A Look at the Tagalog and Taga-ilog

By: Harlev Cabbadu 

I was field with empty silence the moment I set foot inside the Vargas Museum and check out their current exhibit. Understanding the concept of the “Tagalog and Taga-ilog”, was not easy. If only I were allowed to maintain an indifference to it, I surely would. That experience was like one of those that made me say: “Sana din a lang ako pumunta.” Luck, however, was not on my side. It was too late for me to replace the topic of my expository article which, after all, I chose.

Roberto M.A. Robles installed three different sets of sculptures entitled The Obelisk, The ensemble of Slabs, and A Sculptural Proposition. The sets of sculptures are all painted in white – which initially seemed to nondescript for someone like me who only gets fascinated by artworks whose presence is made obvious by its bright colors. Despite my initial interest, I mustered enough will to continue to peruse, however, insincere the exhibit. It was a good thing they give me a pamphlet at the entrance, otherwise I would have immediately left the museum, wasting an entrance fee of 20 pesos. It was a great thing that I held it with me while I was following the flow of the exhibit. It was in my reading of the gallery notes that the blandness slowly turned into a sense of subtlety. It got me into thinking about the art works presented before me, and to a certain extent help me come to an understanding, however shallow, about what message the artist is trying to convey.

 The work, Sculptural Proposition, is little hidden from one’s view upon one’s entrance into the gallery as it is confined in the farthest corner of the room. The composition is made up of five sculptures of various household items, each placed beside one another. It represents the culture of the natives who live near the river, the Taga-ilogs. On the walls behind them, the sunlight casts shadows of these figures that change as time passes by. This could be taken to mean that in relation to the Tagalogs and their culture, moving to a new geographical residence means leaving a part of their way of life – forcing them to adapt to that of a new setting.

The Ensemble of Slabs – seen before the proposition – is arranged like ripples, each taller slab alternate with a shorter one. In the exhibit, it connotes resistance to inequality, like the ripples almost appear stagnant. This inequality among the Taga-ilogs is stemmed in migration. Thinking that progress lies in moving to a new place, they leave their localities to settle elsewhere. They do this dreaming of a more “civilized” way of life. These changes are also reflected in their Tagalog language.

Those who migrated are considered superiors as they are thought to be more civilized. To resist the inferiority associated to being left in their locality, those who are left would also have to migrate and become as civilized as those who left before they did.

The artist proposes that this trend of migration will eventually lead the disintegration of their society. The Obelisk represents the possibility of the nonexistence of the society’s culture. It is a monument that only stands as a reminder of the previous culture f the Taga-ilog. The Tagalog language is fundmental to their culture. Hence, the obelisk’s base deductively represents the language Taglog.

Each of them represents a part of what once the Tagalog way of life. Together, painted in white - a color that make a little impurity stand out - to stress impermanence and salience, they represent what the Tagalog way of life has been.

 Although the exhibit contains a brief story, it consumed me a great amount of time before I understood it. I did not even understand it purely by itself; a pamphlet and my classmate were both indispensible companies to say that one-fifth of my “baon” was not purely went to waste. I paid to get the pamphlet for my topic and for the opportunity to converse with my classmate about it. I lack the thoughtfulness that the exhibit demands.