Ferdie Montemayor sees the land as one big canvas. It is not just shaped by real estate developers but even more so by its inhabitants. Lupa, on view at the West Gallery, Glorietta 4, from August 15 to 27, features all these colorful yet sweeping changes.
In 1992, Montemayor’s entry at the Metrobank Foundation Painting Competition won the grand prize. After years of trying, he felt his voice was finally being heard. He found new meaning into what he was doing and believed that development came at a price. Moved by his surroundings, Montemayor built on the image of a bustling metropolis, frenetic with activity. Commercialism has seeped into even what was then countryside. He knows that the Antipolo of today, brimming with business, is much different from the Antipolo he knew growing up, when there were more trees than billboards.
Montemayor, who once entertained becoming an architect and a pilot, takes us to the view from the top. It lets us see a bigger, clearer picture where everything seems to converge at one point. From a house we can peer through the surrounding community and farther back into the horizon. People will always find means to maximize the resources at their disposal, including every inch of space. That’s why many neighborhoods look so cramped. Houses or condominiums are built so close together, and the crowd just gets bigger and bigger around the commercial areas. And we know it will be just a matter of time before something explodes.
Monetmayor doesn’t say it in so many words but proceeds to let the infrastructure tell the story. As a member of Salingpusa, an enterprising group of artists in Antipolo who are as passionate about their craft as they are with the message they want to put across, Montemayor wants to continue believing that what they stood for in the 80s still rings true today. That they are as committed to show the different facets of the Filipino way of life as they see it. Montemayor, for his part, sees the changing, yet always colorful, cityscapes. While new structures continue to rise, people become full-fledged consumers–striving to fulfill not just the basic needs but giving in likewise to mundane pleasures.
Montemayor, recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 1994, sees not only his immediate Antipolo surroundings and the rest of Metro Manila down below but also gains insight from what he sees on television. His soft yet persuasive strokes suggest movement. We are not merely passive receivers. We choose how to go about our lives. And that’s what we make of our land.
Documentation
