OUR LANGUAGE, HERE: 

"Our Language, Here" (2016) is a mixed media exploration of distance and loss regarding language, culture, and history. It is an installation of seashells gathered from the northern coast of the Philippines that were submerged in fluid acrylic paint pigments in oceanic colors. The shells were then submerged in a saltwater solution, crystallizing them, and then gilded in gold leaf, alluding to pre-colonial Filipino goldsmithing.

The project originally drew from associations with the word, "lament," a "a passionate expression of grief or sorrow," and sought to navigate the feelings of having forgot a mother tongue and the experience of living as a Filipino descendant born overseas. The shells were rearranged in formations simulating the structure of alphabets and writing as the process walked the artist through the rediscovery of childhood memories and cultural history.