Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan
  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, 'See/Through', 2021, fifteen panels callado embroidered piña cloth, dimensions variable. Photo: Joe Ruckli.

  • Preparation for piña weaving, Philippines 2019. Image courtesy of Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan.

  • Preparation for piña weaving, Philippines 2019. Image courtesy of Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan.

  • Preparation for piña weaving, Philippines 2019. Image courtesy of Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan.

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Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan

See/Through

9 October–18 December 20219 Oct–18 Dec 2021

Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan create large-scale artworks that engage with ideas of home, family, memory, sustainability, migration, and Australia–Asia relations. The husband and wife team create collaborative installations, where these notions can be processed and explored, utilising materials and objects that are embedded with cultural, historical, and social narratives.

In this newly commissioned installation, a focus on Filipino textile and fibre traditions expands on the Aquilizan’s existing practice. Emblematic of their collective and community-centred approach to making, the duo have collaborated with weavers from different parts of the Philippine archipelago to create a large-scale installation from intricate fibre work. The weavings include piña cloth made from the leaves of pineapple plants. Assembled together, the fabrics are layered with hand-embroidered symbolism evoking stories, connections and places and histories embodied within the translucent materials.

Artist Bio
Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan

Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan and their family moved from the Philippines to Australia in 2006. Drawing on their experiences of displacement and moving between places and cultures, their collaborative artworks engage with ideas of migration, diaspora, belonging, and memory. Their art practice spans over 20 years, in which they have shown in numerous exhibitions and biennales throughout Australia and internationally. Their work has been featured in the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art; the Biennale of Sydney; the Singapore Biennale; and the Venice Biennale among others. Their project In-habit: Project Another Country, was shown at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney in 2012, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, and travelled to venues throughout regional Queensland and New South Wales (2013–2019).

Related Resources

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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