Biography

Religion, myth, politics, and culture have long served as inspiration for artists. While some use images and symbols to reaffirm their faith, culture, and sociopolitical beliefs, others, like Manuel Ocampo, employ them as loaded vehicles of critique and satire. Using a startling collage of images, he comments upon the abuse, victimization, and exploitation that results from colonialism, religious and sociopolitical fanaticism. As an immigrant to the United States, Ocampo is often compelled to reconcile his bicultural experience living as “other” in the United States, while still maintaining an acute awareness of his postcolonial Filipino identity.

During early adolescence, Ocampo became conscious of the breadth of American influence. Disheartened by the pervasiveness of American culture and its ability to overshadow Filipino traditions, he openly voiced anti-American sentiments. But during his late teens, Ocampo decided to forego his conception of the United States and move here. He explains his choice saying, “the Philippines is run by the United States so you might as well live here. In a sense I’m getting back at this country by living and working here. Besides, I have more of a voice here.”1

It is this voice, together with his experiences as a resident “other,” that have led the artist to develop a decidedly unapologetic and eerily compelling body of work. Ocampo’s visual vocabulary reveals a wide array of influences including Filipino Catholicism, Spanish colonial painting, and Asian sign painting. However his choice of images is by no means limited to these areas. Within his work, one can also identify an impressive scope of contemporary sources ranging from high- to lowbrow, academic to popular, religious to secular, political to social, and modern to postmodern. Armed with this generous bank of images, Ocampo addresses the dark side of human existence, relentlessly exposing elements of human greed, hypocrisy, maltreatment, and injustice.

Though Ocampo’s entire oeuvre is characterized by loaded imagery, Untitled (Burnt Out Europe) is perhaps his most searing indictment of human behavior. The painting is ripe with contradictions. Christ is cast as both victim and victimizer through Ocampo’s fusion of two powerful images of Christian iconography. We see both the Passion, where Christ sacrifices himself for the sake of man, and the Last Judgment, where he presides over souls, condemning the guilty and rewarding the innocent. This duality is emphasized through the joining of Christ’s head with the eagle’s body. Once known as a fierce predator, the eagle has fallen victim as it struggles to survive the human invasion of its habitat.

The addition of swastikas on the eagle’s wings further accentuates the contradictory nature of the painting. At first glance, the swastikas recall Nazi Germany. The juxtaposition of the image with Christ may seem to suggest Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, however, this is not the artist’s intention. Ocampo does not attach blame to Christ or Christianity, but rather holds responsible those who used his name and the Christian faith to victimize and exploit innocent people.

Below the looming head of Christ appears a scene of unfathomable chaos and debauchery. Demonlike figures run amok in an anonymous town square. In the lower right corner, a woman in flames suffers the consequences for her worldly actions. Though clearly alluding to purgatory, this scene also references the papal-authorized death penalty during the Spanish Inquisition, in which unrecanting Jews, Muslims, and indigenous people of the European colonies were forced to burn at the stake for their beliefs. While Untitled (Burnt Out Europe) initially appears to be condemnation of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, upon further inspection it becomes clear that Ocampo has a much broader message to deliver—a warning about the universal consequences of war, tyranny, greed, and human indecency. —L.W.

1. Victoria Alba, “Master of the Macabre,” Asian Art News, April 1995, 52.

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

Manuel Ocampo was born in the Philippines. He studied at the University of the Philippines and CSU Bakersfield. His work has been featured in numerous one-person and group exhibitions throughout the world. He was the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Mexican Museum and the Berkeley Art Museum. Most notably, his work was included in the exhibition Faith, at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art and Documenta IX. (SJMA Collections Committee, 2001)
Manuel Ocampo lives in Manila, Philippines.

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