shows a topless, tied-up Filipino blindfolded by the United States flag with a gun pointed at their side. The image, surrounded by bombs, bombshells, and newspapers, purports that the Philippines will not be free if they continue to be under the boot of American forces.
It’s interesting to see the variations of artworks depending on the subject matter presented. One poster calls for Japan’s apology to “comfort women” from World War II. It contains a watercolor image of a flower in yellow, the idea being that these women be given peace from their ordeal.
A similar poster from 1985 shows a woman hugging a flower with the words “peace” and “justice” on it. The poster implies that one cannot get peace without justice.
These collections of posters showcase the need to meet the people in the moment through the artworks presented. Many of the works here are bold and provocative, giving people an eye-popping visual to hang the information to. It reveals the optics of propaganda in the context of the women’s rights movement: the need to see the horrors of the powerful, and what you, the average person, can do to push against it.
What appears to be the oldest poster here is also the one that symbolizes the organization best. It shows a woman, fists raised, leading a band of protestors against a U.S. representative. Above her is the rallying cry of every leftist protest even today: “Makibaka, Wag Matakot” (Fight Without Fear). Even now, she continues to symbolize the organization and its fight against injustice.
GABRIELA @ 40 exemplifies the constant war of communication happening in the political arena. It chronicles the evolution of the organization’s fight against imperialism and human rights. But more than that, the works show the importance of art and images as propaganda. If one needs the collective to fight oppression, then art is the first and best tool to make people pay attention.
Related reading: Women’s Month as Seen Through the Artist’s Lens
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