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).

Baybayin

Baybayin

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Culture (Wika)

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Baybayin by IJWBAA renders precolonial Filipino script as a luminous mnemonic code—white glyphs floating across a black field like ancestral breath. Each character pulses with quiet precision, arranged in a horizontal rhythm that evokes both chant and constellation. This is not just writing—it is remembering. The composition resists translation and instead invites reverence, framing Baybayin not as artifact but as living frequency.

Historically, Baybayin was used across the archipelago to record names, prayers, and poetry—until colonial erasure disrupted its flow. IJWBAA’s abstraction restores the script’s sacred geometry, presenting it not as exotic relic but as visual infrastructure. The uniform spacing and mirrored glyphs suggest intentionality and rhythm, echoing the way Baybayin was once inscribed on bamboo, bark, and bone. The black background becomes a void of forgetting, pierced by the light of remembered language.

This artwork reframes Baybayin as a mnemonic sanctuary—where each stroke is a seed of cultural continuity. By translating script into visual cadence, IJWBAA honors the power of indigenous literacy and its role in movement-building. Baybayin becomes not just a design, but a declaration: of linguistic inheritance, radical care, and the sacredness of naming. It invites viewers to read not with the eyes alone, but with memory.

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