What Happened (T)Here? (2021)

Necklace

Vacuum-formed brass and plastic colored pencil, cotton string, rice, polymer clay, acrylic paint

12” × 9” inches

This work reflects my experience of being caught between Filipino and American histories, stories often fragmented by colonization and distance. Growing up between both countries, I was taught versions of history that felt incomplete, leaving me questioning what truly “happened there” and how it shapes who I am here.

Inspired by traditional boaya necklaces worn by Filipino headhunting warriors, I reimagine the piece with colonial symbols replacing teeth and with the ornaments inverted, their points turned inward. This gesture embodies disconnection, inherited pain, and the ongoing search for reconciliation among pride, loss, and belonging within the Filipino diaspora.