When you walk through the National Gallery Singapore’s latest exhibition, Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise, it’s impossible not to be struck by the quiet insistence of Imelda Cajipe Endaya’s work.
A co-founder of the feminist art collective KASIBULAN in 1987, Endaya has spent decades reshaping the way women’s lives are seen, felt and imagined in the Philippines — and now, in Singapore for the first time, audiences can trace the full scope of her practice.
Endaya’s art is both intimate and political. Across printmaking, painting, collage and mixed media, she transforms ordinary experiences into acts of reflection and resistance. She places women at the center, not as passive subjects, but as active participants navigating the social, cultural, and political landscapes of their lives. Whether exploring domestic spaces, labor, memory, or identity, her works quietly assert that the personal is inextricably linked to the collective.
Her journey has never been solitary. Beyond her own artistic practice, Endaya has nurtured communities, mentored emerging artists, and fostered dialogue around gender, social justice, and the power of creative expression. The formation of KASIBULAN was not merely an act of organization — it was a statement, a collective declaration that women could reclaim space in the Philippine art scene and, through their work, challenge societal norms that had long silenced them.
In Fear No Power, Endaya’s contributions sit alongside other groundbreaking Southeast Asian artists, including Amanda Heng, Dolorosa Sinaga, Nirmala Dutt and Phaptawan Suwannakudt. The exhibition is organized into three zones: Where the Body Thinks, Worlds Open, exploring personal and bodily experience; Refusal and Hope, where social and political engagement takes center stage; and Imagining Otherwise, highlighting collective action and community-building. In each zone, Endaya’s work resonates with a clarity born of lived experience — her art is an invitation to see the world differently, to imagine new forms of care, resistance and possibility.
“Imelda Cajipe Endaya shows us that courage does not always roar,” Horikawa Lisa, director of Curatorial & Collections at the Gallery, said. “It can be a quiet insistence, a daily commitment to seeing and speaking truth, and a dedication to lifting others along the way.”
For visitors, Endaya’s works offer more than aesthetic appreciation — they are a lens into lives often overlooked, a testament to women’s resilience, and a reminder that art is not only about self-expression but about shaping communities, histories, and futures. Walking through the gallery, one can feel the echoes of her activism, her creativity and her belief in the power of women to imagine otherwise.
Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise runs from 9 January to 15 November at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Concourse Gallery, National Gallery Singapore. Entrance is free.
It is very possible that Pinoy showbiz idols Michelle Dee and Janella Salvador subconsciously absorbed notions that it’s okay to be bisexual while attending sessions as tag-along little girls in a spiritual center in Makati.
Dee was a tag-along of her dad, Derek Dee, while Salvador that of her mom, singer-actress Janine Desiderio. Both Dee and Salvador were literally little girls at that time, with ages ranging from seven to ten years old. Dee is older than Salvador by three years or so.
What Derek and Desiderio were attending then were spiritual study sessions conducted every Sunday by the late spiritual guru George Sison, who was also well-known for his other involvements, such as being a gallery owner, restaurateur, concert producer, just to name some. Sison was hailed as a Renaissance man.
As a spiritual guru, Sison headed a New Thought (NT) group known as Temple of Prayer, Peace, and Prosperity (TOPPP) whose members were meeting in a building in Chino Roces Avenue in Makati owned by Sison’s family.
Among its members at one time or another were Derek Dee, Jenine Desiderio, Dina Bonnevie, Ernie Garcia, Marissa Delgado, her son Kevin Delgado, filmmaker Francis Pasion, writers Tet Defensor, Cristah Rara and Jamal Ashley.
The group lives on despite Sison’s having “transitioned” to his next life in 2018 March, and actors Juan Rodrigo and Dexter Doria are still active members who attend the spiritual study sessions by watching on Sunday afternoons videos of Sison’s lectures which are well-preserved by former Victor Records musical director Mandie Ferrer who remains active with the group.
When Sison was still around physically, people were going there for guided meditations led by him, recitation and and singing of affirmations, and listening to Sison’s long spiritual lectures. There were other TOPPP activities Sison created himself just for the group.
The tag-along kids are allowed to listen to the lectures inside or outside the lecture hall as there was loud speaker outside for those who want to listen to the lengthy lecture on any New Thought topic that the Universe has moved Sison to tackle on any given Sunday afternoon.
We are quite familiar with New Thought events because we have been a member of that Sison group since its 11th year and until the time Sison made his “transition” into his next life in 2018. Passing on is termed as “transitioning” in NT vocabulary. Many NT groups worldwide believe in reincarnation, which is why passing on is termed as “transitioning.”
We were attending Sison’s lectures at the time Michelle and Janella were tagging along with their respective single parent. Both Derek and Desiderio knew us at that time and know us even now. They knew and know that we have always been a showbiz reporter. Since attending TOPPP sessions is part of our private life, we consider it the same for Derek, Desiderio, Michelle, and Maxine Dee, Michelle’s younger sister who must be a year younger than Michelle. We never wrote about them as TOPPPers though we may have written about Derek’s and Desiderio’s showbiz projects at one time or another
During the years all three young daughters were tagging along with one of their parents, we don’t know how often they must have heard Sison intoning it is okay to be in love with persons of any gender. They might have heard Sison in toning something like: “Here at the TOPPP, being in love does not involve gender. And you may do well by not saying ‘falling in love’ because that ancient expression sounds like you fell into a canal or into a dark pit. That’s not what being in love is all about.”
We might never find out how often Michelle, Maxene, and Janella have heard Sison’s variations of the NT teaching that gender is not a factor in being in love.
But they were just little girls then, how could have the teaching affected them? Well, the teaching must have gone straight into their subconsciousness, the part of the mind that does not filter whatever thought or impressions of experiences are deposited into it. Later thoughts and impressions will be superimposed over earlier thoughts and impressions though the earliest ones may come to surface and become a mysterious basis of a decision that the person makes, such as choosing to be bisexual.
In Janella’s case, it seems to be her exposure to the the unapologetic lesbian Kleia Pineda who is just a little mannish but statuesque and stunning while doing the Cinemalaya film “Open Endings” that deal with changing partners among four sapphic women. By that time, Janella has gone through a failed live-in relationship with hetero actor Marcus Patterson. When Janella appeared as the snake-headed villainess to Jane de Leon’s “Darna” in the ABS-CBN series, the public perceived Janella as a potential partner of De Leon in a “Girls Love” (GL) project. So as early as 2023, people could sense some bisexuality secretly residing in Janella’s personality.
In the case of Michelle Dee, she publicly admitted she is bisexual in May 2023 in an exclusive interview with Mega Magazine.
Her admission was triggered by old photos of her from her teenage years circulating online with “malicious intent”. These photos, which showed her with a boyish style, were spread by some individuals to question her sexuality and reportedly distract her or make her feel “unworthy of the Miss Universe Philippines crown” during the competition that she had just won.
Michelle decided to come out on her own terms to “take control of that narrative” and turn a potentially negative situation into an “empowering story.” She wanted to put an end to the rumors and use her own voice to share her story authentically.
New Thought is also known as Practical Christianity in the US and New Thoughters eventually call its principles their “religion” though an unconventional one — because it has no central authority. It does not have a pope or any similar over-arching leader.
New Thought groups all belive that God is not just with human beings but God is the Divine Spirit that dwells in all beings, including inanimate objects that science may consider lifeless. Every human being is God as himself or herself.
Under New Though belief system, a person actually chooses his or her gender before he/she reincarnates on Earth because that gender choice may help him/her navigate life up to a certain age.
Not all children of adult TOPPP members who listened to Sison’s lectures on genderless love became bisexuals. Two girls who attended so much more lectures than Michelle and Janella up to their college years got married to men and were not known to have become bisexuals. There were also young prepubescebt boys who attended sessions with their parents none of whom are known to have become bisexuals.
There are many male gays, overt or covert, who attend the taped Sunday lectures up to now. There›s also a sapphic couple. When there are activities that require sitting around a table or standing around, the non-heteros are not bunched into one group. Sison had smart ways to see to it that members are not seating according to genders.
Meanwhile, we personally don’t know how Maxine Dee turned out to be. She is Michelle’s younger sister. Google’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) app says
Maxine cheered Michelle during her Miss Universe journey. Maxine is reportedy summa cum laude graduate in Education and maintains a private life focused on family and academics. She traveled to El Salvador to support Michelle during the Miss Universe 2023 pageant, showing her close bond to Michelle.