Provenance: Private Collection, Muntinlupa City

ABOUT THE WORK

The Philippine representative to the Venice Biennale this year with his installation work that evokes the illusion of infinity, Mark Justiniani began his career as a painter and a founding member of Salingpusa. His paintings usually employed the aesthetic of a children’s book illustration but laden with socio-political commentary. In this work, for instance, the trouble of identity is foregrounded. In profile and wearing a tiara and an opulent gown, the womans’ appearance conveys aristocracy. However, another woman balancing on her head offers her a view of an alternate self: one who may not have the trappings of wealth but is balletic, carefree, and independent. The seated figure looks yearningly at this other version of her life that she could assume only when she has found the courage to abandon her zone of comfort and luxury. It is a tension between the real and the imagined that Justiniani has manifested marvellously through this piece.