I WANT to call it the "Female Oblation" like the rest but I can no longer do that after being enlightened by the opinions of UPD’s Jam Ramos and Jose Santos Ardivilla.
"Uplift" is Ferdinand Cacnio’s 7-foot brass lady that floats in front of UP Diliman’s Villamor Hall. Naked, her arms are outstretched like Tolentino’s 1939 Oblation. But unlike the 1939 "male" oblation, the lady is supine, her long wavy tresses disguising the base that gives it an illusion of levitation. It has recently become popular not much for its artistry but because it is now being hounded by issues of plagiarism and its lack of a gender lens.
Jam Santos, an art education teacher, asserts that a female oblation has long been created by Napoleon "Billy" Abueva which he called as "Magdangal" and can be found in UPD’s new CAL building. Its model was Larry Alcala’s (the cartoonist) relative. Thus, Magdangal is technically the "female" oblation.
Jose Santos Ardivilla from UPD strongly posits why it is problematic to call Cacnio’s "Uplift" as the female oblation. He cites that “Guillermo Tolentino's oblation was culled from Greco-Roman classical articulated forms of masculinity and youth. Tolentino was educated in Italy at a time when fascists focused on hypermasculine power. The Oblation straddles a column of rocks symbolizing an ideal of overcoming centuries of colonial subjugation. He is rising above and offering himself. It is a struggle and an offertory. This is an image of an "active voice."
Ardivilla further adds that “the floating woman is elevated by her hair, which is a patriarchal dictation of woman's beauty and her perceived worth, length of hair is quite political for women (ie. maganda=habang hair). More glaringly she is supine... a position of subjugation. This is an offering, more like a display, without struggle. This is "passive voice."
“Guillermo Tolentino's oblation is made of concrete with a simulated sheen of bronze. Bronze, an alloy that was a catalyst of ushering in civilization; the innovation of handwriting, recording of knowledge, and development of tools for war, infrastructure and agriculture. Cement is developed by the Romans to cater to their empire's expansion.”
“The floating female has the simulated surface of gold. What is gold? A commodity for exchange. So kung lalake, expansive, innovative, has a thirst for knowledge. Kung babae, kumikinang, binibenta, nabibili, palamuti.”
Indeed I also ask: if the Iskos have the Oblation Run, what will be the Iskas annual event based on this sculpture, lay down en masse? To expand the gender reading, the Oblation has a man stretching his arms to offer himself to his countrymen, to serve the people. However, Uplift’s golden woman has her arms outstretched but rising towards the heaven. Why then can’t a woman offer herself in the service of the nation, too? Why is she supine? Do we, women, do better service if we are supine with legs splayed? Why can’t she be firmly on her feet too be it unshod or in red stilettos?
But aside from what seem to be as a problematic representation, "Uplift" has also been cited for plagiarism. It said to be copied from one the three floating figures created by Elisabet Stienstra. "The Virgins of Apeldoorn," which can be found at Rotonde at The Netherlands, was created by Stienstra in 2001. However, a closer study of Cacnio’sportfolio would show that the sculptor/dancer has been doing a series of woman work concentrating on ballerinas and dancers since 2005. Other artists assert that the levitating female is a recurring patriarchal theme in art, a cliché, which J. Neil Garcia calls as “the female form of mythic and archetypal energies”.
Thus, if this is a recurring concept (in art) it cannot have a copyright otherwise all love stories, to say the least, would be recycled ideas and Shakespeare would probably the most popular thief of the literate world.
Let’s not even start with Barbara Cartland.
