Itinerant Objects, Here and Elsewhere

Platforms

- Sean Carballo

It's a curious composite of a word: belonging. Intermingling the ideas of "being" and "longing," the word is an attempt to reconcile the poles of identity and desire, selfhood and yearning. To belong is to be in a constant pursuit for a greater whole, something that might resemble a rootedness to someone or somewhere. In the second installment of Ateneo Art Gallery's exhibition "Project Belonging," artist-couple Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan ponder the complex facts of belonging as overseas migrants. Its distances, departures, and displacements. Its accumulative force.

Almost two decades ago, in 2006, Isabel and Alfredo, along with their five children, left the country for Australia—a geographical and social shift that has become a resonant theme across their practice. The works showcased in "Project Belonging" tread similar territory as the artist-couple construct a terrain of dislocation and loss.