Lawrence Sumulong, Trapo

This ongoing series began as a collection of political posters and scenes that I found in the Philippines. Taking an iconoclastic approach and engaging in the practice of damnatio memoriae, I am presenting images of deterioration as a means of revealing an entrenched feeling of distrust towards a historically corrupt political system. In the context of the upcoming 2016 Philippine presidential elections, 'Trapo' intends to visually represent the country and its candidates' cultural amnesia and perverse revisionism in regards to the 12 year violent dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and the corruption ridden track records of subsequent politicians and presidents. To that end, I shot the images digitally, processed and printed them with expired Polaroid 600 and SX-70 film, and lifted the emulsions onto recycled, unbleached paper stock made in the Philippines. The title takes its name from the Tagalog word for a torn cleaning rag or a crooked politician. The captions are excerpts from 'Towards the New Society' by Ferdinand Marcos and 'TAO: Humanism at Work in Filipino Society' by Imelda Marcos, which are two foundational pieces of propaganda published by the Marcos regime. The rhetoric sounds progressive and perhaps resonant of contemporary Filipino political platforms, but have been included as a reminder of the hypocrisy of that time. I am planning on continuing this series by covering the political circus of this year’s 2016 Philippine presidential elections. I would continue to photograph the posters as the spine of the narrative, but I would be primarily documenting all of the potential violence, grandstanding, and pageantry of several political frontrunners, which include Ferdinand Marcos’ son, Bongbong, an admitted mass murder in Rodrigo Duterte, and disgraced current Vice President Jejomar Binay. At the moment, I have potential access with the Liberal Party, which includes the Mar Roxas (President), the Leni Robredo (Vice President) and the Risa Hontiveros campaign (Senate).