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).

binunghay

binunghay

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work (Culture - Habi)

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Binunghay by IJWBAA translates the layered ritual of coconut and bamboo into a chromatic rhythm of zigzags and symmetry. The vertical composition—red background, multicolored zigzag columns, and yellow X-shaped motifs—evokes the steaming, interwoven process of binunghay: a traditional dish where coconut and rice are slow-cooked inside bamboo tubes. Here, the zigzag becomes both flame and fiber, a mnemonic echo of heat, patience, and ancestral nourishment.

Binunghay is more than food—it is ceremony, labor, and inheritance. IJWBAA’s abstraction resists literal depiction and instead channels the emotional logic of preparation. The repeating zigzags suggest the pulse of fire and the layering of ingredients, while the vertical symmetry mirrors the bamboo’s containment and release. The yellow Xs on either side act as protective seals—guardians of flavor, memory, and tradition. Each color bar becomes a stitch in the recipe’s timeline, a visual chant of care.

This artwork reframes binunghay as a mnemonic infrastructure—where cooking becomes choreography, and food becomes archive. By translating culinary ritual into geometric abstraction, IJWBAA honors the dish’s role in collective legacy and ecological intimacy. *Binunghay* is not just a design—it is a declaration of slow care, intergenerational rhythm, and the sacredness of nourishment. It invites viewers to taste memory, to see flavor, and to honor the fire that binds us.

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