The Collection of Jane Ryan and William Saunders, a long term project that Pio Abad began in 2011 and has since evolved into a series of solo and group exhibitions, lectures and collaborations, draws attention to the roles that certain artefacts have played in the recent history of the Philippines, specifically in shaping the cultural legacy of former Philippine dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and the postcolonial ideology they enforced under the auspices of capitalist democracies during the Cold War. Jane Ryan and William Saunders were the false identities used by the couple to register their first Swiss bank account at Credit Suisse Zurich in March 1968, enabling them to transform a huge chunk of the Philippine treasury into private wealth under the guidance of the Western banking system. By excavating silenced histories, devising actions and remaking an inventory of objects tainted by the Marcos regime’s corruption, The Collection of Jane Ryan and William Saunders has evolved into an extensive and elaborate disavowal of political fantasies, laundered histories and alternative facts.

The first iteration of the project, which was shown at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum in Manila in 2014, is an installation comprised of 97 different sets of postcards, depicting Old Master paintings of inconsistent quality and authenticity. The paintings reproduced on the postcards are taken from a Christie’s auction catalogue for a sale of ‘Important Old Master Paintings’ on the 11th of January 1991. Acting on behalf of the Philippine government, Christie’s sold off 97 paintings acquired by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos using ill-gotten public money and subsequently sequestered by the revolutionary government after the Marcoses were forced out of office.

The paintings from Imelda’s sequestered collection are printed as postcards and laid out on a ten-metre long white plinth spanning the length of the gallery - a monumental body of evidence neatly arranged for scrutiny. On the back of each postcard are various texts, each painting bearing witness to fraudulent acts and, in the process, implicating an expansive networks of players from the worlds of art and politics. The public is then invited to take ownership of the artworks by getting as many postcards as they want, the seized collection finally free for the taking.

This work has since been exhibited at the EVA International Biennial, Limerick; e-flux, New York City; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Oakville Galleries, Ontario and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/27734