Hands and Noses

My kibbitz on the National Artist award upheaval (uprising?).

I think I need to change my alias to something that doesn't sound anything like anonymous. LOL.

Oh well, I have no pretensions about art and all that so I shouldn't really be plunking in my two cent's worth. Plus, I sometimes get a kick from really cheap stuff so I can't stick a finger up Carlo's. However, I would hate getting kicked in the face so I sympathize with those who feel that way about Guidote-Alvarez.

The protest against Carlo I really can’t get. I grew up on comics. It's low art, yes, and I find it funny that people name other lower artists as more deserving. So their art is lower? Or a higher form of low? This whole thing about which body of work is more deserving is confusing me, because I can't see how this protest against Carlo's art will lead to better art in general. Filipinos are not known for subtlety or nuance. We're vulgar and tacky and inane. Maybe Carlo's award is a reflection of what we really are as a people? That it comes as a slap in the face to the well-bred and the well-read is no surprise. It reminds them of the one thing they've been running away or were insulated from all their lives. Eeewww... no... noooo. I'm not like that, that doesn't represent me! I'm a Filipino and I'm so not like that. Well...

As for this Guidote-Alvarez thing... Was there no chance at all that she'd have won this award on merit alone at any time other than the Glorious incumbency? She's so kapal and all that? Hmmm... I think that to raise the consciousness of the masses to a level where they would feel indignation over this utter indecency the masses should first be weaned away from beauty contests, singing contests, reality show contests, mr. bikini contests, and all such contests. Anything of this kind can be rigged, and is always rigged. In the Philippines most specially but also everywhere else. There is always an agenda, even for the most deserving, and it is always a reflection of the times.

In fact, in skewed agreement to Juanna and her thesis, this National Artist scam couldn't have happened at a better time. Perhaps this was a brilliant stroke of PR genius.

At a time when everyone wants to deduct two inches off GMA's height, this adds two more feet to the dungpile. And because the noses offended are very sensitive, the collective achoo is bound to have enough physics to dislodge irritating boogers. But only if they achoo many many times and infect others with achoo fever. Otherwise, this will be just one insignificant blip in the social achoometer. However, I strongly doubt that this irritation has enough methane to sustain a prolonged achoo.

The arts is notorious for taking the craft of backstabbing and oneupmanship to rarefied levels, as much as it is revered for giving form to what's beautiful, good, and true. And this is because art is but the mirror of the fingernail of the hand that feeds it. And the hands of patrons, sponsors, and benefactors at one time or another would have made the trip to the nether regions to clean up the call of nature. And whether this breeds in them the desire to fill the air with perfume or share the stink with many is immaterial. Only one thing is true. Art feeds off the hand -- somebody else’s or the artist's own. Any hand, it doesn’t really matter. The hand is bound to show up in the art it helped create.

No hand, no art. Bad hand, bad art.

Which brings me right back to my original confusion. What are we up in arms against? Is it the art, or the hand? Is it at all possible to smell the art without smelling the hand? Who thinks art shouldn’t be fed at all because it is capable of feeding itself, thank you? Who says art is exempt from “never bite the hand that feeds you?” Who says I couldn’t care less? Raise your hand. Many would like to cut it off.

But really, to actually take to the streets over an art award is so Pinoy. Other cultures would simply gossip about it over tea and cucumber sandwiches. Sometimes a wrist or two is slashed, sometimes people jump off buildings, but these cases are individual acts of ultimate protest. Perhaps these cultures have had high art for centuries already, so they can be calm about it? We, on the other hand, constantly raise the bar for collective public display of emotion as art. Theater of the streets with riveting raw power. Extemporaneous apparently, spontaneous seemingly, but if you sniff hard enough, your nose will always lead you to the directors' hands. We have such soft noses.