Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan

Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan

IMA at TCB

18 October–29 November 200818 Oct–29 Nov 2008

Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan moved to Brisbane from the Philippines. Much of their work concerns migration. Their window project Flight features a small house-shaped stack of domestic possessions, suggesting of the content of a suitcase. Alongside it are model aeroplanes made during art workshops when the Aquilizans conducted with adults and children at Queensland Art Gallery. Made using classic art-room materials (cardboard, popsicle sticks, plastic containers, wire, and wool), the models are crude but inventive. Each has its own personality. Some are simple, others complex; some sleek, others squat; some rigid, others floppy; but all are rather unaerodynamic. The collection is a study in morphology: some would not be recognised as aeroplanes were it not for the company they keep. Hung massed like ex-votos or fetishes, and recalling the aeroplane made by Mondo Cane cargo-cultists, the models suggest a collective fantasy of flight. The Aquilizans are also currently showing in the Singapore Biennale.

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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