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John Derick E. Flores

HUMAART C34

Holy Debate3 x 5

Oil on canvas

2008

By Alfredo Esquillo Jr.

Exhibited by the Philippine Art Awards in Art Fair Philippines 2013

After passing by a bizaare pink-and-black exhibit, I found this interesting piece hanging

on the wall. When I approached closer, it was entitled Holy Debate. After seeing the title, I

wasnt able to immediately understand why it was named that way. But first, to describe first what

is immediately seen, there are two bald men, (they might be a doppelganger of each other) with

architectural archs, are seemingly poised to attack each other. The man on the left wears a white

top with white towers that thrust up from his spine, while the other wears an orange one with an

arch similar to the ones seen around the heads of statues of Mama Mary and other saints inside the

church. The background is majorly composed of a deep black color with an orange-brownish floor

where the men are on all fours. I have inferred that these similarly-looking men are like the

dinosaurs in the old age that fought for their territories. Since I cannot understand further the

painting, I searched for the painters biography.

This work of Alfredo Esquillo Jr. belongs to his renowned exhibition called the

Reclamation Project, wherein he puts himselfas a subject in most of his paintings. The baldness

of the two men in the painting above are his real appearance in life. He tackles recurring themes

in this show: Filipino spirituality that borders on folk religion; personal ideas of salvation and

redemption, and politico- historical commentary (Marcelo, 2008). Interestingly, I discovered that

the architectures on the man with white top represents the Iglesia ni Cristo cathedrals, symbolizing

the side of that Catholic denomination. On the other hand, the orange mans arch represents the

saints, symbolizing this time the denomination of Catholics who majorly believe in saints,

compared to the Iglesia ni Cristo. One reason behind this work is that Mr. Esquillo have changed

religions over the course of time, from being a Roman Catholic to a Born Again. With that, he

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may have had conflicting religious beliefs as it can also be seen in the totality of the Catholic

society. Although Catholics believe in one God, they are technically separated into different

denominations due to the differences in their beliefs, such as the Born Again or Protestants do not

believe in saints while the traditional Roman Catholics believe. Going back to the painting, the

orange man (or vice versa) is seeing a doppelganger himself but although that is his doppelganger,

they carry different things on their backs; just like two Catholics seeing each other but carry

opposing beliefs.

The painting itself represents issues in the religious world of the Philippines that have been

present for decades. But what I can say is that despite the differences in practices and beliefs, I

believe that the essence weighs the heaviest and that essence is the fact that God is the center of

love of all these people no matter the antithesis of every denomination.