Collection: Invocation of Fate - Miguel Aquilizan

In Ecology without Nature, Timothy Morton argues that the chief stumbling
block to environmental thinking is the image of nature itself. At this day and
age, I ask, what is nature? What is naturally occurring? Is man's role in ecology natural? You often hear the dichotomy -"man vs. nature"- man's force majeure is to alter nature's course. This is the ecology of the world we live in, that we humans are in a relationship with living things. Living things are programmed to live, perform and survive the ecological system that they live in. When one say - "Let nature run its course" - is it pertaining to leave it alone and die? The power of man has ruled over the fate of other entities in this ecological system. Man has learned and gained the power to change the system and promulgate transcendental qualities of the living in order to make sense of it. Ancient history has dogs, rats, plants and even anamorphic entities as higher beings. What religion tells us is God and nature are the paramount of the living, that we should respect and worship deities and representations in order to find balance. This shared power occurs as the equilibrium of how to sustain life and attain longevity. The obsession with faith, ecology and the future is what centers Miguel Aquilizan's exhibition- in trying to evoke a sense of occult in the ecology of man and its rhetoric of survival and co-living.

The occult and the otherworldly is what embodies Miguel's art practice. Often reaching for divinity, his choice of materials and subjects are derived from his exposure to religious artifacts, vintage paraphernalia, thrifted objects, apocalyptic fashion and by living in a country dominated by conservatives. It could be a form of rebellion, to evoke this dark mystic quality in his works and make them as objects of desire. The most prominent material of choice he use is copper. Copper can smell like blood, our blood contains tiny amount of metals that produce a metallic smell when in contact with the skin. Miguel thinks of copper as a transformative material giving new life to "dead" objects. He wrapped copper into a driftwood, when it stood, it becomes an animal. It is to believe that copper played an important role in the development of human civilization, in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, copper means "for life" marking its durability over time. What copper signifies is its ability to grant veneration, a sense of power and rejuvenation.

I want to believe that the current ecology of man will die eventually, it is in good faith however, that in death there is rebirth, there is new energy. Like in winter, trees must shed its leaves to survive and when spring comes, there is a life that awaits. What nature tells us is to study its systems, to closely look into its nuances and cycles. To rethink nature is to reform causality, the archaic PR of nature needs to evolve. Ultimately, our fate relies on the actions we invoke, the thoughts we put into reality and the wisdom that we harness along the way. And in art making, I believe that there is power, that art has the ability to nudge, to develop our collective thinking. And as Morton puts it clearly: "One advantage of arguing that causality is aesthetic is that it allows us to consider what we call consciousness alongside what we call things.”

- Derek Tumala

About the Artist

Juan Miguel Aquilizan (b. 1986. Manila, Philippines) currently lives and works in Los Baños, Laguna. He works heavily with object assemblages exploring ideas of cultural identity, consumerist culture and the post migration generation.