Meeko Angela R.

Camba
7 June 2016
Profile Story

Protest Art: A shout across time

The tight race for the vice presidency placed gave the country in a dose nostalgia, and
framed what seemed to be the boxing match of the decade. On In the yellow corner was
the widow who hasd yet to prove the strength of her leadership;, and on in the red, the
son of the late strongman, held in contempt for the sins of his father.

Garnering about 13 million votes apiece, the nation was divided. For visual artist Toym
Imao, however, it was a wake-up call.

With Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, Jr. nearly clinching the second highest office
in the land 30 years since his father was ousted from power, the country, Toym says,
has sadly forgotten the democracy it had fought for so long and hard to regain. It is
here, he says, that he finds his duty as an artist.

Its disturbing that 13 million people still believe in strongman leadership, and a big
percentage of that is born out of misinformation. Now more than ever, kailangan nating
magkuwento, he says.

As he explains this, one of his installationsa depiction of the conjugal dictatorship of

the Marcosses and the myth that was Martial Lawsits at the heart of the AS building
in the University of the Philippines Diliman, free for the public to see.

The work was his fifth collaboration with the Department of History in UP to help
educate the younger generation of their forgotten past.

Toym first partnered with UP, his alma mater, back in 2013 after noticing its lack of
interest in commemorating the 150th birthday of national hero Andres Bonifacio. He then
displayed Head of State, two headless sculptures carrying ballot boxes with the head of
Bonifacio inside, or what he recallsed as his first provocative work.
The project was so well-received that it was followed by San Voltes V (2014) and San
Mazinger Z (2015) that both dealt with the mechanisms of Martial Law through a play of
childhood memories, hoping to spark discourse across generations.

Even among UP students, its sad that some still have a very shallow understanding of
what Martial Law isand its not their fault. Its my generations fault. Weve become
lazy in putting all these things out, he shares.

This That sentiment became his motivation to channel more such stories into his work.

The costs of creating

By his fourth installationDesaparecidos, which tackled the pain and loss of those left
behind by the victims of forced disappearancethe countrys big galleries such as the
Lopez and Ayala museums were already calling.

All of a sudden, people started noticing. They actually wanted to listen.

Nakakatuwa. For museums which only have safe collections, to exhibit something that
was so politically charged was a major victory in trying to channel these narratives into
the mainstream, he says.

But doing advocacy work through public art was never a job that pays could pay the

bills. And having a family of his own, Toym knew he couldnt feed them on principle

alone.

Even his father, National Artist for Visual Arts Abdulmari Imao, known for his abundant

use of traditional Islamic motifs like the sarimanok, discouraged him from treading the

same creative path,.

Toym recalls, laughing:.

When I applied in UP, first choice ko ay Fine Arts and my second choice was

Architecture. My dad told me: Bakit ka mag-aartist, walang pera diyan sa art, he says.
After talking it over with his parents, Toym ended up pursuing a degree in architecture.

Sabi ko, di naman siguro ako papasa diyan sa architecture kasi quota course yan

([laughs)]. E kaso pumasa. Pero blessing in disguise kasi the kind of artist I am now is

heavily grounded on the discipline of architecture, Toym shares.

A part of the movement

Only after establishing his own firm did he find himself falling back to his first love: Fine

Arts. He took up a masters degree in UP for Fine Arts and pursued it further in the

Maryland Institute College of Fine Arts in the U.S. for a masters in sculpture under a

Fulbright scholarship.

His career soon blossomed, eventually exhibiting his works worldwide, most of which

depicted images from Philippine culture and history. In his homeland, most of his works

when he started were monuments commissioned by local governments.

But as time went on, Toym itched to do something more than what most politicians

would use as an excuse for a ribbon-cutting.

Theres always a temptation to do generic art. They sell, but theyre just decorations

pieces of furniture. I can do those works but I dont want to be defined by them. I want to

be defined as someone who told stories; who does not only educate but can also move

people in a particular direction, he says.

With this in mind, he developed a balance between creating works that support him

financially, and those that further his advocacies.

Aktibista ako noon sa UP. The satisfaction in doing these works is that you feel like

youre still part of the movement and that youre doing your part, he says.

In the midst of the constant struggle for democracy, he believes there is much that art

can do to effect change.

Ang protest art, isa siyang sigaw that is captured in timeangry but at the same time

tempered with visuals that everyone can appreciate, he says. It cuts through class

distinctions.

With the presumptive president-elect President Rodrigo Duterte strongly alluding to

strongman politics, the role that artists must play proves a crucial one, he says.

We have to remind the people that its not the path we should take. Kailangan natin

creatively ilabas ang mga kuwentong to, Toym says.

At During a time when everything seems to be visual;, where when the youth more often

frequent their screens rather than the streets, he says traditional ways of protest have

somehow lost their appeal. It is therefore up to the artists to think of other ways to reach

out.

Hindi na puwede iyong martsa-martsa nalang. Weve come to a point that we have to

be very creative in addressing these narratives, and thats where protest art comes in.

Art will resonate, he says.

But like all forms of dissent, engaging oneself in protest art entails a big risk. One

cannot waver going against an oppressor or an oppressive system.

Its not just a fashion statement. Some people romanticize the struggleyou cannot do

protest art for the sake of doing it. Kailangan malalim yun, Toym says firmly.

Throughout the years, art has been at the forefront of demanding the Filipinos right to

freedom. From all the way back to national hero Jose Rizal, who wrote what Toym calls

two of the most powerful protest art in history, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, to

Nick Joaquin and the others who opposed the dictatorship in the 70s, he proudly says

that artists thrive in adversity.

In the darkest of times, the artists capture, document and express the feelings of the

nation, he says.

With the country at the cusp of new leadership and the promise of change hanging in

the balance, one thing remains certain: should and when those in power threaten the

voice of the people, art will be at the front line of every battle.