Speaking in Images @ Vargas Musem

Speaking in Images: Representations of the Philippines and Japan in Political Cartoons
Jorge B. Vargas Museum
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
May 18, 2007 to June 17, 2007

Speaking in Images , an exhibition of fifty reproductions of political cartoons published in Philippine periodicals from the 1930s to the 1990s from the collection of Dr. Helen Yu-Rivera of the U.P. Department of Art Studies.

Featured are works of artists Jose Pereira, Esmeraldo E.Z. Izon, Demetrio Diego, Liborio Gatbonton, Bert Gallardo, Rene Aranda, Neil Doloricon, Ivan Anthony Hirro, Nonoy Marcelo, Net Billones, Jose Tence Ruiz, Ludwig Ilio and Roni Santiago that depict the political relations between the Philippines and Japan.

Philippine-Japan relations started even before the advent of Spanish colonization in the Philippines. While many have not realized the extent of Japanese influence in Philippine social, political and economic life, political cartoons in Philippine periodicals attest to the significance of this relationship. They have depicted the Japanese in various ways, from wily and cunning capitalists, insincere negotiators, powerful patron to brutal warriors, expressing the Filipinos' fear and anxiety over Japan's political, economic and military power. On the formal level, these political cartoons present poignant visual symbols and metaphors drawing from Philippine political rhetoric and jargon as well as from popular culture.

The collection attests to the Filipino editorial cartoonist's creative genius in using popular media and conventions of cartooning such as humor, allusions and inter-textual devices to satirize the most pressing issues of their time.

The exhibit, Speaking in Images: Representations of the Philippines and Japan in Political Cartoons, will run at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines from May 18, 2007 to June 17, 2007.

For more details on Speaking in Images: Representations of the Philippines and Japan in Political Cartoons at the Vargas Museum, please call 928-1927, 981-8500 locals 4024 or email: vargasmuseum@gmail.com.