‘Far Away but Strangely Familiar’ at Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum
In the summer of 2019, I was invited to participate in Far Away but Strangely Familiar, an exhibition of 23 artists from the Philippines at Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, and curated by Tony Godfrey. Installed in one of the galleries, was the sculpture titled It’s a Journey Back that I’m Always Taking (Balikbayan Box), 2015-2019, alongside large scale cardboard paintings from my body of work that pays homage to my ancestor, the renowned artist Félix Resurrecíon Hidalgo
It’s a Journey Back that I’m Always Taking (Balikbayan Box), 2015-2019, Laser carved cardboard, 60.9 x 45.7 x 60.9 cm (24 x 18 x 24 inches)
In a conversation with the writer and curator Tony Godfrey had this to say on my work and the Balikbayan box:
She senses that her work is changing: ‘being a balikbayan in America is not the same as being a balikbayan in the Philippines. I am trying to understand my relationship with this culture. There is such an emphasis on the family, it is conservative, it is religious, it’s a weight on my shoulders.’ Hers is not a Nationalist perspective of Hidalgo and all he has come to represent; it began as a personal project and indeed a critical project. Notions of restoration and repair are important to her. So many Hidalgo paintings are lost, only known through old photographs or reproductions of old photographs.
She takes images, for the time being, of Hidalgo paintings and transfers them via a laser printer to what she calls a ‘substratum’ made from unfolded balikbayan boxes. (She needs between three and five to make these paintings.) She adapts and adjusts the image in the process. It is important to her that the substratum of the painting is not canvas but this very particular DIY material. To her the balikbayan box is the symbol of the Filipino diaspora. They are given to the senders as kits to unfold, refold and tape together.
The balikbayan boxes that Filipino OFWs (Overseas Foreign Workers) fill with toys, foodstuffs, candies and other luxuries and send to their relatives back home are often so stuffed with presents they bulge out on every side. People who send them (including myself) pride themselves on packing them well and squeezing in as much possible. For the recipients unpacking a box is normally a family affair, the sender hopefully remembering all their relatives.
Her sculpture here is an actual balikbayan box, but inside is an image of the family living room. As ever, the Hidalgo paintings are here, though they appear as blanks.
