Jeanne Jalandoni - Faraway Embrace

As a native New Yorker and second generation American who has never travelled to the Philippines, Jeanne Jalandoni always depended on her mother’s oral stories, research, and childhood memories to map out her cultural identity. Jeanne’s mother would often tell stories about growing up on a farm in Pinamalayan, the carabaos that worked the fields, and the coconut trees her lolo taught himself how to plant. Fashion, as well as food, were important elements of these stories, which became Jeanne’s gateway to a foreign country and blurry ancestry.

Jeanne admits growing up with the insecurity of not being seen as ‘Filipino enough’ or ‘American enough’ by others. In her artistic practice, combinations of different mediums such as oil paint and textiles are used to examine and reflect on the subject of biculturalism. By mixing personal imagery with textiles, Jeanne produces new narratives to trace memories and determine the tangibility of her Filipino American identity. 'Faraway Embrace' condenses and combines historical and ancestral timelines: Jeanne’s figures are dressed in her grandmother's yellow terno and her mother's dusters.

The furniture and musical instruments are all referencing old family photographs and document the artist’s relationship to these objects and memories. The collaged fabrics, mediums, and techniques blur the lines between painted illusion and physical textile. In a similar way, Jeanne's practice challenges the viewer to question bicultural tangibility, while also allowing the artist to take authorship of her own identity and reimagine aspects of her family history, as well as Filipino history.