Motherland, Motherboard

This artwork was my response to the Ibagiw Creative Festival 2025 theme, “Traditions Rooted, Futures Routed.”

It is available as a one-of-a-kind piece in the shop.

When I first read the theme, artificial intelligence immediately came to mind — and the tension it brings to creative practice. How can I, as an artist, stay rooted in human touch while living in a world increasingly shaped by technology?

Like many artists today, I feel both curiosity and hesitation toward tools like AI. They open endless possibilities, yet they also risk dulling the quiet inner voice that creates from contemplation and soul. I wanted this piece to sit within that tension.

I began with layering fabric fragments as I usually do, but the theme demanded more structure. Searching for where tradition and technology might meet, I eventually landed on the image of a motherboard — industrial, ordered, and quietly powerful.

At the center, I used a lacy old tablecloth from my stash. Over the course of a month, I moved between studying circuit boards and returning to the work, stitching lines and patching shapes to echo digital pathways. Flowers emerged naturally, softening the rigid geometry. Their bright, imperfect forms became a bridge between nature and machine, hand and code.

I later added a working QR code — playful, but intentional. Generated digitally, printed, transferred to fabric, and painted by hand, it connects the physical work to its digital trace. It may not last forever, and that impermanence is part of the piece. If the link someday breaks, that absence will still carry meaning.

This balance — between technology and enduring human intention — defines Motherland, Motherboard. It asks how the tactile, imperfect labor of the hand can coexist with tools that promise speed and precision. When chosen thoughtfully, technology can extend, rather than replace, the human voice. Much like how ancient manuscripts are now digitized to preserve their wisdom beyond the fragility of paper, technology can help protect what time might otherwise erase.

This piece celebrates that dialogue: a tribute to making from the heart, and to the hand that roots us in meaning, even as circuits hum and codes evolve around us.

If you feel drawn to this work, it is available as a one-of-a-kind piece in the shop. View it here.

Exhibition Information

This piece has been on display at the Baguio Convention and Cultural Center, in the gallery exhibit “The Pulse of Heritage in the Age of Progress.” It is part of Baguio’s Ibagiw Creative Festival 2025 that run from November 14, 2025 to January 4, 2026.
This glass-framed textile piece was exhibited alongside other works by I-Bagiw artists — creations in leather, wood, rattan, bronze, traditional painting, and more. Curated by our very own Ibagiw Clinton Aniversario, this exhibition is one of many events celebrating Baguio City’s thriving creative spirit, with activities and performances that unfolded from the opening gala to the first week of January 2026.

A Note on Writing

I’m not a natural writer — my vocabulary stash is quite small, and words don’t always flow easily for me. The content of this blog was entirely written from my own thoughts — just edited by ChatGPT. It went through several rounds of corrections by me, then polished again by ChatGPT.

You could say this post is a tiny collaboration between human and AI — I had the feelings, it had the vocabulary. Together we made sense of my tangled thoughts. I guess that’s what this whole artwork is about too: letting technology lend a hand, without taking over the heart.