Chesca Santiago

By depicting a contrast between survival and inaction, calmness and vitality, Yabes suggests that life persists amid silences and standstills. In this world that refuses to give, our lives become a bustle of worries and hours at work. But while we may fail to see that tomorrow is guaranteed, Yabes reminds us that one is not made to live in fear. As she finds life from the common flowers, birds, and homes, she signals that comfort is possible even from the most mundane of reminders – the same comfort that she found from the firecracker flowers and the maya birds of her afternoon strolls.

We can always wonder at which sorts of violence rendered them in their broken states, and Del Castillo offers an instructive starting point. Key here is how he reconceives the twin processes of deconstruction and fragmentation through which his intentions are realized. Common conceptions of damage emphasize the need for repair. But Del Castillo’s purposeful display of injury unearths the possibility, and even beauty, contained by cracks and holes. Brokenness is a marker of hurt, sickness, and loss. But it is also a history of our battles, a record of both our victories and defeats. Thus, it is this destruction and fragmentation that makes us who we are, for all cracks and holes are ours and us.