Sexuality Is In, Social-Mindedness Is Out, Regenerative Society Is Out! Painter’s Complaint, Pater’s Complaint, Portnoy’s Complaint

"Portnoy’s Complaint” was all about sexuality – no saving grace there.

“Painter’s Complaint” – Today, my son painter Paul Hilario uses Satire to awaken us Filipinos to help improve our society.

“Pater’s Complaint” – I creative writer have always tried to use Science to awaken the Filipino farmers into “Regenerative Agriculture” to be practiced to improve lives in villages.

06-31 July 2024, Paul Hilario has a solo painting exhibit at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA); the NCCA building is at 633 General Luna Street in Intramuros, Manila. If you visit, watch out! It’s satire – with 14 paintings and 2 installations.

Laya Boquiren Gonzales, NCCA Curator, says of it:

Paul Hilario's solo exhibition offers a satirical exploration of a nation in decline. His visual allegories are thought-provoking meditations on the state and its governance. The artist prefers to wage his battles through symbols, which are enigmatic provocations that elicit contested responses from different people. The narrative of an ailing government echoes through our collective memory, a stark and urgent reminder of the cyclical pattern of inequity, violence, and patronage politics.

“A nation in decline” – My country the Philippines! I know. In my field alone, the practice of Chemical Agriculture continues to exhibit its overall sad results: increasing farmer poverty, increasing costs of foods, decreasing public health – increasing village destruction by Climate Change.

PH agriculture is destroying us!

The exhibit uses “satire –
“a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, especially in order to make a political point”– Cambridge Dictionary
“trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly”– Merriam-Webster
“artistic form … in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform.” britannica.com

Ergo, Paul Hilario’s “Ille Imperium” (Supreme Power) solo painting exhibit is saying, in effect:

“Wake up, Filipinos! You have the power – Do something, for a much better Philippines!”

That is to say, the visitor in Paul Hilario’s art exhibit is being told by the painter, if not so subtly, that s/he is the authority of herself/himself on what to contribute to help solve the numerous national problems of the Philippines.

That is to say, subtly, that our politicians and/or leaders are very wrong about what they are doing, and not doing!

I Pater Complaining am saying:

In Agriculture, we Filipinos are not quite aware of Regenerative Agriculture (RA) that is quite anti-Climate Change and pro-Primate Change – we primates should apply RA practices if only for RA’s twin major benefits: (1) It fights Climate Change, and (2) It fights farmer poverty.

In Leadership, we Filipinos are not socially aware of the lack of Vision of our Congress and Presidency – those people are only looking at patchwork solutions, not basic changes that would lead to national welfare!

Painter: “Admission is free. Then do something for society!”
Pater: “Admission of guilt is free. Then do something for your country!”@517