This piece is displayed with the following wall text:

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“Towards a New Nation uses two main events, which occurred about a day apart in July of 1969, as a starting point and sources of information: The first time the Philippines won the Miss Universe pageant, and the first time humans landed on the moon under the U.S. Apollo 11 mission.

 

This piece also includes fragments of text extracted from a newspaper article of The Manila Times announcing the two main events on the front page. Additionally, Ferdinand Marcos’ State of the Nation Address, who was Philippines’ president at the time, as well as images of the moon landing and photographs from my childhood. Some objects and structures, which commonly made up parts of the floats for pageants held in my village, were coopted to create the forms that frame the sculptures. 

 

Conflating the content, this piece alludes to their relationship with current issues on power and the effects and aftermaths of colonization.”