When it comes to expressing nationalism, some actively participate in national pride parades and join campaigns that encourage people to be better citizens.
While there are a lot of meaningful ways to show the love and support for our country, this guy created a masterpiece showing how colonizers used our motherland for slavery and turned our country into chaos for 333 years.
Filipino artist Neil Cavite Defeo made an oil on canvas painting called “The Rape of our Motherland.” His artwork speaks thousands of words and can be considered as an eye-opener for Filipinos who have not been awakened for years.
Moreover, it’s a reflection of our motherland and her history – which includes being abused and destroyed by our colonizers’ misuse of authoritative power on governance and societal norms.
According to Defeo, the inspiration behind the concept was a story made by Mike Portes in 2004 entitled, “Minsan may isang P*ta” the short-piece went viral on Facebook. Due to its twist on the last part, it made Defeo conceptualized his own piece of “The Rape of our Motherland.”
The painting was not supposed to appear on his gallery at Art Underground Manila but it triggered him to make it the main piece of his show. The title “The Rape of our Motherland” was inspired in “The Rape of the Sabine Women” wherein artists during renaissance era made pieces about incident (myth) in Rome.
“As an artist gusto ko din i-title sa isa sa mga pieces ko, sumakto lang sa concept na napili ko for inang bayan tsaka sa mga sumakop satin noon.” Defeo said.
He also said that the word rape, raptio in latin word that was used in The Rape of the Sabine Women does not literally refers to sexual assault but kidnapping or abduction which also match its concept of slaving our motherland and its countrymen.
Watch the timelapse video of his creation below:
InqPOP!/Nicole Ortega
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