One close study of Winna Go’s pieces and you may readily assume you know her story, but you would be utterly wrong. Though pure Chinese by blood, she strongly admits she feels more like a Filipina! This seeming contradiction has chased her for much of her life. However, it is the very foundation of her evocative art.

The distinct artist’s latest exhibition, Seams of Memory, in collaboration with Art Cube Philippines, is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. The exhibit highlights 15 obras which chronicle the diverse periods of Go’s career. It proclaims as a testimony on how her ideas have developed over the years, her growth as a visual artist, and the evolution of the concepts and materials she has chosen to work with.

The show encompasses large-scale paintings of decaying royal robes with unraveling hems, a sample of mixed-media works, a singular resin with fiberglass and mixed-media sculpture and a pair of diminutive ceramics. What links them together is a continuing exploration of identity, belonging, memory, and home.

One of the first — and yet most important — compositions we encountered was Embroidered Thoughts, a piece Go created while still a Multimedia Arts student at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. This earned her regional honors at the Philippine Art Awards in 2018 and remains one of the most personal pieces in the exhibition.

A traditional cheongsam in vibrant red and gold lies on the floor. Around it are framed photographs of family members dressed in contemporary clothing. This may reflect how children of immigrant families feel: the nagging thought of “Where exactly do I belong?”

For Go, the answer was never straightforward.

A scholar and a magna cum laude graduate, she later pursued her master’s degree at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan. While studying migration narratives, she encountered the concept of the Sinophone, which examines Chinese communities that settled away from China and developed cultures distinctly their own. Suddenly, many of these queries she had long belabored made more sense!

The experience deepened her interest in tales of migration and inspires her till today. For instance, one combines different textile patterns into carefully ordered compositions, bringing together visual references from Filipino and Chinese cultures.

She has exhibited in China, Singapore, Japan and Italy. Across the Philippines, she has been shown in respected local galleries including Art Cube, Art Verité and Finale Art File.

Seams of Memory acknowledges the reality — many individuals, with various backgrounds and stories, inhabit the spaces among history, tradition, cultures, and languages. Through cloth, pattern, paint and ceramics, Go attempts to share her feelings in the hope that viewers may resonate with her own.

Perhaps, these emotions are akin to the garments she so often paints as a subject — these pieces of clothing get altered, repaired, stitched together, and even worn anew.

We’ll let the images speak for themselves.

¡Bravo, Metropolitan Museum of Manila!

¡Enhorabuena, Winna Go!