{"title":"Eileen R. Tabios","description":"\u003cp\u003eEileen R. Tabios offers a vivid exploration of arts and culture, weaving personal narrative with broader social themes. Her works, including \u003cem\u003eThe Balikbayan Artist\u003c\/em\u003e, invite readers to consider identity, creativity, and heritage through a nuanced and poetic lens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExpect a richly textured literary experience that blends memoir, art criticism, and cultural reflection, all articulated with a distinctive voice that challenges and delights in equal measure.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-balikbayan-artist-by-eileen-r-tabios-9789815233049","title":"The Balikbayan Artist","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eExploring the role of the artist in troubled times, \u003cem\u003eThe Balikbayan Artist\u003c\/em\u003e follows Vance Igorta, who returns to the Philippines as a 'balikbayan' after nearly fifty years in the United States. He is a member of the Manong generation, the largest diaspora of Filipinos who worked physically demanding jobs, mostly in California's agricultural fields.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter coming home to a country on the brink of becoming a dictatorship, the farm-labourer-turned-artist shifts his paintings from abstractions to didactic political art to better reflect the rebellion that he eventually joins. Didacticism also facilitates his meditations on the impact of leaving his birthland to become a powerless Manong and then an impoverished artist of colour in New York.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Balikbayan Artist\u003c\/em\u003e takes readers from the early 20th century to the present day, where Vance Igorta's art is being discovered anew. His legacy is validated for allowing his art to address the tensions of his time instead of keeping it solely entrenched within aesthetic concerns. The artist's choice reflects what Vance Igorta learned as a voraciously self-educated person—that in circumstances where power corrupts, what makes anyone and everyone dangerous is love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis novel is inspired by and dedicated to Venancio C. Igarta (1912-2000), the real-life leading artist of the Manong generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47603201573100,"sku":"9789815233049","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9789815233049-the-balikbayan-artist.jpg?v=1778057414"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/eileen-r-tabios.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}