Alfredo Esquillo Jr.’s practice has manifested primarily in the field of painting, expanding in recent years
to include installations that often follow the logic of pictorial compositions. He remains deeply influenced by the Philippines’ successive generations of social- realist artists, both in formal devices and political commitment, through which a certain warping of reality is operated, influenced by sources as diverse as Filipino mythology—the country’s abundant visual culture—or its absurdist political milieu. Esquillo Jr.’s highly precise and detailed paintings often incorporate figures and styles derived from the Catholic religious iconography present across the Philippines, merging seamlessly with a language developed to reflect the idea of history put forth by the international political realist practices of the twentieth century. The artist is particularly committed to capturing and problematizing contemporary and historical macro-experiences of his nation’s consecutive episodes of colonization and foreign domination, always imagining a future free from this predicament. In this vein, the work in the exhibition imagines the idea of trespassing the context of these tensed borders in the seas at the heart of South East Asia, where Chinese imperialism is increasingly assertive and that which labels trespassers as those who have been navigating the seas as part of their livelihoods and recognized territory for generations. Esquillo Jr. particularly refers to episodes of the Chinese navy using water cannons, sometimes to deadly effect, against Filipino fishermen in Philippine waters, a reality he confronts with a call for peace.

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Alfredo Esquillo Jr. and HKW, 2024

Work in the exhibition: Sound Cannon for Peace (2024), oil on canvas, bamboo organ pipes, keyboard, electric wind pump, bellows, 214 × 488 cm, dimensions vary. Sculpture made in collaboration with the Diego Cera Organbuilders. Courtesy of the artist