It's a bird! It's a plane! No, he's Barack Obama and he's come to save the day! ROTFL!
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Of Birth, Life and Death
Thursday, June 11, 2009,6:06 PM
One’s life began, flourished and ended with gold in pre-colonial Philippine societies. To celebrate life and fertility, for instance, our ancestors designed earrings and necklaces resembling an outline of an embryo. Gold ornaments were worn during rituals and special ceremonies to symbolize the social position of its bearer, while intricate funerary masks and orifice covers were made specifically to honor the dead.
Even before the Spanish colonial period, the Philippines, like its Asian neighbors, already had a rich tradition of gold jewelry-making.
It is in this diachronic, grand narrative – of birth, life and death – where the Ayala exhibit entitled Gold of Ancestors: Pre-Colonial Treasures in the Philippines revolves around. This exhibition, curated by Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, consists of more a thousand gold artifacts, which range from exquisite vessels to intricate ornaments excavated from different parts of the country, dating back to between the 10th and 13th centuries.
The presentation of texts, the arrangement of objects based on geography and historical time periods, even the over-all floor plan, follow some sort of linearity. Upon entering the exhibit, there’s a short widescreen video presentation for viewers as an overview of the entire collection and a preliminary background on the link between pre-colonial gold tradition in the Philippines to Austronesian Migrations and cultural exchange with other Asian countries. It also gives context to the shared regional affinities of the Austronesian speaking people that migrated out of pre-Sinitic southern China. In Mortals and Deities Adorned, visitors are then drawn to gold artifacts with rare anthromorphic images for honoring elite individuals and gods. At the center of the gallery is a wide array of objects signifiying the Journey to the Afterlife. Most of these archeological gold ornaments were excavated in Agusan del Norte in 1981 as part of the archeological project sponsored by Locsin Foundation.
Birth: Unearthing The Past and Analysis of Space
Yet despite the linearity, there are many underlying layers, both literal and metaphorical, to the exhibition. The title, in particular, suggests the notion of the pre-colonial “us.” It also attempts to outline the culture and belief systems of our Filipino ancestors based on archeological or material artifacts. Here, archeological interpretation within the grid of pre-colonial context and history becomes a necessary method of analysis for cultural mapping: a tool to illustrate cultural characteristics such as, among others, a sense of identity, the elements that make a community unique, beliefs and technologies.
Who and what were the Filipinos? What makes these so-called cultural treasures Filipino? What does the exhibit say about pre-colonial Filipino society, culture and identity? Can we really define identity or ethnicity from archaeological evidence? The exhibition gives light, if not entirely responds, to these questions.
In her curator’s note, Capistrano-Baker says the exhibit is a “celebration” of the “sophisticated cultures that existed in the Philippines before colonization.” The Ayala Museum also dubs it “the exhibit you’ve waited a thousand years to see.” No one would ever dare to disagree, perhaps, given the wealth of materials in the exhibit that is outstanding in terms of value, quantity and rarity, and even much more impressive than the BSP Gold Collection in the Metropolitan Museum. In fact, many of the artifacts are unique and are part of the Locsin collection, which has never before exposed to the viewing public.
The use of space, the curatorial practices employed, and visibly the capital/money spent on designing the state-of-the-art gallery, are, for lack of a better term, spectacular. The objects are not just arranged and displayed in traditional manner, on the wall and glass compartment; there are also exhibits on the glass flooring that recreates a grave site. To highlight the jewelry, bright lights are strategically placed in darkened rooms. There are drawers with magnifiying lens for a more detailed view of the objects, making you appreciate the intricacy of pre-colonial gold artifacts even more and realize how talented goldsmiths and craftsmen our ancestors were.
The wide collection of artifacts is also juxtaposed with interactive touch-screen computers and high-tech video screens with sensors to provide visitors with background about the artifacts and where they were excavated. Each gold artifact is labeled properly with pertinent information such as type, place of origin, date, diameter and category number.
By using these curatorial techniques and making the space as interactive as possible, the curator is able to present more connected objects in an engaging manner within the limited physical space available, while balancing the leisure and learning component.
Life: Pre-Colonial Philippines and The Asian Connection
Within the realm of both scientific and interpretative approaches in archeology, Gold of Ancestors attempts to “reconstruct the past” and gives its visitors a glimpse of the long-lost evidence of our ancestors’ rich gold tradition which is then connected, as presented in the exhibit panels, poster boards and video presentation, to culture, aesthetic sensibilities, wisdom systems and other facets of pre-colonial Philippine societies.
In cultural objects such as gold, the meanings are made manifest by human activity and the interaction between individuals in society. By means of looking into these tangible treasures, one can articulate the past, the life of ancient Filipinos, their articulation of wealth and power, concept of beauty and the supernatural and many others. The exhibit seems to evoke that virtually all cultures in pre-colonial Philippines, from the mountainous part of Ifugao to the coastal plains of Agusan del Norte, used gold to indicate wealth and status, demarcate ritual space, or imply ceremonial function. Gold jewelry, as seen in the collection, were used by our ancestors to adorn nearly every part of the body.
To understand the genealogy and roots of “our” culture, the exhibit illuminates the necessity of going back in time. Artifacts can provide a link with the immemorial past.
Jewelry-making and mining in the Philippines began around 1000 BC. Ancient Filipinos worked and designed gold and other precious metal which were handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. According to Felipe de Leon, Jr., professor of Art Studies at the University of the Philippines, jewelry making in Cebu, and other areas in the Philippines, could be one of the oldest in the world. The craftsmanship and artistry of early goldsmiths, he says, rival the finest that have come out of ancient jewelry centers like Bactria, India, and the Middle East, and Majapahit, Indonesia.
The pieces of archeological evidence in the exhibition highlights that gold indeed brought the early Filipinos in contact with other cultures in Asia. For comparison and contrast, gold ornaments from India, Indonesia, China and Thailand are juxtaposed with gold artifacts excavated from all over the country. In terms of iconography, form and design, the so-called cultural connection and regional affinities between the Philippines and its Asian neighbors can be read in pre-colonial gold jewelry. In the Mortals and Deities Adorned section, for example, one can find a kinnari vessel, a half-bird, half-female creature. According to the poster board, this gold artifact has clear reference to Hindu mythology. An opulent gold thread excavated from Surigao, which weighs almost 4 kilos, is believed to be very similar with Upavita, a traditional sacred thread from Hinduism and a symbol of belonging to the Brahmin caste, which is draped around the neck and connected to the wrist. A number of gold ornaments in the collection also depict the composite bird-like creature known as the garuda, which is related to gold examples from Indonesian.
In most traditional cultures, the head is said to be the “locus of power.” This cultural phenonemon is articulated in the exhibition. Intricate diadems, for example, depict the social and economic status of the dead person. Gold cord weights, used in headbands, had pellets inside them to proclaim the arrival of someone with high rank in society.
As ornament, gold jewelry became a symbol of beauty and was capable of conferring prestige. In the exhibit, there is a set of gold chastity covers with intricate repousse patterns, apparently made and worn to announce a woman’s virginity. Females who wore these prestigious chastities were hailed and perceived by society as “pure and beautiful,” giving us a hint that our ancestors already gave utmost value and prestige to female’s purity even before the advent of Christianity. The gold exhibition also provides evidence of pre-Christian idea of the supernatural based on the wide array of pectorals, earrings and anklets devoted to mythical gods and deities. Apparently, ancient Filipinos cherished gold jewelry because they believed it possessed powerful and mystic qualities. Gold was not only used for decorative purposes, but, more notably, for the articulation and attainment of power, wealth, long life and success.
The exhibition also suggests that early Filipinos were not inactive receivers of foreign cultures but also active transmitters and synthethizers of them. While some of the gold ornaments appear to have Muslim or Hindu influences in them, one can still see the Filipino-ness in the designs. For example, the Surigao gold thread, though has lineage from Hinduism, looks like a women (banig) clothe.
Death: Lackluster Intentions and Other Issues
Gold of Ancestors is apparently in line with the Ayala Museum’s thrust of “re-collecting the past, re-presenting the future.” By mounting this kind of exhibition and making it available for public viewing, the Museum boasts that Filipinos, who may have not even be aware that these heritage objects ever existed, will finally have the chance to view them up close. It is also their way to “protect and promote the Philippines’ cultural and historical legacy, giving Filipinos a reason to be proud of their heritage—and giving the world a clear picture of who Filipinos really are, and what they can be.”
The big question is: to whom does the exhibition want to create a cultural or intellectual dialogue? Why do we need to reconstruct the past and for whose benefit and at what cost? Who are the Filipinos they want to address?
Given the high cost of entrance fee and the way the gallery is designed, the venue, clearly, caters only to elite few, bourgeois and petite-bourgeois audience. The Museum, despite its gesture to open its doors to ‘unaware’ Filipinos, seems unsuccesful in bridging the gap and disconnect between them and the public, only perpetuating the ever-problematic public perception of museums or galleries as exclusive and alienating spaces that are beyond their understanding.
It is an exhibit on heritage bereft of the majority.
Similar to other privately-owned collections in the country, Gold of Ancestors is an acknowledgment of the economic and political power inherent in museum and gallery exhibition practices in the Philippines, which draw on the prestige of cultural capital, membership and social class. These gold artifacts, after all, are still overvalued market objects and private properties that are owned and can only be possessed and inherited by the moneyed.
Ownership is control. The exhibit is not a simple display of the relics of the past nor is it plainly about “national patrimony,” it satisfies the needs of elite industry players (such as Ayala, Capistrano-Baker, the Locsin family) who validate and position themselves as “vanguards” of Filipino culture and “promoters of national identity” in the arts and culture community.
But if there’s anything the exhibition teaches us, setting aside its elite orientation, it is the importance of preserving these tangible cultural heritage and the possibility of reinterpreting and reinventing them. In a country where Western flavors appear to be evident in today’s jewelry-making practices, the exhibition, one way or another, edifies that Filipino artists and jewelry makers need not be fixated with looking outward to foreign shores for inspiration.
The Ayala Museum is also successful on the level of tangible heritage conservation. The curator and participating collectors’ efforts and initiatives to catalogue, document, protect and preserve these important cultural resources, which can be used as for further cultural studies and archeological interpretation, are worthy of note.
The cultural mapping part of it, however, is a totally different story. Though the exhibit connects the pre-colonial Filipino gold tradition to neighboring Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, it fails to relate it to indigenous Filipino societies today. This aspect of cultural mapping seems to be lacking in the collection, which is very significant to further understand our own culture, rethink history even better and promote creativity and development in the future. For while it is possible to reconstruct the past based on archeological evidence, it should not be the end of things; what is even more essential is to connect it to the present and to traditional people living today. That way the past gives birth to the new.
References:
“Session 2: Cultural Mapping Principles” http://cms.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=4933 Tan, Michael. “Gold.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. May 30, 2008.
de Leon, Felipe M. Jr. “The Creative Living Presence Within: The Participation of Filipino.” October 6, 2003. http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?i=69&subcat=13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayala_Museum
Zafra, Jessica. “Going For The Gold.” Newsweek. May 5, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/id/134270
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Bat For Lashes
Monday, June 1, 2009,1:49 PM
I'm currently in love with Natasha Khan a.k.a "Bat for Lashes."
Below is the video to her current single 'Daniel' taken from her forthcoming "Two Suns." It was directed by Johan Renck and filmed in Sweden.
