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. 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).

multo

Multo

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Filipino Folklore

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

IJWBAA’s Multo artwork distills the Filipino ghost archetype into a stark, mnemonic silhouette—three stacked circles forming a spectral tree against a gradient void. This minimalist rendering resists colonial portrayals of ghosts as grotesque or sensational, instead invoking the quiet presence of ancestral spirits in everyday life. The composition’s restraint invites reflection rather than fear, aligning with decolonial minimalism’s ethos of cultural reclamation through abstraction.

In pre-colonial cosmologies, multo were not merely apparitions but echoes of kinship, memory, and unresolved ties. Spanish and American influences reframed them as threats, severing their role in indigenous rituals of mourning and remembrance. IJWBAA’s piece counters this erasure by re-rooting the multo in a visual language that honors its place in Filipino cosmology—neither villain nor spectacle, but a quiet witness to legacy.

Through its pared-down geometry and chromatic symbolism, Multo becomes a mnemonic panel for collective inheritance. The tree-like form suggests continuity across generations, while the gradient void evokes the liminal space between worlds. This work affirms that Filipino folklore can be archived not through spectacle, but through intentional simplicity—where every shape is a vessel for memory, and every shadow a site of care.

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