'God Loves Ugly' Mask 2 of 3

Inspired by Atmosphere and Philippine history...

When the Spaniards took over the Philippines, they effectively made the Filipino people third class citizens in their own country, and made them believe that their native culture, gods, and skin color were evil and wrong, while the foreign, pale skinned man and his Christ were riteous an to be aspried.

Written in Baybayin, which is an ancient writing system used by Filipinos and predating Spanish colonization, I wrote "God loves ugly" on them. Or really, the phonetic equivalent of the Tagalog translation, "Mahal ang dios ang mga pangit". I think it’s important to note that the word for "god" used in this one is "Dios", which comes from Jesus (Dios Cristo), the foreign god that the Spaniards introduced. It gives a nice touch of irony to the overall piece in saying that one is loved by a foreign god that was deemed better than their inherent ones, and one is considering himself ugly because they were told so. But the main point is, if the Christ god of the Spaniards was all loving, then the Filipino people didn’t need to stay indoors all day for fear of the sun darkening their skin, or have to bleach themselves. But they did it anyways because they were being taught that the darker native people were beneath the foreign Spaniards in their society. And to this day, the mindset of fairer complexion as a standard of beauty is so embedded into the Filipino culture, that it’s something many of us just accept.

But I don’t. Because if there is a god, then I’m sure he/she/or it wouldn’t be so petty.

God loves ugly, but who told you what ugly is?

Set of 3 masks.
Acrylic, spray paint and paint markers.
Shot with Panasonic DMC LX3

The Bathala Project.
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