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Lot Essay
"[The political works] are testimonies to Bencab's visual dialectics, his pursuit of aesthetic motives in a spirit of rebellion. Reflecting on a phrase from Trotsky - 'the frenzied events of history' - Bencab portrayed the 1986 Edsa revolt in impressionistic terms, employing a collective surge of bodies and waving of flags' "
- Cid Reyes
Yellow Confetti (Lot 2133) is a dynamic and powerfully resonant work which describes the civil resistance in the Philipines during the early to mid 1980s. This period became known as "People Power" or "EDSA"; but was also called the Yellow Revolution due to the use of yellow flags and ribbons by the resisters. Celebrated Philippine modernist Bencab's works habitually reveal a mastery in describing the social condition, as seen through his acclaimed Sabel and Larawan series. However the politically charged impetus behind Yellow Confetti, coupled with the small existing body of EDSA works by the artist, elevates its significance as a rare masterpiece.
Within Yellow Confetti, a mass of demonstrators throng at the right side of the composition. Fists upraised, arms flung out, they are caught in the grip of their protest. Their feet planted stolidly on the ground are unshod, signifying their status as the 'everyman' of Filipino society. The yellow confetti flutters animatedly across the entire pictorial surface as if buoyed by the winds of resistance. It is revealing that the figures only occupy half of the pictorial plane. Whatever they are protesting against is not clearly represented, and open to a viewer's specific interpretation. Possibly coming from different families, occupations, and interests, the crowd each have their own personal motivations for engaging in resistance. Only the swirl of yellow confetti fully represents the latent tensions between protesters and regime.
The symbol of the yellow confetti has been used more than once by Bencab. A work dated from the same year as Yellow Confetti, "Two Filipinas in the Era of Multinationals" , depicts two girls clad in traditional clothing but arrayed with gadgets of our modern time - a handheld TV, earphones, a walkman - while holding a burger and with a crushed Coca Cola can at their feet. In 1986, the year that the Yellow Revolution ended, Bencab repainted this work as "The Edsa Event" ; where the central image was nearly identical to its prototype but the girls were this time festooned in a shower of yellow confetti juxtaposed against strips of red, blue, white and yellow paper. The motif of the confetti within Bencab's narrative has evolved into a symbol of the changing times and hope of a better future.
Yellow Confetti captures the humanistic face of a period caught in a flux, articulating the passion, energy and desire for economic stability and social justice; as well as the underlying fabric and foundation of contemporary Philippines - an epoch of political history within the last thirty years.
- Cid Reyes
Yellow Confetti (Lot 2133) is a dynamic and powerfully resonant work which describes the civil resistance in the Philipines during the early to mid 1980s. This period became known as "People Power" or "EDSA"; but was also called the Yellow Revolution due to the use of yellow flags and ribbons by the resisters. Celebrated Philippine modernist Bencab's works habitually reveal a mastery in describing the social condition, as seen through his acclaimed Sabel and Larawan series. However the politically charged impetus behind Yellow Confetti, coupled with the small existing body of EDSA works by the artist, elevates its significance as a rare masterpiece.
Within Yellow Confetti, a mass of demonstrators throng at the right side of the composition. Fists upraised, arms flung out, they are caught in the grip of their protest. Their feet planted stolidly on the ground are unshod, signifying their status as the 'everyman' of Filipino society. The yellow confetti flutters animatedly across the entire pictorial surface as if buoyed by the winds of resistance. It is revealing that the figures only occupy half of the pictorial plane. Whatever they are protesting against is not clearly represented, and open to a viewer's specific interpretation. Possibly coming from different families, occupations, and interests, the crowd each have their own personal motivations for engaging in resistance. Only the swirl of yellow confetti fully represents the latent tensions between protesters and regime.
The symbol of the yellow confetti has been used more than once by Bencab. A work dated from the same year as Yellow Confetti, "Two Filipinas in the Era of Multinationals" , depicts two girls clad in traditional clothing but arrayed with gadgets of our modern time - a handheld TV, earphones, a walkman - while holding a burger and with a crushed Coca Cola can at their feet. In 1986, the year that the Yellow Revolution ended, Bencab repainted this work as "The Edsa Event" ; where the central image was nearly identical to its prototype but the girls were this time festooned in a shower of yellow confetti juxtaposed against strips of red, blue, white and yellow paper. The motif of the confetti within Bencab's narrative has evolved into a symbol of the changing times and hope of a better future.
Yellow Confetti captures the humanistic face of a period caught in a flux, articulating the passion, energy and desire for economic stability and social justice; as well as the underlying fabric and foundation of contemporary Philippines - an epoch of political history within the last thirty years.