Milagrosa
Handwoven Cotton & Recycled Material
12” x 22” (excl. handle)
2023
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Milagrosa is a handwoven piece that explores the connections between food, community, ancestry, and identity. I made this work by cutting apart and reweaving a rice bag, transforming something so ordinary yet essential into a reflection of memory, migration, and belonging.
Rice has always held a central place in Filipino cuisine and agriculture. It’s the base of every meal, a symbol of nourishment and care. It's a thread that ties us to our homelands. As someone living in the diaspora, rice connects me to my roots. It reminds me of where I come from and the stories my mom and aunties have of my great grandmother and how back-breaking it was for them to gather rice during harvest season. Through this piece, I wanted to honour those stories.
The Milagrosa rice brand is one of many rice brands my family has purchased over the last three decades in Canada. The rice is not from the Philippines but for us, rice is rice. It represents home and connects us to home, no matter where it's from.
The act of disassembling and reweaving mirrors the experience of diaspora, symbolizing disruption, adaptation, and transformation. Just as the threads were unraveled and made into something new, so too have generations of Filipinos who've crossed oceans, rebuilt their lives, and created new futures.
