IJWBAA [eej-wah] is a Filipino digital artist and the first Filipino recognized in the Techspressionism movement. He is a neologist and the originator of Decolonial Minimalism—an art movement that reclaims minimalism through ancestral memory and cultural reawakening. His 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.

ibaloy

ibaloy

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Indigenous People

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

In Ibaloy, IJWBAA extends his decolonial minimalist language by evoking the quiet strength of the Ibaloy people through restrained, intentional abstraction. The work distills familial proximity into elemental forms—circular shapes evoke heads in communion, while rectangular blocks suggest grounded presence, resilience, and rooted ancestry. Visual rhythm is achieved through calm spacing and layered gradients, allowing the composition to breathe while remaining whole.

Rather than depict clothing, rituals, or stereotypical markers, IJWBAA resists ethnographic tendencies and foregrounds what cannot be easily captured: kinship, warmth, and ancestral continuity. The Ibaloy—descendants of Cordilleran highland communities often underrepresented in national narratives—are rendered here not as subjects of study but as sovereign presences within visual space.

The abstraction becomes an act of refusal: refusal of caricature, refusal of documentary flattening. Instead, Ibaloy invites the viewer to see with reverence rather than curiosity. It positions indigenous visibility not as performance but as persistence—quiet, firm, and undeniable.

As with other works in IJWBAA’s series, this digital piece contributes to a visual archive that values indigenous life beyond resistance. In doing so, Ibaloy stands as both invocation and offering: a call to remember, and a space where remembrance is held gently, on its own terms.

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