Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: Of Fragments and Impressions 28.09.2017 — 11.11.2017

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Event has ended

27 September – 17 November 2018

About The Exhibition

‘Of Fragments and Impressions’ is a ground-breaking exhibition staged by STPI and award-winning Brisbane-and Manila-based installation artist duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan in conjunction with STPI’s 15th anniversary. Impressive in scale and pivotal in its undertaking, the extensive oeuvres see the prolific artists breaking new frontiers by transforming fragments of their widely- acclaimed temporal installations into permanent material works for the very first time. From a sweeping installation of cardboard pulp and steel metal rods, to gritty shanty town houses constructed with compressed cardboard, to spectacular large-scale cyanotype collages of wings, the artists turned the STPI gallery into a stellar showcase which embodies their decades-long practice.

Fragments after In-Habit , a new series of collagraphs, reuses squashed cardboard from a 2012 collaborative artwork which toured around Australia for three years and travelled to Japan, where visitors created cardboard dwellings that were assembled onto the original work. The sickle and slippers motifs in their Left Wing and Wings series extend from significant ephemeral works such as Belok Kiri Jalan Terus (2015) and Wings (2009), which reflect the complex social realities facing agrarian communities and draw reference to countries with leftist political histories. Lastly, the Northwind series follow the trajectory of the artists’ early works in the late 90s, demonstrating the universal longing of homesickness and separation.

A milestone achievement, these outstanding works chronicle the artists’ personal history and are triumphant testaments to their artistic breadth.

This show is generously supported by the Friends of STPI.

Find out more about the working process here.

Regular guided tours (begins 5 Oct):

Thu: 11.30am, Sat: 2pm

About the artist

Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan

Residency in 2016

Alfredo Juan Aquilizan (b. 1962, Cagayan Valley, Philippines, based in Los Baños, Philippines) and Maria Isabel Gaudinez-Aquilizan (b. 1965, Manila, Philippines, based in Los Baños, Philippines) are a collaborative duo whose practice explores themes of displacement, memory, belonging and community. Using unassuming materials embedded with personal, cultural and symbolic meanings, they create mixed-media installations that reflect on the transitory nature of home and identity.

Processes of collection and co-creation feature prominently in the Aquilizans’ works. Often facilitating projects that centre on shared human experiences, they position art-making as a system grounded in communal interaction and involvement. In In-Habit: Project Another Country (2012–ongoing), the artists invite local communities to build cardboard houses that fill the exhibition space with an itinerant, ever-growing presence. The use of cardboard references the balikbayan box, or “repatriate box” that overseas Filipinos use to send items home, symbolising bittersweet expressions of love and longing. This is accompanied by a video work on the plight, resilience and creativity of the Badjao children, a marginalised seafaring ethnic group in the Philippines whose fragile stilt houses resemble the makeshift houses crafted by the audience.

Isabel Aquilizan obtained her Bachelor of Communication Arts from Assumption College in Makati City in 1986. Alfredo Aquilizan received his BFA from the Philippine Women’s University College of Music and Fine Arts in Manila in 1986 and his MFA from the Norwich School of Art and Design in 1996. Their works can be found in numerous collections including The Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai; Museum MACAN, Jakarta; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney; and Singapore Art Museum.

Notable solo exhibitions include Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere (2023), Museum MACAN, Jakarta; That Space in Between (2022), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Articles of Faith (2021), Madre Museum, Naples; See Through (2021), Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; In-Habit (2021), Center for Art and Learning, Hässleholm; Pillars (2019), Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; In-Habit (2016), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; and In-Habit (2014), Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide. The artists have also participated in major international festivals including Let’s Make a Better Place (2022), 4th Gallery Children’s Biennale, Singapore; SEA OF HEARTBREAK (2019), 5th Sea Art Festival, Busan; Restoration of the Sea (2019), 4th Setouchi Triennale, Kagawa; Re:emerge (2013), 11th Sharjah Biennial; Touched (2010), 9th Liverpool Biennial; APT6 (2009), 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane; Wonder (2008), 2nd Singapore Biennale; 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006); A Grain of Dust, A Drop of Water (2004), 5th Gwangju Biennale; and Dreams and Conflicts (2003), 50th Venice Biennale.