NADA New York 2024

Through a decolonial and feminist perspective, Santos often revisits the “aswang”, a shrouded, polymorphous figure borrowed from Philippino folklore, as a metaphor for her own experience of displacement, fragmentation, and transformation. This reconfigured aswang represents multiplicity: undefined and undefinable in age, heritage, and other Western paradigms of identity.

This portrait series reflects complex methodologies for self-care and self-awareness, looking closely for parallels in the animal domain, and how connections with others are made and nurtured.