Philippine Figurine: Image, Ornament, Art

This instructive collection of essays is a proposition on “the Philippine figurine,” imagined as a means to rethink the concepts of art, image and ornament and their implications across history and place. Each of the seven essays is a close reading of a particular form, ranging from the annual procession of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila, to the work of the 19th-century painter Juan Luna, to the photograph of former First Lady Imelda Marcos. Written by leading curator and historian of Southeast Asian art Patrick Flores, the book is enlivening reading for those with an interest in art theory and the postcolonial condition of all forms sensible.

Philippine Figurine is an elaborately annotated, exquisitely precise art-historical exposition of the cultures of the Philippines as an archipelago and a colony. It gifts to contemporary consciousness a spectral brilliance gained from material sites of cultural knowledge. Patrick Flores leaves us beholden.
—GEETA KAPUR, art critic and curator

National Gallery Singapore Art Writing is a new imprint celebrating the diverse voices and genres of writing that create the discourse of art in Southeast Asia, both historically and in the present. Going beyond conventional art history, books in this imprint include compilations of artist writings, art criticism and experimental approaches to the image. Philippine Figurine is the third title in this imprint.