UP Oblation Plagiarism Issue

Alleged "UP Oblation" Plagiarism

              We are fascinated by the Oblation concrete statue of the Filipino Artist Guillermo E. Tolentino whenever we went to the University of the Philippines, this masculine icon that symbolizes selfless offering of oneself had engrossed all people for countless of years. But while his feminine accomplice, faces controversy and disputation of the artist’s work for its first exhibition to the public. The Filipino artist Ferdinand Cacnio’s the “UPLift” sculpture, or also known as the “Female Oblation”, had 2,000 shares, over 12,000 reactions and negative comments on social media for the alleged plagiarism of the work of the Dutch artist Elisabeth Stienstra’s “The Virgins of Apeldoorn”, first accused by a netizen. 

               The controversy started on June 24, Sunday, after the Filipino artist Cacnio posted on his Facebook account on June 23, a netizen posted a photo of Cacnio’s “UPLift” sculpture and its similarity to Dutch artist Elisabet Stienstra’s “The Virgins of Apeldoorn”. Ferdinan Cacnio, the creator of the now famous female sculpture situated in from of the University Theater, said that he doesn’t even know Elisabet Stienstra and he never went to the Neatherlands.The UPLift sculpture of Cacnio is about “enlightenment and uplifting oneself” and about “aspiring for honor and excellence”, the concept was like to welcome the knowledge and precepts of UP as an institution. The artist shares that the theme of levitating woman arising with open arms, was first presented to him in 2007 and in 2010 the UPLift sculpture was presented at the UP homecoming party where he and his fellow batchmates were able to sell fifty pieces to cover the cost of producing the work. Cacnio admits he was aggrieved by the allegations, saying, “We value honor and excellence. It’s so easy to judge without knowing the facts.”

                 Despite of the incriminations towards his work, Cacnio still forecast a positive effect of these censures, that his work would be more exposed and beckoned exceeding interest in the world of art. This is a real hard encounter for an artist like Cacnio, I’ve seen lot of controversies throughout the world of art and literature, and the long haul ended up the real artist being celebrated.  Some Filipino artists had experience this undertaking issue of authenticity too, like the Pinoy band Orange and Lemons’ big hit “Pinoy Ako”, has been accused of copying the melody and musical arrangement of the single “Chandeliers” by 1980’s New Wave group Care. And the Filipino amateur photographer Mark Joseph Solis, (who admittedly) stolen a shot that won in the 2nd Calidad Humana National Essay Photography Competition tabulated by the Embassy of Chile. Solis later on apologized and withdrew his participation for stealing a photo which was actually belonged to a Brazil-based social worker Gregory John Smith’s “Neptune of the Sea”, taken in 2006 in Rio de Janeiro.  

Plagiarism is a big concern of account and reputation, especially when you are an artist. Your art is you itself, and if someone accused you of copying it from others it would not destroy your material art, it is you. But the world is too big to have the most sophisticated and unexampled work of all, sometimes people do the conventional Victorian philosophy of “creation before imitation”, and some people create than to imitate one’s style, tradition, and form. And as I see these different battles of credibility and legitimacy, I’ve learned something from them. That even we clone, paraphrase, embody and parodize someone's work, the better wins.

-WC 12