ALFREDO AND ISABEL

AQUILIZAN
P R E S E N T E D B Y C A R L O S L A M A N E R O A N D U L I E N N E S A N T O S
BIOGRAPHY
• Alfredo Juan and Isabel Aquilizan y Guadinez were born in
Cagayan Valley and Manila respectively. Their artworks are
usually comprised of sprawling cardboard box installations or
personal artefacts that speak to the transience of human
endeavour and place-making.

• Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan are partners in both art and life.
Exploring themes of migration, family and cultural
displacement, the Filipino-born artists create mixed media
works out of collected and reassembled materials, which often
involve public participation.
• The work of Filipino artists Isabel (b.1965, Philippines) and
Alfredo Aquilizan (b.1962, Philippines) addresses individuals
and their personal stories, histories and belongings, as well
as their creativity and dreams. Their practice is collaborative
in method, making use of the accumulation and rearrangement
of physical objects and narratives.

• Since 1999 when they exhibited at The 3rd Asia Pacific

Triennial , they have participated in various international
exhibitions. After relocating their center of activity from the
Philippines to Australia in 2006, expressions of their own
identity and "habitat" have become important themes. By
making luggage sekking for new residences and community,
their work makes us think about the increasing speed of
human migration and urban development in the world today.
ARTWORKS OF ALFREDO
AND ISABEL AQUILIZAN
LAST FLIGHT
• Last Flight (2009) is the larger-than-life piece comprised of
hundreds of colourful rubber sandals sourced from the
fisherman village of Bagasbas (Philippines), working with the
local community to sort and collect personal belongings that
accumulated along the shoreline. These lost and discarded
fragments from individuals, each with their own interwoven
and entangled history, come together to form angel wings that
ultimately act as a poetic symbol of hope. Last Flight is the
first of an important broader series of wing sculptures
constructed from recycled flip-flops.
I N- HABI T: PROJ ECT
A N O T H E R C O U N T RY

• In-Habit: Project Another Country, commissioned by Sherman

Contemporary Art Foundation, was a contemporary art project by
Filipino-born, Brisbane based artists, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan.
Considering the idea of ‘place’, the Aquilizans presented a participatory
exhibition that addresses themes of journey and diaspora; settlement and
resettlement; home and land; plight and displacement.

In addressing ideas around journey and diaspora, settlements/resettlements,

home/land, plights and displacement, In-Habit: Project Another
Country reflected the Aquilizans’ personal experience of migrating from
the Philippines to Australia, while conveying points of exchange and
communication that extend beyond borders.
OTHER ARTWORKS

• In habit (Black), 2014.

• FLIGHT, 2017.

• Transformers I (Spakol-Bukol)

• Left Wing Albay, 2016

T H AT ’ S A L L
 • 1. Last Flight (2009)
• 2. dko rin alam
• 3. Mixed Media

ANSWERS