In Bisaya, “Inday” is a term of endearment used to address young women. It also refers to young women, who people look at with fondness or find remarkable.
Unfortunately, years of prejudice changed Filipino’s perception of the word and erased its lovely meaning. When non-Bisayas hear or say Inday, they refer to the female househelp. Still, there’s no issue with calling them Inday. After all, helping around the house is a dignified occupation, and many people still depend on it.
Reclaiming Inday for the better sounds like a monumental task, but the late contemporary artist Elsie Reyes-Cadapan set her sights on empowering every Inday in the Philippines.
Her artworks almost always highlight women and their strengths and complexities. She uses the canvas to show their emotions, experiences, and achievements through colorful imagery and carefree brushstrokes, showing her creativity and passion as a woman and an artist.
According to her daughter, Magel Cadapan, the social realist signed her artworks as Inday in honor of Visayan women and as a redemption of the term.
It’s been 18 years since Inday took to painting and sculpting to express her emotions and record her insights, yet her art continues to emphasize marginalized Filipinas in various settings.
The vibrant colors that frequent Inday’s art sometimes contrasts their central themes. As Magel put it, Inday was motherly, but she also had angst as a Visayan woman who experienced prejudice from her peers and family.
Magel’s father was an engineering board passer who felt jealous of Inday’s success. But he wasn’t spiteful. He was fiercely loyal to Inday, but toxic masculinity was dominant then as it is today, thus causing strain within the family.
Her frustrations also translated directly to her art. Magel shared that her mother seldom painted men, but during some rare instances, Inday couldn’t paint one that met society’s beauty standards. Instead, she drew them according to her perception of them, allowing the brush to dictate her ideas of female oppression and women empowerment.
Despite the emotion behind her pieces, Inday finds solace in art. Magel fondly recalls how her mother lived 13 years more from life expectancy after battling various ailments because she took up the brush.
She added that having an artist for a mother also helped her become more analytic and appreciative of art. Magel recognizes her mother’s perspective through art pieces she just finished. For instance, she sees her expression in Inday’s art whenever they have a mother-daughter disagreement.
Aside from painting, Inday also dabbled in sculpting. Since she couldn’t handle the equipment to shape the wood, she employed the services of a local woodworker to cut along the mahogany piece. She also valued the imperfections of the wood as it adds more character to the finished product.
Inday doesn’t live on through her art alone. The stories her daughter tells to visitors of Cafe Inday and the influence she had on her keep her memory and message alive. Her timeless art also inspires Indays to fight oppression and celebrate their womanhood.
Galerie Francesca featured Inday’s artworks during the Modern and Contemporary Art Festival (MoCAF) held from July 29 to 31 at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati.