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Imagined, Woven, Transposed: Interview with Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan
ALFREDO and ISABEL AQUILIZAN in their Philippine studio. Photo by Jojo Gloria for Art Fair Philippines 2016. Courtesy the artists.
Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan are a collaborative duo who have been based in Brisbane, Australia, since 2006. Prior to their move, the partners in life and in art called the Philippines their home. Their art practice reflects their own personal lived experiences of migration between the two countries and their sometimes complicated yet always nuanced relationships with notions of home, community, identity and belonging.
When invited to return to the Philippines by the contemporary art space and residency program Bellas Artes Projects (BAP), the Aquilizans were excited to spend time working in the region again. The duo were commissioned to create new works that would activate the historical, Spanish-Filipino-American style houses that can be found throughout BAP’s residency site in the western province of Bataan, which stands as a part of the heritage project area called Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. Originally uprooted from other parts of the country and then relocated to the site, the houses were donated to the project, and give the area a heritage-rich feel. The duo spent two weeks there in January 2017, engaging with local craft traditions, as well as with the histories that the houses represented. The works that emerged are to be displayed in the exhibition “High Noon at Cagayan Garden” curated by BAP artistic director Diana Campbell Betancourt at BAP’s outpost space in Metro Manila in August. In an interview with ArtAsiaPacific, the artists discuss their experiences at the residency program, their new work and the upcoming exhibition.
Your art practice is anchored to the idea of co-creation and collaboration, and facilitate projects that engage communities and forge relationships through shared experience. What were your experiences visiting Bataan early this year during your Bellas Artes Projects residency?
Our experiences at our Bellas Artes residency this year were stimulating, as this was our first time seeing the residency site. Of course, it was interesting to see the reconstructed old houses; there were a good number of them—it was practically its own town. What made them fascinating were the various histories that the houses brought with them from all over the country. With each and every house is an aggregation of driblets of little vignettes, and all together, they become an amalgamation of personal accounts, creating a collective narrative of an imagined community. This became a reference point for one of the several projects that we are developing for the residency.
Cagayan Garden (2017), created during your residency, is a site-responsive installation that is located underneath the stilted, transposed houses at Bataan. The work features white pebbles, which create a layer of coverage in stark contrast to the earthy ground. It seems to be a space of rest or mediation. Can you tell us more about the premise behind this work, and how that relates to the significance of the site?
The idea behind Cagayan Garden, first and foremost, is to create a social space for contemplation on the ideas of dislocation and transformation, memory and collective history. The work also serves the purpose of being a place for Alfredo to revisit and think back on his early years growing up in Cagayan valley; he is a true blue Cagayano. Therefore, although the work was created as a public space, it is also something that is personal for Alfredo and myself.
What do you envision will change in the work when it is moved from its original site in Bataan to the outpost space in Manila for the exhibition “High Noon at Cagayan Garden”?
The work is about transformation, dislocation, as well as re-formation. It will be interesting to see how the site and type of audience who will be engaging with the work changes its reception. Contrary to the audience from the original site who were more of a general public, the outpost audience come specifically to see art. Also, being in an art space will, by default, decontextualize the meaning of the work. As part of the same showcase, there will be writing components and a collection of chairs, entitled Thrones (2017). The chairs were made by the workers and artisans of Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar [where BAP is located], and were intended to be utilized by the workers for their own rest, as well as for their daily work. These chairs were made solely to serve personalized functions, and are devoid of aesthetic merits in contrast to the objects that the workers skilfully create. For us though, they are sculptural ready-mades and will be used as writing chairs where people can jot down anything they want as they engage with the installation, the space and the objects on view. In addition, photographs of where the chairs were originally located will be part of the show. The writings will be collated towards the end of the exhibition when there will be a reading session as part of the culminating activity. A catalogue of the photographs of the chairs and the writings will be published.
What will be next for you following “High Noon”?
We have a number of solo shows on the horizon, including an exhibition at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute and in Manila, and a large-scale installation which we will set up in Vancouver later this year. We will also be focusing on our ongoing Dream Blanket Project (2002– ), working with traditional inabel blanket weavers in Ilocos Norte, northern Philippines. An iteration of the project will be shown in February 2018 at the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, Philippines. The project has been shown in Korea, Japan and Australia on various occasions, and each time we have input from the local community. For the Pinto Art Museum exhibition, we are working with Magdalena Gamayo, a weaver in her nineties, who was officially recognized with one of the 13 National Living Treasures Awards, conferred by the Philippine government to exceptional artisans. The installation will be comprised of hundreds of used blankets, piled up in layers, combined with an oral collection of recorded dreams.
“High Noon at Cagayan Garden” opens August 15, 2017 and will run until October 14 at Bellas Artes Outpost, Manila.
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