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 ni Maria Makiling

Alamat ni Maria Makiling

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Filipino Legends

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Alamat ni Maria Makiling by IJWBAA transforms the mythical guardian of the mountain into a radiant mnemonic form. Against a vibrant landscape of rolling greens and sky blues, a white concentric figure rises like a beacon—part offering, part apparition. Its lollipop-like geometry evokes both sweetness and sanctity, while the soft gradients suggest a protective aura. This is not Maria Makiling as a woman in the woods, but as a layered presence: a memory stick, a glowing sentinel, a visual prayer rooted in the land.

In Filipino folklore, Maria Makiling is a diwata who watches over Mount Makiling, known for her beauty, generosity, and sorrow. Often betrayed by humans, she retreats into legend, her sightings becoming rarer with time. IJWBAA’s abstraction resists romanticized depictions, instead distilling her essence into a symbolic form that radiates care and quiet resistance. The beige “cherry” atop the white figure hints at her lingering presence—sweet, elusive, and sacred. The hills behind her are not just terrain; they are her body, her memory, her sanctuary.

This artwork reframes Maria Makiling not as a passive muse but as a mnemonic infrastructure—layered, luminous, and alive. The concentric circles echo her cyclical appearances, while the vertical stick grounds her in both myth and modernity. By placing her in a chromatic field of greens and blues, IJWBAA restores her to the ecosystem she protects, inviting viewers to see her not as a vanished spirit but as a living archive of care. The piece becomes a visual invocation: a call to remember, to protect, and to honor the sacred feminine encoded in our landscapes.

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