ARNDT Catalogue Manila

KAWAYAN DE GUIA
In the year 2007, the world reached an important milestone.
It was the first time more people lived in cities than outside of
them. Cities retain their pull because they remain places where
destinies are made and dreams realized. But not all stories of
migration to urban centers end happy. Such is the case for Ligaya
Paraiso and Julio Madiaga, the protagonists of the acclaimed
Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka’s 1975 film, Maynila sa Kuko ng
Liwanag (The Claws of Light), whose hopes of a better life far
from the province were dashed.
De Guia took his cues from this important film for his multipanel
work, Ligaya de Pilipinas or “Joy of the Philippines.”
Unraveling on the pictorial plane are images suggestive of the
megacity’s promises of progress as well as chaos. It is a topical
representation of a city enjoying an unprecedented building
boom. Take the avenues to any of its several business districts
early in the morning and one sees hundreds of construction
workers off to work riding in trucks, many, much like Julio, have
come from afar to take gainful employment.
But today’s city is no less harsh than Brocka’s vision of Manila.
The capital’s development mimics the skyward trajectories of
other cities the world over, where the gap between the ultrarich
who dwell in luxury penthouses and the poor who live in
shantytowns at street level are more than a few floors apart.
De Guia has received important regional prizes such as the
Ateneo, Signature, and Philip Morris art awards. His works have
shown in spaces in Singapore, Germany, China, and Australia.
He is also a primary convener of the Ax(is) art project, a collective
that organized yearly festivals in Baguio and whose output was
shown at the Singapore Art Museum at the 2013 Singapore
Biennale.