“I started my art practice making small collages. Later in my career, I became more focused on my research-based projects and intermedia installations and curators and collectors seem to start associating my art practice with these projects. I still continue to make collages and drawings in the background as a way to hone in on the creative and technical aspects of my art practice and to take a rest from the pressures of doing community projects.

The collage triptych (Piles of pebbles) was made in 2019 while I was working on my latest solo show, where I used actual pebbles for one of the installations. I made more pebbles-inspired collages since then.

The larger work, An expanded family scrapbook, is an attempt to mix my collages with one of my more known community projects, my project in Barangay Tumana, Marikina. It serves as a reminder (for me and for my audience) that although people tend to label this project as a “community project”/ “research-based project”, my position in relation to this project is not as an entirely “objective” and detached researcher. My grandmother (shown in the photograph) and other relatives live in this barangay, making this project just as personal as my collages.”