PADAYON
installation for the princeton university visual arts department featuring poster art and documentary film
hagan and lucas gallery, february 2023 + april 2023
PADAYON (meaning: to persist, to continue to move forward) is a word found in the Cebuano language, one of the many languages found within the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands that is the Philippines. Throughout the vast country, the language that reigns is the nationally declared languages, Tagalog and English. One of the few things these languages share is their script: the Roman Alphabet.
However, prior to all the eras of colonization which the Philippines has endured, Tagalog, Cebuano, and other Filipino languages actually had their own indigenous scripts before the scripts were forcibly removed from societies by the Spanish. The Tagalog script was one called Baybayin, falling into the family of Brahmic scripts.
As of recent, there have been initiatives pushed by Filipinos to reclaim and reeducate the nation about Baybayin. In this process, clashing views on the script have surfaced especially as ideas such as teaching Baybayin in schools and changing text on landmarkers have been proposed. Some Filipinos not only question the feasability of bringing a "dead" way of writing back to life, but also the logic of it, set on leaving it in the past and moving forward, while others insist that it must continue for the sake of culture.
In this exhibit featuring advertisement art that utilizes the script in practice, as well as a video installation featuring an interview from Baybayin tattoo artist and advocate Roel Garcia of Sinag Baybayin in Bulacan, a physical world in which a "dead" script persists comes to life and a space to question these developing debates alongside the themes of loss, reclamation, culture and memory is built.
installations by KIRSTEN PARDO
advised by BENT-JORGEN PERLMUTT
a special thank you to my mother REMA BARNETT