K for Kapwa

This collection of work is centered around Kapwa, the core of Filipino philosophy, which means embracing the shared identity. The paintings depict kinds of intimate relationships ranging from familial nurture from elders, platonic love between friends, and complicated sibling dynamics. They are displayed against a mural of personal, intuitive, and indigenous Filipino tattoo motifs, creating a larger body to extend and embrace the others within the paintings. A renovated cabinet piece stands in the middle of the space as an interactive library, allowing viewers to flip through two handcrafted soft sculpture recipe books, process sketchbooks, and jars filled with small accordion button books for people to take home. Sitting atop this furniture is a hand-painted ukulele, connected to an MP3 device and headphones, for the viewer to listen to a sound piece that accompanies the visuals.

Hosted at SOMARTS for the Senior exhibitions at California College of the Arts with over 1000 people in attendance during the 4 days of the exhibition.