Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan (Brisbane)

Alfredo Juan (born in Ballesteros, Cagayan Philippines in 1962) and Isabel Aquilizan y Gaudinez (born in Manila, Philippines in 1965) are currently based in Brisbane with their five children. The artist couple’s collaborative activities evolved within the spheres of family and community, including personal relationships and those they share with other artists. For years they have been exploring the meaning of ‘home’ and a sense of ‘belonging’ while travelling extensively for work, finding and defining the notion of ‘identity’, dealing with hardships of journey, displacement, sensing presences in absence and accumulating memory. They continue to process these issues through materials and objects that are both abstract and referential, objects that serve as metaphors of everyday human life. For the past ten years they have continuously collected fragments of their protracted Project Be-longing (1997-2007), an artistic collaboration spanning ten years. They are currently working on a new project entitled Another Country that talks about migration, dislocation, diaspora, adopting/adapting, settlement/resettlement, and identity.

The artists have participated in a number of international biennales and exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennale, UAE(2013), Asia Pacific Triennale, Australia (2009), Singapore Biennale (2008), Adelaide Biennale, Australia (2008), Biennale of Sydney (2006), the Third Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, Japan (2006), Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2004), La Biennale de Venezia, Italy (2003) and many others. Currently they are working on the following projects :Yes Naturally, The GEM, PhotoMuseum and Gemeentemuseum the Hague, Netherlands; FRAGMENTS : A Survey, Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, Australia; New Work/Old Work, Queensland University of Technology Museum, Brisbane Australia:In-Flight III, National Heritage Board, Singapore; Moscow Biennale,Moscow Passing Through: Project Another Country; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan In Habit: Project Another Country; Lake Macquarie Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie, NSW Australia, In-Habit Touring Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia with Museums and Galleries NSW .