In the attempt to “unframe” the design of the Philippine flag, an emblem naturalized through the course of history, there is a problem seen through its symbolization. In the process of unframing the designs, there is a use of a Deleuzian (as Villani quoted in his essay to be Deleuzian is “to be on the look out”) concept. In “Why Am I Deleuzian?” of Arnaud Villani, he said that Deleuze is a great historian only because he is a great philosopher. The ideas of Deleuze are not limited to Post-Marxist but his concepts go beyond with what he intended, his concepts can be stretched. The Deleuzian concept also extended to Post-Structuralism (where there is a questioning and “redefining” of symbols). Deleuze, being a historian, looks at concepts and finds their problems.
In Villani’s essay, there is such as the Philosophy of Art. He said that we stop at art and not even look what is behind it. Deleuze is a great philosopher because he tries as much as possible to look at subjects and questions them. Deleuze’s theory of art is that once there is art there is resistance. Art resists itself.
Our Philippine flag is a symbol, an art that we learned to respect. In the course of history, we learned its symbolic importance but dismissed the idea of looking far beyond what we have learned. The idea of the Philippine flag is a symbol that encompasses the identity of Filipinos. The first process in this attempt is to look at the history of the Philippine flag.
The Philippine Flag is a symbol that represents the Filipinos/ Philippines. The Philippine Flag was designed by Emilio Aguinaldo and was sewn in Hong Kong by Mrs. Marcella de Agoncillo with the help of Lorenza (her daughter) and Mrs. Josefina Herbosa de Natavidad (Rizal’s niece).
In the history of the Philippine flag, the root of its creation started during the Spanish Colonization. During this Colonization period, Andres Bonifacio who was the leader of the said group had his own flag of the KKK, it was rectangular and the color is red which signifies their oath to the Katipunan , that they are prepared to shed blood for the Mother country, and the three KKK sign in the middle in white ink .
It was not only Bonifacio who had a flag of the Katipunan, on the contrary, many different designs of the KKK flag came out because the Katipunan does not have a unified or codified flag, and it was also in this process that the mythological sun (the one that has a face) emerged.
The Katipunan is the group that symbolizes the Filipinos resistance to the Spanish colonizers, thus the group’s flag is the emblem that shows their resistance. So the time that the Philippines had its National flag (Aguinaldo’s “Masonic “design), it was raised on the twelfth of June, the day that the Aguinaldo raised it and called our country “Independent” of any colonization. The flag was rectangular in shape, has a white triangle on the left end, the mythological sun in the center of it and three stars on each side of the triangle. The blue stripe is on the upper part of the flag and the red stripe on the lower part. The white triangle, which was put in the flag in honor of Aguinaldo’s free-masonic fraternity, symbolizes equality and also the KKK group. The mythological sun which have eight rays symbolizes the first eight provinces (Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Manila, Cavite, Pampangga, Bataan, Laguna and Batangas) who resisted when they were put under martial law; also independence because the big sun represents the Filipinos great step not under the colony, the three stars symbolizes Philippines’ main geographical archipelago Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the blue stripes means peace, justice and truth; and the red stripe symbolizes patriotism.
The flag at that time was a symbol that embraces Filipino identity, but if we remove the revolution against the colonizers altogether, the flag’s design would not capacitate the Filipino identity. Even then, the colors of the Philippine flag: red, blue and white, is a sign of gratitude of the Filipinos towards the Americans. The only thing that is Filipino in the flag is the sentiment that it carries with it, the idea that it is a sign of our unity against the colonizers.
Basically the Philippine Flag is the symbol when the Filipinos are resisting the Spanish Colony (The Revolution), it is Filipinos war symbol and independence symbol, without these concept the design of the flag would crumble and maybe only the stars will remain (or it can also be removed for it was based on the stars on the American flag which “represents” its 50 states).
The design made in this project is a simple design, the wave. The design is not based on the old designs but rather the design is made relevant to modern Filipinos. There are three waves because they represent the three main islands of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao which are separated by the sea. Another signification of the waves is connection, not only to our fellow Filipinos (despite of geographical separation, or whether they are living or working abroad) but also connection to other countries (the result of globalization). These waves are made not as a sign of Filipinos’ unity but as a sign of the Filipinos’ bond (to other Filipinos and foreigners). Wave is a sign of Filipinos’ strength through life. Waves in their own, are cyclic, the waves go up and break and again they repeat the process, like the Filipinos, sometimes they are up and sometimes down but still they continue to live even through hard times. Wave is a surge, most young modern Filipinos like to rush forward in many things but they like to go forward and progress or simply go forward. Lastly, the wave symbolizes that we are easily taken by what is trendy, what is hot and what is in (i.e K-Pop, Koreanovelas, Japanese Animes, etc.).We Filipinos like to go with the flow.
We see that that in application of Deleuzian concept in art, we see that the Philippine Flag is not as appropriate as a symbol for the Filipinos of today because the flag itself is a fabrication of other designs. A mere copy of foreign and masonic designs that were put together to create a flag that is said to be “Filipino”. The wave is a design that is said to be Deleuzian because wave is a sign of inconsistency, thus the wave even though an alternative design will in future be a design inconsistent or irrelevant to the Filipinos. Inconsistency in the form of the wave can be subjected to the unframing process. It is open to another unframing procedure that will give birth to another art or design.
“The Evolution of the Filipino Flag.” http://www.msc.edu.ph/centennial/flags.html.accessed on: September 4, 2009.
“Philippine Flag History.” http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~fasawwu/resources/philippines/flag-history.htm. accessed on: September 4, 2009.
“The Philippine Flag – its masonic roots.”http://www.worldflags101.com/p/philippine-flag.aspx. accessed on: September 4, 2009.
Macdonald, Ian. “History of the Philippines Flag.” http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/phhist.html. accessed on: September 4, 2009.
Boundas, Constantin ed. “Deleuze and Philosophy.”Great Britain: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
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