preview: Feb ‘26
mana presents a series of contemporary objects developed as part of an ongoing practice. The work moves between jewelry, domestic pieces, textiles, and tools, and is shaped by the perspective of a Filipino in the diaspora, where culture is often carried through memory and use rather than place.
The objects are organized through three recurring ideas: ala-ala (remembering), dala-dala (carrying), and salo-salo (coming together). These are not categories, but conditions that inform how the work is made and lived with. A single object may hold one or all three, reflecting the ways memory, movement, and gathering overlap in everyday life.
This preview brings together works that consider food, domestic labor, and ritual not as symbols to be illustrated, but as experiences embedded in material, weight, and gesture. Each object is designed with longevity in mind—intended to be worn, used, repaired, and kept. The work approaches the idea of the heirloom as something formed over time, through care and repetition, rather than inheritance alone.
The objects shown here are part of a growing archive. Some are available, others exist as propositions for future collections. Together, they reflect an interest in how home is remembered, carried forward, and made again.
Fried Rice Necklaces
ala-ala
Adornments shaped by food memory.
This body of work translates the structure of fried rice into material form. Rice pearls and selected gemstones are arranged through irregular distribution, recalling the visual and spatial logic of a dish assembled from what is available.
Each bead is individually hand-knotted on silk thread, creating intervals that allow the composition to remain flexible rather than fixed. Clustering and dispersion vary from piece to piece; no two necklaces share the same arrangement.
Within this collection, food is not represented but restructured. The necklace carries forward the gestures of preparation and repetition, preserving culinary memory through adornment.
Sinangag
Nasi Goreng
Yangzhou Fried Rice
Kimchi Fried Rice
Khao Pad
Lapagan
salo-salo
Ground and support works
Lapagan (where things are placed) gathers works that establish surface, elevation, and relational structure. These objects create the conditions for placement—grounds to lay upon and supports that steady what rests there.
Within Lapagan, objects are arranged rather than displayed. The emphasis is on proximity, balance, and the redistribution of weight. Surfaces are not passive; they prepare the space for gathering.
Sa Pagitan
dala-dala
Textiles for holding and enclosure
Sa Pagitan (in between) gathers textile works that exist between object and body. These pieces function as intermediaries—absorbing contact, redistributing weight, and creating temporary boundaries.
Within this collection, cloth is understood as a working surface rather than ornament. It holds what is carried, encloses what is gathered, and remains in circulation through repeated use.
Sa Pagitan belongs to dala-dala, where movement shapes memory and care is enacted through touch.
Together, these objects form a small body of work shaped by memory, use, and care. They are intended to be lived with—worn, placed, wrapped, and kept—rather than consumed or replaced.
Availability is approached as part of this practice, unfolding quietly alongside the work itself.