2018, Stretched banners, textile prints, TV, dimensions variable, Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Stretched banners was first exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 2018. The work explores the ‘political as personal’, recalling the social and cultural impacts of the Marcos dictatorship on my familial history and explores the complex ties between these events and the contemporary significance of the CCP.

Architect and scholar Professor Gerard Lico regards the CCP and other cultural institutions created under the Marcos regime as ‘allegories of [our] progress’ and ‘methods of illustrating and retaining state power under martial law’. Inspired by Lico’s rich and poetic theses, I have created an installation of 8 banners accompanied by a single-channel video work which grapple with the weight of these histories as a second-generation Filipino-Australian artist.

Photos by Pioneer Studios.