(Note: Prepared with Hermigildo Pineda, a guest lecturer at Holy Angel University on the subject of Humanities, Art Appreciation and Arts and Culture studies, and Abe Orobia, a Fine Arts instructor at the College of Saint Benilde.)
Announced grand prize winner of this year’s Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) is The Promise by Alyssa Calderon, a Landscape student from Bulacan State University (BSU), who “voluntarily withdrew her entry,” according to an official statement.
In 2013, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations revoked the first prize given to “Fast to the Future” by Christian Joy Trinidad including the cash prize of P50,000 and the Certificate of Excellence.
Plagiarized from the work of Spanish digital artist Nekro, the art work largely copied a woman wearing a helmet-like device and surrounded by balloons, planes, children and other visual elements.
DFA spokesperson Charles Jose also expected Trinidad to “issue an apology for submitting an entry copied from the work of another artist.”
Based on verified information from Jet Valencia, Calderon is not a Fine Arts student as reported by The Manila Bulletin, but a Landscape student at BSU.
Using coffee rendered over textured paper with burned edges in the water media on paper category, The Promise shows two lying skeleton figures with arms over each other, which suggests love is forever and crosses mortality.
Calderon’s painting has an obvious resemblance to the photo by Reuters that went viral of two skeletons of a male and a female who were buried holding hands in a cemetery in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as unearthed by archaeologists. Estimated burial is somewhere between 1450 and 1550.
From 332 entries, 112 artworks in both painting and sculpture categories qualified for the final judging. Five artists including Calderon were to be recognized during the awarding ceremony and exhibit opening on Thursday, September 22, at Le Pavillon, Metropolitan Park, Pasay City.
Grand awardees David Ryan Viray, Paolo Marin, Siefred Guilaran and Roberto Acosta received financial assistance worth P300,000 and a Mula glass trophy designed by Noel El Farol. They will also receive a special grant when their first solo exhibition is launched.
Nestor Vinluan chaired this year’s board of judges with members Prof. Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, Peter de Guzman, Albert Avellana, Jonathan Olazo, Agnes Arellano and Andres Barrioquinto.
What remedy is available to MADE that threatens its own credibility as a prestigious art competition? As it is sufficiently covered by an originality statement, it can easily not give the award. Announcing the winners in advance was an effective deterrent.
It can also check what went wrong with its judging system causing the failure to detect the plagiarism. Since the board of jurors is composed of credible members of the art community, there is a collective responsibility to consider Calderon’s work as worthy of a grand prize.
More than juror error, this plagiarism is clearly an undesirable act of the artist to deceive. It is impossible to claim cluelessness as she signed an originality statement unless there is failure on the side of MADE to implement, which is not easy to assume.
More than anything, it is attributable to the prevalent tendency of visual artists to base artworks on images that are not original, mainly googled or culled from social media, doing so without the modicum of decency to attribute it to the owner. They have this mindset that displaying technical dexterity is original enough.
As expected, Calderon claimed ignorance that using a googled photo as reference for a painting is plagiarism. In a Facebook post, she says: “Good day! I just want to speak up for myself regarding the issue of plagiarism of my entry entitled “The Promise.” It is NOT really my intention to plagiarize. I didn’t know that it is not okay to copy from Photo References since I see some artists who uses photo from the net and not being accused of plagiarism. With this issue, I sincerely apologize especially to those who gave their reactions publicly. As I have said, it is NOT my intention to plagiarize and to put myself into shame. Whatever the results will be, I know God has a purpose why this has to happen.”
No doubt, they wrongly believe plagiarism is the new original!
That is why at ARTlead, we have a disclosure standard of revealing if the artwork is based on a reference that disqualifies it as an original work in such case. To qualify for daily and monthly citation, photos must be taken by the artist to qualify as original.
ARTlead’s thrust this year is for members to “levitate” — to bring to a higher level their art — with originality as the non-negotiable basis. It has been successful in delivering the desired results if members put their hand, mind and heart to the lofty objective.
This thrust has been effective in spreading the need for originality. And members have generally showed honesty in their disclosures although there is still a tendency to post non-original materials. For this reason, ARTlead is considering the posting of original artworks only.
If it has not done that, this is to allow an adjustment period and educate members of the importance of originality. The MADE issue will drive the point that plagiarism as wrongly promoted by various art groups in whatever degree is unacceptable and undesirable.
This report that had been posted in ARTlead went viral. As concrete actions of the part of contributors to this article, Orobia sent an e-mail to the MADE president, allegedly El Farol, stating that they will discuss the plagiarism report.
Art conservator/artist Rex Beo may have identified the cause of the main problem: “During our time kasi sobrang strict ng Metro Bank kahit picture they disqualify it so it made me think is MADE getting soft or talagang walang alam ang panel sa art. Kahit kamukha ng picture yung reference they disqualify it kasi they want original concepts.”
SIDE A AT HARD ROCK CAFÉ. Catch the country’s premier band Side A in a special performance at Hard Rock Café (HRC) on Sept. 24 (Saturday, 9:30 p.m. Fans and hard rockers can look forward to an evening of beautiful music as Side A is set to dish out live their greatest hits as culled from their impressive catalogue of multi-platinum full-length studio albums, such as “Until Then,” “Tell Me,” and “Forevermore,” as well as a sampling of today’s hottest chart-toppers, party anthems and homegrown favorites. Also performing back-to-back with Side A is Verse 2. Other featured artists at HRC this September are Part 3 (Sept. 25 and 30), All Access (Sept. 26), Silk (Sept. 27), and Arpie & The Multivitamins (Sept. 28).
(Photo of Alyssa Calderon courtesy of the Manila Bulletin and the skeletons from Google.)