ALFREDO & ISABEL AQUILIZAN

The husband-and-wife team of Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan creates works that use the processes of collecting and collaborating to express ideas of migration, family and memory. Often working with local communities, the Aquilizans bring together personal items to compose elaborate, formal installations reflecting individual experiences of dislocation and change. Recent works have used the form of balikbayan crates, which Filipino migrants use to transport belongings, as moulds for room-sized constructions made of clothing and other personal effects. For APT6, the Aquilizans will produce an enormous suspended sculpture titled In-Flight (Project Another Country) 2009. The work takes the shape of an aeroplane, constructed from hundreds of small handmade planes. This aggregation of tiny sculptures, created by children and adults from found objects and materials, will be added to during the course of the exhibition. Having migrated from the Philippines to Australia, the Aquilizans’ work reflects personal experience, while conveying points of exchange and communication that extend beyond borders. Both live and work in Brisbane, Australia.