Home is a Bowl of Sinigang Soup, 2014

Having lived away from my hometown for close to a decade, it’s easy to feel a bit disconnected, not just from relatives, but from identity altogether. Sinigang is a Filipino dish close to that of Thai tom yam. It’s a very sour, tamarind-based soup with many ingredients, and I tried to deconstruct each ingredient here in this abstract piece- you’ll see the prawn, the vegetables, the murky brown broth broken down geometrically or by distinct strokes and textures. This soup is traditionally served during Sunday lunch in our home when the family is all together. And the taste instantly transports me back to the noise and warmth of my parents’ house in Manila.