Artist Statement
“My work is a portal of memory and longing for my homeland, the Philippines. I explore the complication of my origins by synthesizing historiography, memoir, the archive, and futurity. My body and experience are the direct conduits of this potential. Philippine history and identity within the realm of the Western epitome encompass a revolving door of unspeakable horror and resistance. The abject strife of Filipinx people parallels the collective global struggle. My work attempts to punctuate displacement, and the diasporic condition by unraveling and elevating subaltern histories. As my body of work questions and engages the violence of the condition of these origins, it joins the discourse of critical transnational feminist resistance that fundamentally aims to question and disrupt the status quo. My focus now is advocating for the visibility and elevation of community archives, community-based knowledge, and a permanent memory space for Filipinx-Americans in Chicagoland.”
About Ashley Dequilla
Ashley Dequilla is an artist-filmmaker who uses painting, performance, moving image, installation, and ritual in her research-based practice. In 2023, she obtained her Masters of Fine Arts in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ashley holds a BFA in Studio Art and Art History from the College of William and Mary, and a Post-Baccalaureate in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has screened films and exhibited artwork in Canada, Spain, the Philippines, and across the US. As a community organizer, Ashley works in the realm of gender violence survivor advocacy and local Philippine cultural production – serving on the Board of Members for CIRCA Pintig and the Filipino-American Historical Society of Chicago. Ashley is currently in an MA to PhD track program in Art History at UIC, studying Philippine-American Visual Culture and working with Chicago Film Society and University of Chicago’s South Side Home Movies Project to inspect, preserve, and digitize the Filipino-American Historical Society of Chicago’s analog film collection. She teaches painting in the Art Department at UIC and in her free time enjoys cooking and horror movies.
