The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Pabitin is a game. It is a traditional contest for children at fiestas in The Philippines, as the video shows. Pabitin means 'the game of the hanging bamboo' and comes from the Tagalog word bitin, meaning hung. The game challenges contestants to jump for gifts suspended from a frame which is lowered, then hauled just out of reach. Innocent fun. Since pabitin is a game shared by many, it suggests the cultural value of cooperation central to traditional Filipino society. In this spirit, Jose Tence Ruiz has invited other artists to join him in making 'gifts' to hang in Brisbane, to be part of the festivities. Towards the end of the Second Asia– Pacific Triennial, visitors to the exhibition will play the game, jumping for their share of the good fortune every celebration brings. (Put your name down now!) Yet when the party is over, pabitin is a paradigm of the competition that contemporary society requires. Jose Tence Ruiz invokes this laughter-filled competition to jump higher to suggest other ways of outdoing one's companions. Like other countries in South-East Asia, The Philippines today is not simply the aggregation of traditional village values. In the 1990s the business of daily competition for consumer durables is real enough, part of the struggle by Filipinos for improved living conditions in a rapidly changing environment. The economy of The Philippines has improved markedly in recent years, yet the benefits of this wealth do not flow to everyone. As in pabitin, the game goes to the lucky, the quick and the tough. Amongst the 'new rich' of The Philippines are approximately one million overseas contract workers, with skills ranging from engineering to nursing to teaching, who are forced to find employment outside The Philippines in order to sustain their families at home. That work, which is found elsewhere in Asia, the Middle East and the United States, is often menial and undertaken in appalling conditions. In many cases it has proved dangerously unprotected, even fatal. Yet Balikbayans, the homecomers, with their electrical goods and their savings, are seen as 'the lucky ones'. This Pabitin was conceived in Singapore in 1989, when Jose Tence Ruiz was a cartoonist working for The Straits Times, experiencing the alienation from home, family and friends that bedevils overseas contract workers. In 1996, Pabitin invites Brisbane participants to symbolically perform the strenuous efforts of Filipinos displaced from their homeland and of people everywhere forced to strive for the prize. The artist has remarked that the darker side of the 'game' speaks of ambition. manipulation, treachery and colonialism. Pabitin is Jose Tence Ruiz's most recent work in a distinguished career exploring the social experiences of Filipinos. In the 1970s, during (i) Working drawing, Pabilin 1996 Gouache and pencil on paper .:, (".-..,~-. f.. '.,,. ;"',,..,; ·. , r!..'-' .. .Y. f,.,,.,,,-,..,.~::...;.,:,r ~ c, 1, ~CC.., jf-', ,., - / .. ·c. ' _.,r:.....) , 4 ,-.,.c :, • .. .;,-..,,,.., , '"i; ·,:;.( w.4 L,:– ,;"'"'j ~::" ,,. i" -: ,,., .. :-, ;;.,,.,~ 'I...., ( 5"o (._ /t-Y / · le ) r,,r .,.,. ,....c,,c . ,... ,,,. .f,._ _,,.3r ....r ~,,.4..-f~ J'"':: .... " '- ~ .J"' ""- -=- ,, ,.,'....., fv,,., .t r "J · ~,i{C_ rf, · t J {. - ~- ,,.,,,/c,.· ·1· -<- • ~ - ~ '-, ''J "'""fi martial law imposed by Ferdinand Marcos, Jose Tence Ruiz was a member of the influential social realist group, Kaisahan (Solidarity). He worked alongside artists like Imelda Cajipe-Endaya and Edgar Talusan Fernandez, both of whom were represented in the first Asia-Pacific Triennial in 1993 in protest against the repressive policies of the regime. Like many artists of the time, they collaborated on murals and street banners to effectively address political issues for mass audiences. In the 1980s Jose Tence Ruiz made influential sculptures on the theme of the Jeepney, the public transport vehicle adapted from American Jeeps which is a key motif in the populist imagery of The Philippines, an emblem of shared Filipino humanity. These funky, ironic works were deeply felt responses to the widespread Filipino predicament of poverty, helplessness and rage countered by ingenuity, a condition the viewer enters by sharing the same space as the sculpture. During seven years working in Singapore, Jose Tence Ruiz lived a double life as an artist. By day his cartoons continued the graphic criticism that Alice Guillermo suggests has been a popular Lives and works in Manila, The Philippines V t 6,,J 1 ,<zf/YJ (I,,,, rK.. ( " l~il,;11 ii ~ ,4- ,.. t. ,.. f ,,_ , ' u, I ,/ ,.,-.. /; ,,,. ) J) .-nJ111 G tf {;LJ form of Philippines art during this century1. In his independent practice, Jose Tence Ruiz made figurative sculptures and installations exploring the experience of migrancy, often exhibiting alongside experimental Singapore arti.sts like Zai Kuning. Since returning to Manila in early 1995, Jose Tence Ruiz has continued to explore three-dimensional equivalents for the experiences shared by many Filipinos. For behind the outward play of Pabitin, and despite the black humour of its competitive imperative, lies a fundament~I commitment to working as an artist for ordinary people, for players of innocent games hoping for a better life. Julie Ewington, Senior Curator, Museum Education, Museum of Contemporary Art. Sydney,Australia 1 A.Guillermo, 'The history of modern art in The Philippines', in Asian Modernism DiverseDevelopments in Indonesia, The PhilippinesandThaHand, The Japan Foundation Asia Centre,Tokyo,1995,p.230 ARTISTS : SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA I 97