REFLECTIVE SUMMARY
I AM BOUND TO THREE THEMES THAT CONSTANTLY PERSISTS WITHIN MY subconscious. my filipino heritage, my uk upbringing and video games. the change throughout my whole practice reflects the struggle of which theme I chose for my artworks.
at the start of the year i created artworks that reflected my uk upbringing. images of drugs, sexuality and crime done digitally in a cartoonish manner, in order to comically hide the autobiographical references. this is due to my underlying embarrassment towards myself caused by parental expectations, of what constitutes as a perfect daughter. the drugs, sex and crime in these digital paintings are things that I did. the work I made had no substance, as they were created quickly digitally, unlike the intricate oil paintings I did in the past.
video games proved to be a good distraction, it was a medium where I could do whatever I wanted and not take it seriously. I now needed a way to convey this video game style through my practice. this was when airbrushing came into play. it was the perfect medium to combine my traditional painting techniques and knowledge with my digital style. artists like gao hang and kristoff zetterstrand influenced my work heavily, in terms of the way they combined their interest in video game with their airbrush paintings. I was Hooked on the natural blur that the airbrush creates, the way the layer of paints don't necessarily mix when placed on top of each other caused me to further experiment with primary colours. I used a technique called 'glazing' when doing shading, as the machine layers the paint thinly, like that of translucent oil paint. although the medium itself utilises paint, its more akin to digital painting than oils. it became the perfect middle ground for my digital and traditional skills.
recently I spent more and more time with my family, often my parents would reminisce about their hometowns and soon enough, I became reminded of my heritage. I started to research into my visayan ancestry, ignited by a conversation I had with my mom. street art I would pass by and document (via pictures), I now see as tribal art. I would morph the iconography of graffiti into tribal motifs. the arrows, halos and stars would turn into the batuk symbol for grass, sun and flowers. the possibility of being able to combine these two cultures helped increase the amount of pieces, combining street and heritage, that I would make.
the artworks made from these three main themes started to construct my art studio into a world of it's own. I started leaning towards installation work as a means to immerse myself further into my practice and as a new way for people to interact with my pieces and the themes within it. the creation of a video game space depicting Manchester with filipino tribal references, is helped conveyed by artworks glitching and merging with the space, a reminder that it's not just an alternate reality that I want to make but also a self portrait of my identity. installation was a new way I interacted with my pieces, in terms of how I presented it. I was forced to look at all the artworks and configure how they would connect and interact with each other instead of merely presenting it on a wall. the contemporary evolution of my practice, taught by my tutors, opened up newer ways for me to explore and depict art.
