TO CONQUER

A HOME

Home is a complicated concept, often riddled with clichés. Home is where the heart is. There is no place like home. For Faye Abantao, home is her anchor for artistic production. She uses paper, old photographs, and everyday objects gathered from her home. More potently, her artistic growth evolves as her lived experience within her home shifts. As a child, it was the walls she colored in creative expression. As an adult and developing artist, it was the bits and pieces of peeling paint, slowly dilapidating over time–transcending toward portraiture and installations. Now, the home unravels with children grown and parents aging.

Faces are now missing from Abantao’s canvas. They are no longer portrayed but are watching outside the canvas. Instead, a slowly creeping decay unfurls–an unopened door, an empty chair, a pile of boxes, and wilting flowers. It is as if time stands still while the moment of contemplation is already gone. There is quiet waiting, with life’s imprints standing still in constant limbo of both belonging and displacement.

The home changes. Inevitably, children grow. They marry and move out. They explore careers and other locales. There is sadness as the familiar becomes memories. Sharing a meal, boisterous noises, and being in the same space are safe, familiar, and wrapped up in warm comfort. But with time comes growth, then age and the present transforms into remembrances. The question hangs in the air, to stand still or move? Slowly, things crumble, yet the feelings persist and endure.

Portia Placino

Solo Exhibition
Finale Art File, Makati City, Philippines
February 2025