The installation, If On A Tropic Night, traces ‘heroes and villains, legendary figures and CIA operatives, over the twentieth century and, in particular, the Cold War period, in the Philippines and Asia’.[i]
If On A Tropic Night is by the group of artists, The Boondocks, and is composed of a flow chart spread over the floor and four walls of the gallery, and two video works within this setting. In 1966 The Beatles Came To Manila is about the visit of the Beatles to Manila in 1966 for two concerts on July 4, their first and only performance in a developing country. Exterior, Manila is a long tracking shot as evening falls and was shot in Manila in 2009.
The nodes of the flow chart are descriptions of events – some well known, others surprising – of the Cold War, descriptions taken from a range of historical and journalistic sources. These events – from the execution of Che Guevara to the unearthing of Japanese loot and psywar in Vietnam – are interconnected through the career of one person, Ferdinand Marcos, who was deposed as Philippine dictator just three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The word boondocks is derived from the Tagalog (Filipino) word bundok meaning hill or hill-country, and was taken back to the United States by American soldiers.
The Boondocks are Robert Nery, Simpson Tse and Gabrielle Finnane.
[1] Amando Doronila, If On A Tropic Night catalogue introduction