FACTURA JURADA 2007
Throughout most of the history of the Galleon Trade the shipper’s own sworn statement–the factura jurada –was accepted without question as a declaration of the contents of the respective package. The only alternative was of course the actual examination of the interior of the bale or chest. This was a the rule of illegality not so different from today.
This installation rifts conceptually and visually on the Galleon Trade history and its relationship to today’s Global Trade. The collection of small wood circles and ovals that float like islands within a silk ocean are painted with my own list of contents. There are slot machine images of the galleon gamble, maggots in the food of Global Trade Risk, hemp, blood, pearls and the small indigenous dove, the Luzon Bleeding Heart. The “Waiting for my Ship to come in Pedicure” has the animal symbols of China, California, Spain and Mexico caught in between the toes of human vanity and desire. Hybrid Madonna and China Poblana are trapped in Coca Cola bottles floating on a sea of colonial cultures. Three paintings called OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) are resigned, hopeful and drowning. “Conquistador” mixes painted newspaper clippings of the WTO demonstration in Hongkong with old drawings of babies being fed to dogs by conquistadors. The paintings Traffick a word originating in the first global trade, resonates today.
Exhibitions:
Manilatown Art Center San Francisco 2008
Galleon Trade, Mag:net Katipunan Gallery, Manila, Philippines 2007