Pinay artist reimagines Juan Luna's Spoliarium in sculpture to protest war on drugs at Art Fair Philippines 2020

Filipina sculptor Julie Lluch has recreated Juan Luna’s 1884 classic painting “Spoliarium” into a sculpture that represents the current war on drugs issue.

Displayed at the Art Fair Philippines 2020, Lluch’s Spoliarium reimagination depicts a sculpture of a dead man lying down on a bloody floor while he was being pulled away by a masked man using a rope.

In an interview with GMA News Online, the artist said she saw the exhibit as a avenue for her to contribute her "voice of protest against the injustices, the oppression, particularly on the war on drugs.”

READ: Art Fair Philippines: 10 things you shouldn't miss at the 2020 edition of the fair

She said she believes that she and Luna had the same intention with their art.

"Kasi ‘yung Spoliarium is also the criticism of Spanish colonial,” she explained.

At the forefront of her “Irresistible Grace” exhibit is a sculpture of Josephine Bracken, crying while she read a long trail of paper.

Lluch said the paper has list names of the “actual victims of the war on drugs.”

Behind her Spoliarium, there are also over 20 sculptures of Philippine heroes, politicians, and personalities.

According to the sculptor, these are “reproductions” of her old work acting as “witnesses” to the issues happening today.

“These are reproductions of old works like the Lacson, this is a reproduction of the one in Roxas Boulevard,” she said.

“Some are in different parts of the Philippines. Zamboanga, Batanes, Bataan, “and then I just put them together, repair them, clean them, repainted them, I might as well put them to good use,” she said.

Art Fair Philippines 2020 is set to happen from February 21 to 23 at The Link in Makati City.

—JCB, GMA News