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).

hinabol

hinabol

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work (Culture - Habi)

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Hinabol by IJWBAA reimagines the handwoven rhythm of Visayan textile tradition as an optical mnemonic field. The central band of staggered white lines—set against a gradient sky of blue to pink—evokes the warp and weft of hinabol, a traditional handloom fabric woven with care, repetition, and ancestral breath. The illusion of movement within the lines mirrors the pulse of weaving itself: a dance of tension, release, and memory encoded in fiber.

Hinabol, often woven from abaca or cotton, carries stories of labor, lineage, and ecological intimacy. IJWBAA’s abstraction resists literal threadwork and instead channels the emotional logic of the loom. The alternating vertical and horizontal lines suggest both structure and improvisation, while the gradient background reframes the textile as a horizon—where past and future meet in color. The piece becomes a visual chant, echoing the cadence of hands that weave not just cloth, but continuity.

This artwork reframes hinabol as a living archive of movement and care. By translating textile logic into optical illusion, IJWBAA honors the weaver’s role as memory-keeper and rhythm-maker. Hinabol becomes not just a design, but a declaration: of intergenerational labor, chromatic breath, and the sacredness of repetition. It invites viewers to see weaving not as craft alone, but as choreography—where every line is a legacy.

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