Philippine Figurine: Image, Ornament, Art

This compelling collection of essays is a mediation on "the figurine," theorised as a means to rethink concepts of art, ornament, the decorative and the devotional, and their postcolonial implications. Each of the seven essays is a close reading of a particular image, ranging from the annual procession of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila, to the work of the 19th-century painter Juan Luna, to the patronage of former First Lady Imelda Marcos. Written by leading curator and historian of Southeast Asian art Professor Patrick Flores, the book is enlivening reading for those with an interest in art theory and the postcolonial condition of the image in the Global South.