It’s the closest thing to preserving our rich cultural traditions. Gregory Ray Halili may have studied and lived in the United States for many years now, but his art has always been marked by the memories of growing up and revisiting the Philippines. Homage to the People of the Philippine Cordilleras, which is on view at the West Gallery in SM Megamall from October 21 to November 2, is the latest of these creative outlets.
Integral to his desire to return and capture such fading traditions is rapid modernization not only in the urban areas, but also stretching all the way to the rural towns. Societies are transforming, and even deeply preserved ethnic origins are disappearing. Halili notes, “the demand for land, for commercial and industrial purposes, has cleared vast acres of fertile land and rainforest, many of which are homes of indigenous tribes.”
He adds, “In the Philippines, only a few remaining pre-Hispanic cultures survive. Despite widespread globalization, underdeveloped roads and inaccessible terrains actually helped create a barrier against rapid modernization. Most notable are the Bontok, Kalinga, Kankana, Gaddang and Ifugao people of the Philippine Cordilleras.”
Halili has always felt that going back to the Philippines is a chance to discover something new about the culture and about himself in the way he chooses to express what he sees and feels in painstaking yet intimate detail. “I have been to the Philippine Cordilleras in two different occasions. The first trip was a great adventure along the rugged, mountainous terrains. The expedition had brought us from Banaue, Sagada, Bontoc, Benguet, and down to Baguio in search of the beauty that we knew one day could be gone.” Such is the magnificence and the beauty of the man-made rice terraces.
“The second trip was an exhausting hike from Banaue to Batad. Trekking the amazing rice terraces by foot and meeting the Ifugaos, who have sustained these fields for thousands of years, instills a humbling experience, knowing how much blood and sweat was sacrificed to finish just one terrace, let alone an entire mountain.”
“Before the trip, my general knowledge of the Cordilleras and its people was not extensive. Only the old images of Eduardo Masferre’s photographs have come to mind.”
Duirng those trips, he seldom saw the Cordillera people in their full native or tribal clothing. Only the elders wore the native costume, and many were already modern in the way they dressed. Halili, who took up fine arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and has exhibited many times in the Philippines and in the United States, only hopes that age-old traditions and festivities will manage to keep the cultures alive.
Such memorable journeys have inspired Halili to pay homage to the people of the Cordilleras, who created, worked, lived, and preserved the astounding rice terraces, one of the great man-made wonders of the world.
“These new paintings are re-creations from my own [collection] and old Cordillera photographs. I hope these new works evoke a quiet memory and a contemplative quality, which only the people of the Cordillera can bring.”
Documentation
