Maia Cruz Palileo’s solo debut at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, “SATOR ROTAS,” reveals the hidden narratives of American Filipino identity through a vibrant and immersive visual translation of longing and belonging.
The role of the U.S. in the Philippines—a chapter of our history strategically overwritten by calibrated media narratives—is a topic that often fails to convey the multilayered reality of what was, ultimately, a colonial occupation that left indelible traces.
The United States has a long history of involvement in the Philippines, dating back to the late 19th century.
The Spanish-American War led to the US acquiring the Philippines as a territory in 1898.
American colonial rule lasted from 1899 to 1946, with the 'Independence' on July 4, 1946.
During World War II, the Philippines was occupied by Japan, and the US played a significant role in its liberation.
Today, the two countries maintain strong diplomatic and economic ties.
Following Spanish control, the American colonial era in the Philippines (from 1898 to 1946) marked a period of profound transformation and enduring consequences. Though frequently framed as a benevolent mission of modernization and uplift, ‘the reality proved far more complex.’ U.S. involvement in the region led to cultural erasure as the American administration imposed sweeping changes in governance, education, and economic structures, frequently disregarding existing Filipino systems and cultural frameworks.
In 1607, King James I granted a charter to the Virginia Company, establishing Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Over the next century, 12 more colonies were established: Plymouth (1620), Massachusetts Bay (1629), New Hampshire (1623), Maryland (1634), Connecticut (1636), Rhode Island (1636), Delaware (1638), North Carolina (1653), South Carolina (1663), Pennsylvania (1682), and Georgia (1732).
These colonies developed distinct economies, cultures, and systems of government, laying the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The imposition of American values and institutions left a deep and lasting imprint on Filipino identity, shaping national consciousness in ways that still reverberate today. It is this occluded history that Maia Cruz Palileo has long engaged with, surfacing the stories that remain silent—those invisible narratives lost in the transference of migration, colonization, and generational passage.
The Filipino identity is a complex blend of different cultures, with influences from Malay, Spanish, Chinese, and American traditions.
The country's history as a colony has shaped its culture, language, and customs.
According to the 2020 census, over 90% of 'Philippines' Filipinos identify as Christian, while 5% practice Islam.
The Filipino language, Tagalog, is the most widely spoken dialect, with over 28 million speakers.
The country's rich cultural heritage is reflected in its vibrant festivals, such as the Sinulog and MassKara, which showcase its unique blend of traditions.
Reclaiming Ancestral Narratives
For her solo debut at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, ‘SATOR ROTAS,’ Cruz Palileo undertook an extensive research project guided by a desire to reconstruct and revive an archival, geological, and spiritual topography of the Philippines—their family’s homeland—while also tracing the migratory route that brought them to the United States. In her practice, personal and collective traces, intimate familial memories, and historical documents blur with imagination, coalescing into a fluid mnemonic landscape animated by the artist’s vivid paintings.
This new body of work emerges with even greater vibrancy, its saturated hues and sweeping strokes lush with the sensorial force of the Philippines’ forests. For the first time, these paintings are grounded in a direct encounter with the land itself. In early 2024, Cruz Palileo traveled to two mountainous regions outside Manila, where their father’s family is from. The nature and energy of the place deeply shaped their sensory and autobiographical approach to these new works.
A Visual Translation of Longing and Belonging
Through a continuous rhythm of doubling, mirroring, and echoing between time and place, Palileo offers a compelling visual translation of longing and belonging—emotions central to the diasporic experience. At the same time, the Philippines emerges not as a fixed territory but as an expanded, multidimensional entity that encompasses not only landscape and people but also mythologies, narratives, and legends that collectively shape its living identity.
The interplay of reflections, layered hues, and mirroring effects across Cruz Palileo’s work hints at a more intricately entangled, multidimensional understanding of reality—one where emotional, mnemonic, and symbolic elements continuously permeate and blend with the physical world. Techniques of doubling, splitting, and splicing serve as formal strategies to convey the coexistence of multiple temporal and spatial planes within a single image, where past and present can intersect.
Summoning Ancestral Wisdom
The immersion in ancestral wisdom carries through the various media dispersed throughout the gallery, transforming the space into a site for summoning both personal and collective memory. Imbued with a dreamlike, even epiphanic quality, Cruz Palileo’s canvases offer up an imaginative realm where luscious brushstrokes and warm tides of color become tools of reactivation. Through painting, the artist breathes new life into forgotten histories, working to heal generational trauma and honor memory—not as a static archive, but as a living, pulsing force that endures.
Maia Cruz Palileo’s ‘SATOR ROTAS’ is on view at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles through April 26, 2025.
