Harold Washington Library Center hosts an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month art exhibit featuring the work of artist Christopher Saclolo.
Three acrylic paintings from his collection will be on exhibit from May 1 through July 1 on the third floor of the Harold Washington Library Center.
Artist Statement
"As an interdisciplinary Filipino American artist, my work explores the scholarship of Filipino American identity through intricate paintings, works on paper and artist’s books as media with applications in cultural discourse. The work often addresses my own biography in relationship to my Filipino heritage and U.S. upbringing. I utilize traditional patterns and designs from the Philippines to construct my own visual language that engages and challenges the viewer to consider the notions of identity.
"Inspired by my parents’ native homeland, the Philippines, a Southeast Asian country with a history of mixed colonial rule, Filipino Robe and Robes of My Parents is an ongoing series of paintings that interweaves designs from various subcultures in the Philippines. Influenced by Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), a novel written in response to the struggling unified Filipino identity during the Spanish colonial rule, my paintings are a reflection of the diverse cultural identities of the Philippines and my own exploration as a Filipino American.
"In Filipino Robe and Robes of My Parents, I apply acrylic paints on wood panels to create complex, multi-layered visual works incorporating designs that interweave various Filipino subcultures. My paintings are carefully crafted hybrid works that playfully seek to parallel Filipino patterns to the multi-layered cultural identities of Filipino Americans."
