Born in Montalban Rizal, the Philippines, Rodel Tapaya (b. 1980) graduated from University of the Philippines, before travelling to University of Art and Design (Helsinki, Finland) and Parsons School of Design (New York City) for further studies. In 2001, Tapaya won the Grand Prize of the Nokia Art Awards Asia Pacific. Since 1999, Tapaya has been actively participating in solo and group exhibitions. For this series of works, Tapaya draws inspiration from native stories, myths and folklore of different indigenous tribes, and retells them in a diorama. Each diorama resembles a ‘retablo’ (altarpiece) and a house on stilts, setting the stage to tell the indigenous stories within a folk Christianity. In ‘Pedro and the Witch’, Tapaya portrays the climax of the story, where Pedro, the protagonist, drops the magic handkerchief and huge flames break out, burning the wings of Boroka, the witch who is after him.
