ABOUT THE WORK

It is no surprise that Garibay has always depicted those that struggled to gain our freedom, both the known and the ordinary, for he continually seeks to celebrate the virtues and qualities of heroism. In Bagumbayan, he has painted an image of José Rizal in 2010, seemingly in anticipation of his 150th birthday the next year. It is a smaller work from his usual oeuvre on a piece of paper. Rizal, his big face depicted in a cubist manner has a “dejected look.” Owing to the title, Bagumbayan, it can be assumed that he is represented that way because this was a man on his way to his death. In conversation with Garibay, we discover, it can mean more than that. Garibay said he wanted to make the viewer feel the humanity of our heroes. His “dejected look” was because Rizal was “too affected by the sad conditions in your country. Who wouldn’t feel dejected?” For me, like what leaders usually say, “the top job is lonely.” It denotes him being a solitary figure as national hero of the Philippines in death and even in life. Garibay said, “Even in Europe, Rizal had the tendency to isolate himself. He thought differently and had a contradictory kind of personality, a complex personality.” As a writer, Rizal would tend to be alone and even had occasional quarrels with his very own friends. It can be said that among our heroes, Rizal was the sadboi, to use a contemporary term. Sure, and despite his loneliness, he produced two novels—the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo that helped make us feel we were united in a common suffering, and therefore united us to become a nation.