Imelda Cajipe-Endaya

Since the beginning of Imelda Cajipe-Endaya career, she has been mixing indigenous Filipino materials and forms with new forms in order to integrate her social commitment with her art practice.[5] A large part of her work includes her use of recycled and found objects. As an archival researcher and writer, she discovered historical and religious materials such as, the Doctrina Christiana, the Doctrina China, and the Boxer Codex which date back to the 16th through 19th century during which the Philippines was a colony of Spain.[5] These antiquities inspired her to visually deconstruct Philippine history in terms of a search for a Filipino cultural identity. Her use of images of Philippine ancestors from these colonial sources was an artistic exploration into the country's indigenous roots.[7] The artist also addresses the issue of American imperialism through her works that incorporate images and narratives suggestive of the influence of Hollywood, American television, pop music, and fashion - a veritable cultural bombardment.[4] These works depict the inevitable tensions between colonial and indigenous cultures,[7] as exemplified in an early work (1979) “Saan Ka Nanggaling, Saan Ka Darating?” (Where have you been, where are you going?). Through images of effaced and shrouded aqua-tinted silhouettes against a background of scattered Spanish scripts, this work follows the complex cultural changes experienced by an indigenous woman [7] and underscores the need for Philippine society to establish its cultural identity.

Imelda Cajipe-Endaya's works also explore the heterogeneous experience of the Filipino diaspora. Intertwined with the theme of Filipino Identity, she also explores the experience of Filipina migrant labour.[4] In 1981, she produced a series of social realism paintings that depicted wives and mothers witnessing the neo-liberal phenomenon of export labour, displacement of native cultures due to technology and agriculture.[2] Her involvement in protest movements then deepened as her works began to explore themes of human rights, poverty and national problems. This can be seen in her work “Pasyong Bayan” (A Nation's Passion) (1983), which speaks of the people's struggle against militarisation in the Philippines and injustices of martial law under the dictatorship of President Marcos, facilitated by American imperialism.[2] In her use of periodicals, stickers, art reproductions and texts allowed her illuminate National social, political, environmental and economic issues and struggles within the Philippines. She did further research into Filipino printmaking since the 17th century and regional folk art.[4] Her works explore the experience of on-going colonisation, Armageddon from continuous Filipino occupation and inappropriate modernisation, as well as dealing with traumas of these struggles.[7]

The artist's works grew even stronger in analysing the issues and struggles faced by Filipina women including the phenomena of mail order brides, justice for WW11 comfort women, women as labour exports and children's rights.[2] The artist's integration of mixed-media and social realism painting allowed her to dramatize these themes even further. She explores the ways in which the Filipina woman brings her culture everywhere she goes in symbols and signs, hopefully of overcoming their separation and loneliness. Within this part of her work, she uses religious iconography and elements including scapulars, holy icons, anting-antings or amulet figures and sometimes books.[4] This can be seen in her work “Foreign Domestic Work” (1995), where the floor is sprawled with texts of specific issues faced by domestic workers and the solutions to which are spelled out on a woman's ironing board.[2] Her use of everyday objects from home can be seen in here mixed media assemblages where she uses nipa and sawali from the bahay kubo, as well as clothing, walis (broom), her grandmother's shawl, her husband's denim jacket, her grandmother's shawl and her own beaded shoes.[2] In doing so, she also conveys her personal anecdote, point of view or experience. Her experience as migrant Filipina woman can also be seen in her work, as she herself moved to New York from Manila in the early 2000s.[9] Cajipe-Endaya's installations are both immensely personal but also conveys perspectives that are fundamentally collective.[10]

As well as community and struggle, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya's also surround the theme of empowerment and hope.[2]  Throughout her works, she looks for heroines and heroes as she finds inspiration in martyred activists in against the Marcos regime, revolutionaries from the late nineteenth-century Philippine struggle of independence and unknown women artists.[10] In this way, she hopes to connect herself and the viewers with the women she admires, and creates a network of alignment with bodies of heroines that are separated through geography and history.[10] In one of her work “Tanong ni Totoy” (1981), the theme of freedom from the anxieties in women's confinement after their longing for that freedom is convey.[7] Her works also convey women's involvement in achieving reforms in worker's rights, farming resources and land ownership after the overthrowing of Marcos dictatorship.[7] By the 1990s, her works focuses more on the power of women and their strength. This can be seen in her work “There’s a Filipina in Albania: A Stronger Woman Emerges” (1999). This is during the time where she herself was exercising her strong presence both in Philippines and the global art world.[7] Imelda Cajipe-Endaya also talks of the importance in maintaining indigenous wisdom through times of inappropriate modernisation and colonial dominance.[7] Her works, largely explore the central roles in which Filipina women and art in the healing, both the wounds of the nation, the personal and collective.

The 70s and 80s in the Philippine is recognised to be an important historical juncture, as it saw the emergence of a women's group that redefined the grounds of women's struggle for empowerment.[11] Whether consciously or not, the group found alignment with the feminist project during the period and a generation of women artist were now occupying important positions as teachers, administrators, cultural workers and as artists.[11] As both an individual or within a collective, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya is seen as an important woman who came out of the group.[11] Manuel Rodriguez, Sr. conducted printmaking workshops for which Cajipe-Endaya attended with other women artists of the Philippines including, Brenda Fajardo, Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi, Adiel Aevalo, Florencia Mota, Jo Escudero, Petite Calaguas, Imelda Nakpil, Ivi Avellana-Cosio, Nelfa Querubin, Mercedes Lising, Vinia Avanceña, Lita Perez, Evelyn Collantes, Rhoda Recto, Flora Mauleon and Lorn Figueroa. The first Museum curator of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, Roberto C. Rodriguez (better known as Chabet), questioned art's notion as an establishment during the Marcos regime which vocalised its claim to progress, national identity and legitimacy.[11] Aside from this work pioneered by Rodriguez senior and Chabet, there was also an establishment of all women's organisations surrounding art. It included Kasibulan and Kalayaan (Katipunan ng mga Kabaihan para sa Kalayaan or Organization of Women for Freedom). This formed during the late 1980s where political resistance and radicalisation against authoritarian rule was at its peak.

Other groups emerged in concern for a wide range of concern from political participation, health to culture. The groups that emerged worked to critique and continue to critique social ills, joining the wider struggle for political and social change.[11] This included the underground revolutionary group, Makibaka (Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan or Free Movement of New Women) that began shortly before the President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972.[11] Alongside this group forming was GABRIELA, Council of Primary Health, Concerned Artists of the Philippines Women's Desk, and the women's desk of the government's Cultural Centre of the Philippines.[11] The Concerned Artists of the Philippines Women's Desk contributed in showcasing the talents of women who at the time were at the forefront of growth initiatives, including Imelda Cajipe-Endaya.[11] From these coalitions, discussion of feminist practice and theory grew, for which Kasibulan continues to nurture artists who articulate a feminist consciousness through their arts.[11]

The ferment period also witnessed the establishment of all-women organisations including Kasibulan for which Imelda Cajipe-Endaya initiated as the founding president.[7] It was legally registered in 1989, and was based on a sharing, sisterhood and solidarity driven practice.[12] The collective launched empowering strategies of women, which came out of discussions with women across different professions.[11] With the new democratic space opening up after the dismantling of the Marcos dictatorship following the Aquino assassination, the group allowed women to occupy these spaces. The main project of Kasibulan included the creation of the representation and visibility of women artists, as well as a sisterly bond between them. They also questioned the canons of art, and challenged mainstream stereotypes and parameters surrounding artists and their roles.[11] It expanded its membership and moved past the boundaries as women and artists within the academe, and advocated for women's rights, past the realm of art. The group's exhibits foregrounded the importance and excellence of women, breaking down the primacy of “fine art” over “indigenous art” or “folk” art.[11] Other exhibits such as, “Filipina Migranteng Manggagawa” (Filipina Migrant Workers), enacted an advocacy, discussion and analysis of the current Filipina diaspora of women labour.[11] They also worked with women of Paete, Laguna in southern Luzon. There was an exchange of aesthetics and cultural practice that created an alternative local art practice, which challenges and transforms the state's tourist and cultural industries as it was funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Cajipe-Endaya's works combines taka dolls from Paete, her hometown, to produce new images of women while challenging the boundaries between fine and folk art.[11] The group and Cajipe-Endaya's works shows a narrative that is created through sisterhood and solidarity attained between people through interactions of relating to one another though common experiences of upheavals and success.[12] In the challenge of creating social change, sisterhood and solidarity empower women to continue their facing of these challenges.

Imelda Cajipe-Endaya also established the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Philippines-funded Pananaw. She was a member of the Committee on Visual Arts, which was constituted under the law that created NCCA as the key cultural body that is liable to the Office of the President.[13] The NCCA was focused on creating change from the ground up, with its roots in volunteer work, with practising artists from different disciplines, and Filipino indigenous communities from northern and southern Philippines. A number of volunteers found their participation within policy-making and government running, however as cultural workers, they were maintained to the notion of being second to “hard-ball politics”.[13]

Cajipe-Endaya worked with Paul Zafaralla, in the group's Documentation, Research and Publications sub-committee in order to formulate the Visual Arts committee project: Pananaw.[13] It was the first Filipino art journal of its kind, as it worked to change and resist the “manila-centric, market driven, blue chip master-inflected” art making and writing found within Philippines during the time that excluded a large majority of art produced and exhibited across the country.[13] Cajipe-Endaya negotiated with a wide range of individuals that come from different, ideological, geographically based practices to come to agreements on the creation of Pananaw.[13] The journal series then became non-profit due to the contingency of organisational figures, and changing duties within the committee structure. The non-profit body was shaped from a purely artist-driven group into one worked with critics, managers of culture, as well as gallerists in order to create productive discourses between actors within the art world.[13] By the second volume, Cajipe-Endaya stepped back from the position as project director, enabling the autonomous running of Pananaw, due to the momentum of young editors, writers, and artists that allowed the intersection between different streams of meaning-making.[13] Cajipe-Endaya speaks of the role of Pananaw in locating discourses within parameters and peripheries, that creates dynamic exchanges between artists and scholars for individuals, the nation and art to flourish.[13]