D.H. (Domestic Helper)

Women with their faces partially obscured, blurred. These women seated in chairs reminiscent of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, arranged before the garden of a wealthy home, appear as if all communication, and particularly any retort, is forbidden. With the Philippines' colonial period in the past, Filipina women moved overseas to support family earnings with money saved from their work in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and the Middle East. This painting focuses on problems related to such emigration. Such women are said to be abused by their employers in these foreign lands. This piece was created from the memories of an actual incident, and it provides an honest commentary on the conditions of women's rights in the 1990s and indicts the mistreatment of disempowered Filipinas in the economic power dynamically among Southeast Asian countries. Elmer Borlongan is a Filipino painter addressing the pain and struggle of ordinary people living with immense burdens amidst society's incongruities. (RT)