This large-scale painting is a collaborative work, bringing together key members of the Philippine art collective KAISAHAN. State of the Nation revisits the social injustices, suffering and ecological damage that accompanied the declaration of martial law in the Philippines during the Marcos regime (1972–1986). The painting was a commission for the exhibition 'Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia (1969-89)' at National Gallery Singapore.Each KAISAHAN artist painted a different part of this painting in his distinct aesthetic style. The central figure by Edgar Talusan Fernandez symbolises the Philippines as motherland (Inang Bayan). She is situated between two forces: the military and the destitute. Cast in blue by Neil Doloricon, the row of protesters linking arms to form a human chain against armed forces signify the power and solidarity of a united people. Directly before them, Pablo Baen Santos depicts the various communities that comprise Philippine society. Renato Habulan portrays the people in the foreground: the girl holding the lamp signifies hope, and the woman in the middle is a reference to the Pieta, a recurrent image in protest art in the Philippines.Tuklas, a group of young artists mentored by the KAISAHAN, assisted with the painting, contributing specific elements such as the animals.The KAISAHAN were recognised for producing paintings such as this, together with posters and banners for mass demonstrations in Manila against the Marcos regime. As a result of their activism, they were excluded from state-sanctioned cultural spaces such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and never exhibited there during martial law.
