ABOUT THE WORK

We see Garibay's familiarity and intimacy with the masses' undertakings and leisure in these two strikingly similar pieces depicting drunken men indulging in booze and tunes. They are ubiquitous scenes in the streets and alleys of both the urban and provincial domains. The works unmistakably capture one of the everyday realities of the ordinary Filipino: music drowns the struggling soul while liquor temporarily alleviates and washes suffering away. Beyond drinking as a collective recreation, Garibay professes that it is in the ordinary people where the true Filipino collective soul can be found, bound by struggles and that shared yearning towards personal and societal betterment. We see leisure as a form of socio-political resistance, a necessary act to reinvigorate one's revolutionary spirit for tomorrow's struggles, and the continued assertion of rights and influence on radical societal change. With his unvarnished realism, Garibay exhibits his affinity and empathy for the underprivileged and shows that the masses possess an inherent kind of soul and humanity rooted in their earnest solidarity in all their pursuits and interests. (Adrian Maranan)