Twenty-two stories tall. Eighty gallons of house paint. One hundred cans of spray paint. One artist, no assistants. Twenty-four days. That’s quite a feat alone, but throw in an earthquake and now you’ve really got yourself a story. “Every day felt like a near death experience,” Archie Oclos laughs, recalling his time painting the country’s tallest mural last month. “But when the earthquake hit, I was on the scaffolding 12 stories up. The gondola was swinging and banging me against the wall. But once it was over I just kept painting, I had to finish it!”
Completing such a large mural alone and in such a short span of time was a physically daunting task in itself. His more difficult goal is using the mural to help indigenous people struggling throughout the Philippines. The painting depicts a Lumad child wading through water, carrying a younger sibling and all their possessions, as they evacuate their ancestral homeland in Surigao del Sur after it became militarized. “It’s painted on the wall of De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, which has a lot of privileged students with easy access to education,” Oclos explains. “So I wanted to remind those students to value their education and use it responsibly. These kids in Surigao want to study too. They just want the simple things in life: peace, shelter, and education.”
Oclos hopes the mural—which was made possible by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and Sainte Bernade—will inspire students to help. And it has already led to some concrete movement, according to Oclos: “The school is going to have a project visiting the community and donating education supplies. The mural is just meant to be a stepping stone towards resolving a very serious issue. “
