Commissioned for APT10, this immensely scaled painting points to the artist’s concern for the Indigenous peoples of the Philippines who, contending with corruption, crisis and ongoing food insecurity, he sees as exiled within their own country, writes Abigail Bernal.

Filipino artist Archie Oclos has been described as a ‘street artist with a fine arts degree’,¹ gaining recognition in his home country through public murals that engage with socially conscious themes; in particular, speaking out against injustice and political corruption. His works are often characterised by a limited colour palette and strong, immediately legible imagery with detailed graphic elements. Oclos describes his method of working as one of immersing himself within a community for several weeks, listening to stories and getting to know his subjects. The people portrayed in his works are always based on real individuals and the events that have befallen them.

Oclos’s ambitious large-scale work, Immigrants of own nation 2021, was commissioned for APT10, and subsequently acquired for the QAGOMA Collection. It depicts a procession of displaced people painted in black oil paint on 80 commercial rice sacks stitched together to form a single unstretched ‘canvas’. The mural-scale painting particularly addresses indigenous groups that have been affected by the claiming of ancestral lands for farming and development in the Philippines, while paramilitary operations in some regions require them to leave their homes several times a year for extended periods. The breadth of the work visually amplifies the narrative and its intentional emotional impact. The rice sacks are printed with the logo of the National Food Authority (NFA), a significant choice, as explained by the artist:

When the Philippine government, under then President Ferdinand Marcos, established the National Food Authority (NFA) in 1981, one of its functions was to acquire rice from local farmers and ensure its proper distribution to Filipino consumers at a low price. This was the eponymous NFA rice. It is recognised by many Filipinos who consume it due to its cost. Over the decades, however, the government-subsidised brand also became widely known for its questionable quality. In 2019 under the Duterte administration, a new law stripped the NFA of its regulatory and licensing functions. The same legislation also allowed import of cheaper rice brands to the disadvantage of small-scale Filipino farmers. The only function NFA retained was to ensure the national inventory of rice is sufficient for any of the government’s relief programs. NFA rice is distributed to Filipinos during times of food insecurity — in times of conflict, internal displacement, rice crises, hoarding, natural calamities, chaos . . . ²

As well as signifying corruption, crisis and ongoing food insecurity, the NFA rice sacks are also associated with labour and the working class. As the sakos are cheap and durable, they are often reused to store and transport vegetables, fruits and other goods found in wet markets, as well stones, gravel, sand, and a variety of construction materials. Oclos collected the sacks over several months from these various sites, choosing to locate those that had already been in use within communities and workplaces.

Oclos’s concern for the plight of the nation’s indigenous people — and the way that they are forced to become immigrants in a nation that they are exiled within — appears in Immigrants of own nation 2021 on an epic scale. While the format of the procession calls to mind a festival or religious commemoration, this gathering shows those who have been displaced. The figures come from various regions of the Philippines and religious affiliations, identifiable through customary garments or the objects they carry. Their faces rendered with thick black lines reflect suffering and hardship. They have become, in the artist’s words, Immigrants of own nation; the missing possessive pronoun reflects the depth of the issue they face in escaping persecution and violence and in securing a stable future for themselves and their families.

Abigail Bernal is Associate Curator, Asian Art, QAGOMA.

Endnotes

1. The 2019 Thirteen Artists Award [exhibition leaflet], Ateneo Art Gallery and the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, Manila, 2019.
2. Artist statement, emailed to the author, December 2021.