The Extractive Gaze: Philippine Art as Counter-Spectacle to the Neocolonial Simulacrum of Strategic Partnership
The Extractive Gaze: Philippine Art as Counter-Spectacle to the Neocolonial Simulacrum of Strategic Partnership Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ July 5, 2026 In the labyrinthine corridors of global capital, where diplomatic rituals enact the eternal return of asymmetric exchange, the recent elevation of Philippine-Canada relations under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reveals itself not as a beacon of mutual flourishing but as a sophisticated iteration of extractive logic. Agreements on critical minerals, energy, mining services, and labor mobility—yielding touted billions in pledges—function less as altruistic overtures than as apertures for Canadian market expansion into Philippine resource domains. This premise, stripped of its political veneer, demands interrogation through the prism of Philippine art: a tradition forged in resistance, hybridity, and the haunting *duende* of colonial aftermath. Here, the canvas, the installation, and the performance become sites of epistemic reb...
