Art Verité Gallery

Truth Well-Painted

Chad Montero’s maternal grandmother was a gifted albolaryo and the most popular in Camaligan, Camarines Sur during her time. Able to heal many of the illnesses of her townsfolk, Montero aptly remembers the whole community as gravely grieved when she died.

Montero’s mother continued being an albolaryo this time she was only concerned with the health of Montero and his seven siblings.

This deep belief in folk religiosity is what abled Montero to increase his faith in the greater spirits and firmly developed his creative intuition to imagine stories that dwell on how things came to be.

KuwentoNg Bayan the 4^th solo exhibition by Montero attempts to reinterpret these narratives of our lives as he unravels his ongoing questions that inquire about our history, identity, and culture. Using paintings and assemblages, Montero attempts to respond to these armed inquiries in relation to issues of the day. Creatively appropriating children’s tales, KuwentoNg Bayan is a loaded pun contextualizing nationalist perspectives on what is happening around us that affects Montero.

Obviously, Montero starts his treatise at the beginning of time as a main piece. In Latagan at Tagpuan  Montero constructs how the world began. Like a table where everything is situated, Latagan at Tagpuan has also a cabinet of curiosities underneath. Using drawings and objects here Montero further features various arcana in connection with how the Philippines evolved before colonialism started. Our country is full of folk tales and myths as we existed before Spain arrived here. Montero keeps them all for our own realizations to remember. True to his Bicolano roots, the Mayon volcano looms in the background.

Reprising the use of estante of his youth, Montero seems comfortable in brown assemblages. Montero recalls assembling the estante when there are special guests arriving at their house. He would decorate them with significant valuables to instill pride in their family. Items like school medals, picture frames, souvenir gifts, figurines, and bottles have their own placements in the estante.

Another children’s legend related to creation that Montero wants to reinterpret is Ang Magbabayo at  Ang Nagkalat na Yamang Simula. The story goes about why the sky and stars are too high because the woman who was given with gold comb and necklace placed them among the clouds which were still low then. Upon pounding too hard on the mortar she accidentally pushes the clouds too high. Her golden comb and necklace became the moon and stars.

Montero uses the legend to comment on those who plunder our natural resources and leave us wondering into oblivion. Montero is effective in capturing your imagination while making you realize the lesson in post-colonialism as empires abuse their colonies of what they inherently have.

Ang Unang Mananahi retells the Legend of the Spider wherein a seamstress weaves beautiful clothes but is hated by everyone as she does not have pleasing virtues. As a punishment, she becomes a spider who weaves forever. Incorporating the morale of the webby tale, Montero tries to find positivity in the diversity of our cultures. He even saw a connection to how we are divided as a people as seen in our islands in the archipelago.

Six small frames in acrylic on canvas complimented with pen and ink on stained paper further reinterpreted long-held myths yet Montero debunks them with his own retelling of the truth.

Nang Gisingin ng Agila ang Natutulog na Anino sa Kawayanan reinterprets Malakas at Maganda popular during the 70s. Revitalizing Montero’s most political piece, the representation of the eagle of power wakes up the sleeping couple who once ruled over our people with the illusion that they were once mythical fathers and mothers of the nation.

In Gusto ng  mgaTalangka si Juan. Juan Tamad becomes lazy because of the circumstances the crablets lay beyond him.

In Kalampagin ang Matakaw na Dragon, we used to have 7 moons and the dragon got attracted with luminesce that it ate six already. As it resided beneath the water, it ate the last moon. Upon learning this, people made noise using their pots. The dragon got annoyed and released the last moon. That is why we are still enjoying the one moon we have.

Montero critiques this as how the dragon embodies China as it is acting up and claiming our territories. In the end, Montero wants us to be aware of who we are and what we have.

Tinubuan ng Hiya deals with the Legend of Makahiya. Pertains to politicians being wary of their wrong deeds as well as their obligation to the people. Montero who grew up in a shanty neighborhood never forgets his humble beginnings.

Matinik na Daan is about the fable of the  Turtle,  Rabbit, and Monkey which we all know. Montero sees the Philippines in the turtle as it is often fooled, slow to progress, and prone to failure. Montero is a master in finding allegory by comparing the country to what it is and what it is not.

Pagmulat is everyone’s favorite pineapple story. In the end, we are where we are not because our leaders did not do anything but because we did not—even upon seeing the truth.

KuwentoNg Bayan is a coded artistic module, that unlearns things we have long learned. Sometimes the truth is what hurts us as we have kept on denying it all along.

KuwentoNg Bayan aesthetically pushes every argument forward. From the narrative creative vehicle to the abiding Philippine literature used. Unaware to the viewer Montero is painting out loud for Filipinos to wake up to the long-withheld truth. He is imaginatively slapping us with his brushes and pens to wake us up from our apathetic cultural slumber.

Written by Jay Bautista