art & empire on our shores

"What are the categories in which people imagine nature, history, place, war that make these two wars, nuclear and Native, so invisible?" ~ Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams

Election season in my two homelands bring to the forefront two wars - between colonizer trauma and human bias. 

an exploration of two landscapes

Our political foundation was built on the Marcos declared dictatorship - a historical event that took place in the Philippines, where we grew up and where hundreds of students and unarmed civilians were disappeared, tormented, and tortured during the decades long, power hungry, thievery of the conjugal couple Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos under Martial Law from September 1972 to January 1981. 

Relocating and living in the USA its been over two decades since 9/11 from September 2001 until now. A badly shaken nation came together, however briefly - in a spirit of sadness and patriotism. Americans initially rallied behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - though support waned and factions grew contentious over time. Most Americans viewed the threat of terrorism at home surreal and government's steps to combat it were predictably over the top. 

In seeking to give voice to the victims of history, we confront this episodes with brutal actualization in witness literature. Which the Marcos dynasty aggressively tries to erase or revise from our memories and all documentation. In the US we haven't gotten over our PTSD over being attacked on home ground - hell to pay, we are after all the self-professed saviors of the world. 

Margaret Atwood - when advised to just find a good man, replied, 'You're an idiot'

Our nations needs a Han Kang of our own as valiant vanguard visionary to permit the souls of our dearly departed and living survivors to witness our own annihilation and national demise into greed and corruption. 

The unidentifiable unburied corpses and blatant coverup lying hark back to Sophocles’ Antigone’. The harshest punishment of his time was leaving a rebel brother's body unsanctified by holy rites - letting it lie unburied on the battlefield as carrion prey. 

Today, instead of steadfastly working on peace - we have developed even more sacrilegious torments for ourselves and other. When will humanity shift away from harm?