Imelda Cajipe Endaya
26 April to 25 May 2024
Opening Reception
26 April, 4 – 7 PM
Silverlens Manila
2/F YMC Bldg 2, 2320 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, 1231 Makati, Philippines
Rigodon bursts with color, rhythm, and vigor. A renowned feminist, activist, and community organizer, Endaya is hailed for her large-scale paintings and mixed media works, as well as her strongly socio-political themes, centering the plight of Filipino women throughout history. Yet, not many people know that in the early years of her career, she created vivid abstract prints. “Almost always I was burdened with guilt at doing abstracts,” Endaya declared in 1987. Today, these abstracts from the mid-1970s reveal a side of the artist that she wants the public to see—one that embraces play, experimentation, and joy.
The works in the exhibition belong to the artist’s decades-long search for Filipino identity. The eponymous work Rigodon (1974) is named after a traditional court dance performed in the Philippines since the Spanish colonial era. It involves precise, elegant movements. Yet, filled with bold, intuitive strokes, Endaya’s Rigodon seems to subtly break free from the dance’s original rigidity—capturing how Filipinos took the traditions imposed on us, imbued it with vibrancy, and made it our own.
Endaya believes that the joy she finds in art-making is part of what makes her human. One might argue that it is this joy, alongside our historical struggles, that is part of what makes us, Filipinos, human too.
– Nicole Soriano
