Ayka Go’s (b. 1993, Philippines) works evoke personal memories from quotidian moments, including nostalgic reveries from childhood and existential musings. Often starting out from three-dimensional paper foldings, she explores the semiotic potential of paper through paintings on canvas. This peculiar process reveals a fluidity concerned with playful translations between two media.
In her works, the sensuous surface of a modest object, such as paper, is highlighted – its creases, folds, billows, and tears. Colourful paper wraps around large forms, creating idiosyncratic shapes or revealing underlying surfaces. At times, it takes on the vastness of a landscape, and in others, the intimacy of diaristic entries. In recent works, Go has been exploring deeply personal experiences, sharing her quiet confrontations with grieving and reclaiming womanhood.
Writing about Go’s new body of work, independent curator Stephanie Frondoso says, “The human body is not a machine but a garden, an ecosystem that can heal itself under the right conditions. Springing from this analogy, Ayka Go expands her scope of inquiry from previous themes of girlhood nostalgia to bolder, mature examinations on feminist theory. Through an empowering exploration of the female form, she presents a visceral, deeply personal body of work that is also resonant to the collective experience of self-reclamation.”
Go has exhibited across the Philippines, Australia, Singapore, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Thailand. She holds a BFA in Studio Arts from University of the Philippines Diliman, and is currently based in Manila, Philippines.