Mais (Vicente)
2019
Tin Metal, Gesso, Paint, Graphite
5" x 7"
This small painting, done in the style of Recuerdos de Patay, a 19th-century Filipino tradition of memorial portraiture, depicts my father, Vicente, in his bed on January 6, 1991. He had passed away from a heart attack in his sleep the night before. I was only three years old, yet I already understood what death meant. I remember locking myself in the room with his body, refusing to let anyone in until my nanny convinced me to trade his body to the undertaker in exchange for corn.
In the painting, I added symbols to carry what words cannot. A large brown mariposa butterfly hovers—my father’s soul, already flown away. A heron, usually a sign of good luck and longevity, instead tears his presence from me and my family.
The Tagalog inscription beneath the scene reads: “In memory of Vicente Ancheta, who died on January 6, 1991, and whose corpse I traded with the undertaker for corn.”