“so, here you are

too foreign for home

too foreign for here.

Never enough for both.”

-       Ijeoma Umebinyuo, “Diaspora blues”

       When we were tasked to think of a life-changing event and translate it into a sculpture, I suddenly remembered this poem that I came across facebook and it served as my inspiration for my first sculpture.

          My father is an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) and wherever he goes, we follow. I started traveling since I was around seven to eight years old and I often remember that little girl with pigtails who was very thrilled to experience her very first airplane ride. I also remember a few bits and pieces of memories from my one-year stay in the United Arab Emirates, the very first country that I have ever been to. When we left, I honestly could not care less because I was too young and naïve.

        The second country that I have been to is the Kingdom of Bahrain. I am pretty sure you are wondering where on earth is that place but trust me, you are not the first one, or the second one either. It is located beside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it is just connected by a causeway. It is the place where I felt like I was home, my safe haven. In a span of three years, I met amazing people, embraced the culture wholeheartedly, and developed a huge part of my identity. Consecutively speaking, in my entire life, it is the country where I stayed the longest.

         Going back here in the Philippines, I was distressed. The separation anxiety was too much that I barely had everything together. There were days that it would all be too heavy and I would just break down and cry. I was around thirteen to fourteen years old then and it was hard to maintain friendships since we would always leave a certain place after a year or so. There were a lot of factors that made me feel that way during that time but I think that that is the main reason why. It also made a huge impact on how I view the Philippines. Living here stressed me out even more and I would always remember those moments whenever I am here. That is also why I was worried of studying here for college because I was doubting myself if I could make it out alive and sane but hey, I am already in my second year in college so I think I am doing a very good job keeping my sanity intact. Even after all that, this place is my homeland, the place where I was born and it will always have a special place in my heart.

          For my sculpture, the person holding a dates flower on the right symbolizes the Middle East or Bahrain because dates tree is abundant there. I decided to sculpt a person to represent all the people I have met and also the culture of the place. Same goes for the person on the left but instead of a dates flower, the person is holding a pearl to represent the Philippines because as we all know, it is known as the “Pearl of the Orient Seas”. In the middle is an alien standing in between two places. It represents me and going back to the quote mentioned above, my dilemma of not knowing where I belong. The medium I used was copper wires because it is very flexible and it relates on how it affected me as a person. 

I was just bent but I was not broken.