“Ikot ny Buhay is a three-part animation series exploring Filipino identity through material objects. Inspired by an excerpt from the book Brown Skin White Minds, the pieces respond to societal ideas of how objects imported from the west are glorified. At the same time, items created in developing countries are scorned or thought of as unworthy or a strange oriental. The mentality of cultural significance through a materialistic object relies on the long-standing colonial legacy the Philippines was brought under for more than 300 years. The collective work decentralizes the colonial gaze and uses material objects as a proxy for creating cultural identity while having a kind of anti-colonial approach to futurism with the aesthetic choice to render these animations in a 3D environment. The material work gives some nuances of preserving indigenous culture, exploring cultural identity under diaspora, and reframing tradition in a contemporary context.”