Quaran-paintings PanDEMET-20 by Demetrio Dela Cruz

As the quarantine in Metro Manila pushes on its eighth month, many artists—who are locked down in their respective studios—have engaged with the pressing issues of the day: the physical, mental, and emotional toll of the pandemic, the sense of vulnerability to a disease of which little is known and with no available cure, and the unpredictable spiraling of days. While these are valid themes and concerns, Demetrio Dela Cruz injects a sense of humor in his works as he contemplates what it means to be an artist in these perilous times.

The title alone of the exhibition, PanDEMET-20, promises that this is no ordinary take on the global disaster that is COVID-19. It is, of course, a play on the word “pandemic,” with the nickname of the artist cleverly put in. “Demet” could also be the tail in the transliteration of the Tagalized “gademet” (“God damn it”)—which captures the exasperation one feels on a daily basis. The numerical add-on “20” acts as a historical marker of the year when everything has turned a corner for the worse.

For this suite of works, the artist has used the format of the “meme,” usually a combination of image and text that presents or captures the levity of the cultural moment. The “moment,” in the context of the exhibition, is about the seemingly never-ending shifting of quarantine classifications—how they are no longer indistinguishable from each another, how they bring about the so-called “pandemic fatigue.” The two works of graphite on paper (“Manianito” and “Manianita”), on the other hand, tinkers with “mañanita,” a Spanish term meaning a small gathering usually of family and friends, which was used to justify the birthday party of a high-ranking police official despite the prohibition on gatherings.

Dela Cruz uses some of the most iconic alcoholic beverages—banned at the height of the lockdown— to poke fun at the quarantine classifications and other terms that have emerged to describe our current predicament. One of these is the Mexican beer, Corona (which, in itself, has already lent life to countless memes), set against a depiction of war in sculptural high relief. Titled “ECQ (Extra Corona Quality),” the painting suggests that it is the more preferable “corona,” as soldiers appear to shed blood over it.

Closer to home is Ginebra San Miguel, known locally as “cuatro kantos.” In a painting, it becomes “GCQ (Gin Cantos Quatro),” set against a Renaissance work of St. Michael the Archangel. (The association becomes richer if one is familiar of the fact that the St. Michael that appears on the bottle of the local gin is by National Artist Fernando Amorsolo). Now in a single frame, the gin acts as a comic device that counters the high religiosity of the appropriated painting, being more familiar to the masses, this clear liquid with a devilish kick.

PanDEMET-20 provides the all-too-needed comic relief, especially in visual arts that has so far engaged with the subject of the pandemic with grim seriousness. That Dela Cruz employs his notable Pop Surrealism trompe l’oeil style (notice how the background painting is visible through the transparent and semi-transparent bottles) makes his paintings all the more lively and tongue-in-cheek. Ultimately, PanDEMET-20, in the words of the artist, is “a light-hearted theme, a show of resiliency, a happy thought in these trying times, symbolizing one of Pinoys’ greatest traits: the happy face in front of uncertainty.”

-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana