“You reminded me where I’m from,” said a member of the audience at Miko Tiu-Laurel’s exhibition in New York, as the viewers were moved to tears, connecting with their Filipino roots.

As the world becomes increasingly global and Filipinos move overseas to work, the history, heritage, and traditions of the nation may seem more distant. Detached, even. And traditions of old slip farther away. 

Held at Ojeras Studio in Brooklyn on Aug. 26, 2024, the exhibit, titled “What Lays Beneath a Black Hole; In Other Life” bridged cultural gaps through art, dance, and fashion, recontextualizing Filipino history and decolonization.

On this project, Tiu-Laurel describes himself as “a storyteller donning the role of a cultural healer of imperial and generational trauma,” he says. 

“I shot the video.I styled the entire show, made costumes, built an installation with sculptures… My co-producer said it’s kind of insane how I created this entire world out of nothing.”

Tiu-Laurel, an old friend, has always been high-spirited and a go-getter yet surprisingly grounded. He completed a studio arts program at Sarah Lawrence College, a school known for its avant-garde approach to education. 

His 2018 undergraduate exhibition featured “Bahay Tsinoy”” a larger-than-life dim sum steamer made of wood, silk, plastic, sand, and cotton. He also created his first series of canvas dolls. 

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Returning to Manila in 2019, Tiu-Laurel took the next step in his practice and launched his debut solo, “Outré: [internal monologues of a celestial body],” this time stitching dolls with pearl necklaces and exhibiting drawings he did in nude beaches and clubs in Berlin. 

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After the 2019 exhibition, Tiu-Laurel concentrated his energies into fashion and modeling, and was signed by We Speak Models. He walked a number of New York Fashion Week shows, appearing on the cover of Vanguard Magazine and in the pages of Vogue. He also starred in Apa Agbayani’s short film “Somewhere All The Boys Are Birds.”

Tiu-Laurel’s artistic journey has come full circle, from confronting the complex nuances of being Chinese-Filipino to embracing his LGBTQIA+ identity. His current work reflects a sense of positivity and celebration, as he pays homage to the culture and history of his home nation. 

In his current exhibit, Tiu-Laurel sought to create a statement that decolonizes Filipino cultural life in the past through activities in the present.

His project was largely collaborative, echoing the bayanihan spirit of helping others evident not only in the nature of the performance but also in the exhibition’s outreach component in which proceeds support the nonprofit Baile Foundation, Inc.

Tiu-Laurel hand-stitched 100 “angels” or textile sculptures (updated versions of his dumplings). They were given life with painted piercing eyes, then laid out in formation throughout the stage venue. “A post-colonial embodiment of elementals,” the artist says. “Now companions reframed to act as guides in the present by activating the mystic inner eyes of visitors.”

While Tiu-Laurel meticulously created the hundred sculptures on his own, the other aspects of the exhibition were achieved with  many essential players, especially in the fashion and performative dance. 

The performance included folk dance youth groups in the Philippines, the UP Filipiniana Dance Group and Kaisahan ng Lahi Dance Ensemble. The dancers donning Carl Jan Cruz designs joined the artist’s family to represent the melding of the old and the new via video presentation in the Manila shoot conducted by the artist. 

“Similar to CJ’s celebration of exceptional craftsmanship, we hope to reframe tradition in a contemporary lens,” Tiu-Laurel notes.

Continuing to celebrate local craftsmanship, Marikina-made Jos Mundo shoes were used. 

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But perhaps the most poignant aspect of the exhibition is its dance element rooted deeply in Tiu-Laurel’s family history. Reflecting the artist’s performer heritage, Tiu-Laurel referenced  his great-grandmother, a sarswela performer. Meanwhile his mother, Cheska Iñigo Winebrenner, danced at an early age onstage and on-screen, and his sister Kei Tiu-Laurel-De Jesus was a former ballet dancer with a certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance in London. Both his mother and sister performed in the exhibit to Pandanggo sa Ilaw.

Tiu-Laurel pays special homage to a special individual, his grandmother, Carolina “Lina” Iñigo-Winebrenner—an original member of Bayanihan, the national folk dance company and the oldest dance group in the Philippines.

Throughout her career, she performed on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater and at two world fairs, Tokyo and New York at the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts.

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After a ritual opening cleansing the energies of the space, Tiu-Laurel sat in front of a screen that showed a video of the Manila capture. 

The young dancers opened the video with a tinikling performance;their masculine energy complementing the graceful ins and outs as they hopped through the bamboo poles. Traditionally seen as a jovial performance, the dance is recontextualized as a symbol “evading threats of the environment and Westernization in our modern world,” the artist says.

This was followed by a live performance of two figures. One donned a deconstructed vintage fur coat and feral-like accessories to mimic a tamaraw deity while the other wore a painted helmet made of canvas scraps and yarn, echoing Bathala, the supreme god in the religion of indigenous ancient Tagalogs.

As the figures collapsed into the heap of angels and the lights went out, a scene of Tiu-Laurel’s grandmother began to play. She sang in operatic tones—a moving sarswela with lyrics that seem to yearn for a better world. 

The video series ended with Tiu-Laurel’s mother and sister taking to the stage in person to dance the movements of Pandanggo Sa Ilaw. Their flames flashed against the images of the original Bayanihan dancers, four representatives including Tiu-Laurel’s grandmother. While in their senior years, they still project that dancer’s smile and elegant posturing, with the coordination of someone who has trained for thousands of hours.

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Working with the young folk dance groups and the first batch of original Bayanihan members, Tiu-Laurel reflects on the process. “They do have a better understanding of what each dance comprises, right? So it was nice to work with them because they actually understood the story I was trying to tell, and it kind of helped me adjust it to tell it better.”

With the final sequence ending with the light of Pandanggo sa Ilaw, Tiu- Laurel describes it as a “symbolic torch passing, bringing awareness to younger generations to pursue the folk arts… Whether it be in a traditional or contemporary lens, [this] carries over to my presentation, which is an example of young artists translating these works to a new generation of patrons.”

The atmosphere before and after the performance was light and lively. The Filipino street food pop-up So Sarap New York provided food and drink, including fish balls, kikiam, kwek-kwek, and ube taho. Filipino-themed cocktails were also served. 

But in contrast, the mood during the performance itself was somber and thoughtful. “Everything is spiritual in nature, and that’s just a fact. I think that this is something that civilization has known long before modern civilization even existed.” 

All participants, dancers, models, and the artist wore designs by Carl Jan Cruz and Jos Mundo. Discover the work of Miko Tiu-Laurel here.

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