"Remnants" (2016) Installation View
Installation images of “Remnants,” a solo exhibition at Wayfarers Gallery in 2016.
"Fata Morgana," 2016, Digital C-Print, Mixed media, 48 x 53 inches
(scroll down for press release)
"Islet," 2016, Chairs, resin, salt, 49.5 x 22.5 x 22.5 inches
"Islet," 2016, Chairs, resin, salt, 49.5 x 22.5 x 22.5 inches (Detail)
"Pasalubong," 2016, Barongs, pina fabric, chair, rust, wood, 48 x 48 x 58 inches
"Tidal Phase," 2016, maple, water, 38 x 22.5 x 5.25 inches
"Diffused Horizon," 2016, Digital C-prints, 37 x 7 inches Edition 1 of 5
For several years, I have collected Spanish and American colonial images and texts alongside family stories, keepsakes, and photographs from the Philippines. Through these materials, I try to piece together an understanding of personal origin, place, history, and heritage. My research, however, has raised more questions than answers, revealing gaps in the historical record. These encounters with ambiguity and the unknown form the foundation of Remnants.
In this new body of work, I imagine my source images and objects—including traditional piña fabrics, Spanish colonial photographs, and family furniture—as artifacts lost decades ago, buried in the earth and sea. I imagine unearthing them to find that time and nature’s elements have completely transformed them. Caked in earth and clay, encrusted with crystallized salt, or altered by oxidized metals, these objects evoke only fleeting moments of familiarity. Their original information has been altered, erased, or disguised through these physical changes. I am interested in their continued transformation, in the possibility that they remain undefined.