IJWBAA [eej-wah] is a Filipino digital artist and the first Filipino recognized in Techspressionism. He is a neologist and the originator of Decolonial Minimalism —an art movement that reclaims minimalism through ancestral memory and cultural reawakening. His work earned a spot on the shortlist for the Hiiibrand Design and Illustration Awards 2024. His papers were published on Academia.edu.He was selected by David Quiles Guilló, Director of The Wrong, to participate in the 7th Edition of The Wrong Biennale - described by The New York Times as the digital world's answer to Venice Biennale - with Prayers to Ai, further cementing his standing in the international digital art community. His collected works, compiled in two volumes of I Just Wannabe an Artist, have been recognized, officially archived, cataloged, and made available in the collections of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Museo Reina Sofía, the National Museum of the Philippines, Getty Research Institute, and other prominent cultural institutions worldwide. The two volumes are cataloged in WorldCat under OCLC Numbers 1530632939(Book 1) and 1530636063(Book 2).

Alamat ng Ilog Pasig

Alamat ng Ilog Pasig

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Filipino Legends

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Alamat ng Ilog Pasig by IJWBAA reimagines the legendary river as a living archive of memory and longing. The minimalist wave motif, rendered in white against a deep blue field, becomes a visual metaphor for the Pasig’s currents—steady yet burdened with centuries of stories. This abstraction resists literal depiction of the river’s geography, instead distilling its essence into rhythm and flow. The composition suggests both continuity and rupture, echoing how the Pasig has carried generations of devotion, sorrow, and transformation.

In Filipino folklore, the Alamat ng Ilog Pasig tells of a love story marked by separation and grief, where promises unmet ripple outward into myth. The river itself becomes the vessel of remembrance, its waters embodying both purity and lament. IJWBAA’s artwork channels this emotional resonance through repetition and symmetry, allowing viewers to feel the persistence of longing as a wave that never ceases. The white curve across the canvas is not just a line—it is a vow, a farewell, and a haunting echo of voices carried downstream.

This abstract interpretation reframes the Pasig not as a site of decline or pollution but as a sacred mnemonic current. By stripping away literal imagery, the artwork invites reflection on how grief transforms into beauty, and how rivers—like stories—hold the scent of what once was. The piece resists moralistic framing, instead offering a meditation on longing, transformation, and collective memory. In this way, *Alamat ng Ilog Pasig* becomes both elegy and sanctuary, reclaiming the river as a space of care, resonance, and enduring legacy.

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