Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

Exhibited: Artinformal Greenhills, Mallcontents, Mandaluyong City, April 4 - 22, 2013

ABOUT THE WORK

Antipas Delotavo's Hugis ng Pangarap tackles issues regarding consumerism, the capitalist notions surrounding beauty standards, and the machinery from which it operates: neoliberalism. Delotavo says of this work: "This painting shows a woman with a not-so-ideal figure compared to the ideal images commonly seen in the malls of perfectly figured models with fashionable clothes, showing the disparity between reality and fantasy." The painting was part of Delotavo's 2013 exhibition, titled Mallcontents, in which he tackled the ubiquitous image of the mall as the ultimate symbol of consumerism in the country. Delotavo's compelling capabilities in portraiture unleashes the candid expressions in the face of his subjects. The women wander aimlessly, distressed and bothered by the images they see of glamorized beauty standards set by machodominated capitalism and propagated by corporations, consumer products and services, the media, and the like. The foreign monopoly capitalists, in connivance with the big compradorlandlord class, keep the backwardness of our economy. They hinder national progress, maintaining an importdependent and export-oriented economy, thus retaining our semi-colonial and semi-feudal state. The commodification of beauty by projecting unrealistic standards and perpetuating the influx of "beauty-enhancing" goods and services are part and parcel of a neoliberal framework, i.e., liberalizing the economy for these surplus products and capital from capitalist nations to enter the country freely. Therefore, propagating idealistic beauty standards that engender insecurity (and then capitalizing on it) and commercializing women's images in marketing products dehumanizes them, merely commodifying them for corporate profit. Neoliberalism distorts reality for us to give in to capitalist mercenary demands and interests. In the work at hand, Delotavo further emphasizes the seemingly inescapable labyrinth women must go through under this oppressive structure. The only way for women to emancipate themselves from slavery under the status quo is to join in solidarity with the broad masses in the struggle against systemic exploitation, fight for a nationalist, scientific, and mass-oriented culture, and expose the tragic reality of women underneath the ostentation of commercialization. (A.M.)