Dogs have featured in Rodel Tapaya’s works since his first foray into visually translating the myths and legends of the Philippines. Man’s best friend is depicted as the vicar of divine representation and an intermediary between man and nature. In “Dog Days”, the giant white head of a dog restrained by a steel funnel collar appears misplaced on the hairy dark body of another beast. The vignette of the animal being placated by ghostly humanoid cogs is the most vivid in the tableau, which is an allegory of the exploitation of outsourced labor under globalization. The remittance economy which has kept the Philippines afloat has resulted in the exodus of laborers, intellectuals and the professional managerial class. This brain drain has left a political vacuum where a critical mass should be to direct the political conversation of a nation. The extraction of labor mirrors the extraction of natural resources as symbolized by the hooded figure in the center of the composition holding a tree branch and the foot of the beast rolling a log. To the right of these figures, splashes of white paint form the faint skeleton of a crocodile, known for its long life and importance in Filipino folklore as the reincarnation of ancestors. All these figures coalesce into a deathly visage that suggests a deep, cyclical brutality lurking under the veneer of cosmopolitan culture embraced by most Filipinos in late capitalism.
 

Rodel Tapaya

Rodel Tapaya (b. 1980) was born in Montalban, the Philippines.

At the heart of Rodel Tapaya’s work is his ongoing amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media, from large acrylic on canvases to under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing, Tapaya filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research, creating whimsical montages of his characters.

Tapaya was awarded the coveted Top Prize in the Nokia Art Awards, which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of Helsinki in Finland. In 2011, he won a landmark achievement for a Filipino artist by receiving the Signature Art Prize given by the Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation and the Singapore Art Museum. He was also among the Thirteen Artists Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012. His work is held in museum and institutional collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Tokyo Mori Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Philippines Bencab Museum, Philippines Ateneo Art Gallery, Philippines Pinto Art Museum, Central Bank of the Philippines, etc.
 

Lender: Tang Contemporary Art