Benjamin Solliday

My artistic practice centers around deconstructing my biracial identity and analyzing the dichotomy of my cultural narrative. I examine my role as an artist through the lenses of migration and adaptation. My artwork commemorates my Filipino cultural history, taking inspiration from the works of Fernando Amorsolo and Sara Jimenez. Marked by dynamic conflicts, my paintings reflect assimilation through the lens of conforming to colonial culture. Snail trails of lines and curves guide the viewer’s eye through the imagery. Each of the figures is methodically placed, overlapping and dissolving into one another. Elongated faces and distorted torsos become ghostly apparitions resembling religious deities.

Alongside my paintings, sculptural elements are added to assist the narrative. Socks morph into vestiges of my early childhood fascinations, draped fabrics become walls of separation, dollhouses reflect my family’s American dream. Constructing this body of work exposed me to the overlaps of varying artistic disciplines. My creative process soon incorporated meticulous research, investigating every possible facet of my upcoming project. Art history, sculpture and painting techniques, and material sciences broadened my artistic interpretations and perspectives.

In addition to learning more about technical practice, I have also gained a deeper insight into my family history. Immersing myself in my late grandfather’s collection of nearly thirty photo albums, I gained face-to-face insight into my cultural history, thus informing my artistic concepts. Old photographs and found objects become vessels of my ancestral background. Intimate observations and research with these artifacts have invigorated my process, allowing my artwork to embody deeper facets of my Filipino genealogy. The subtle whispers of these bygone objects tell their chronicles, bringing me closer to them and my ancestors.

As an artist and visual communicator, it is my responsibility to understand the viewpoint of my audience and hold an empathic space where they can formulate their own opinions based on my cultural narrative and their past experiences. I unearth more profound relational meanings through each artistic excursion. These explorations continually inform my artistic process, allowing my work to reveal pockets of my identity which cannot be verbalized. Layers of isolation, vulnerability, affection, and beauty are trapped between each streak of color I paint.

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