The pineapple was brought to the Philippines from South America by Spanish colonisers in the late 16th century. It now figures in Filipino folklore and native crafts. If you trace pearl farming or diving practices, you will find that they have transformed the landscape of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines, the Gulf States, and currently, China. Unassuming objects, if studied closely, can reveal the intricate histories of colonialism, migration and labour by foregrounding global trade linkages. It is these knotty networks between particular contexts and a ‘global’ world that Filipina-Canadian artist and filmmaker Stephanie Comilang’s rich oeuvre deals with. Through layered narratives that focus on migrant experiences, the contemporary artist poses questions on the alteration of geographies, communities and economies through the displacement of a single subject.

Three of Comilang’s video installations, complex and rewarding in subject matter and research, will be on display in her first solo institutional exhibition in the United States at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), New York. Curated by Rahul Gudipudi, director of exhibitions and fellowships, with Marian Chudnovsky, curatorial assistant and Agustin Schang, head of production, the exhibition will include Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to me, Paradise) (2018); Piña, Why is the Sky Blue? (2022) and Search for Life II (2025). As Comilang notes in conversation with STIR, “I think these three films work together in that they speak to technology, colonial histories and [the ways in which] they deal with textiles and woven histories.” In working through such difficult subject matter, Comilang’s films are at their core a search for belonging. As she continues, “A lot of my work has to do with looking at migrant stories and ideas around home and what that means.”

Comilang terms the films she makes ‘science fiction documentaries’, highlighting the ways in which fictional characters and attributes blur understandings of what is on view as strictly rooted in fact. It is perhaps through the lens of science fiction that one might delineate the histories that have often been erased from dominant narratives. Explaining her inclination towards blending fiction and fact, Comilang notes to STIR, “I feel like the documentary is a difficult and problematic genre, because it assumes that it's the one truth. It feels kind of impossible to do that, because I think it's impossible to make work like that. It feels more true to layer different perspectives, different genres, different truths, different voices, different histories, different timelines.” Most often, Comilang creates this bridge between the possibilities of fiction and the practicality of the real world through the use of technological elements such as drone spirits or VR apparitions. This hybridity, as critical theorist and posthumanist Donna Haraway notes in her Cyborg Manifesto, enables “transgressed boundaries, potent fusions and dangerous possibilities” to reimagine the future.

Comilang expands on non-linearity as a means to lucidly depict complexity, saying, “You can see it in both Search for Life II and Piña, Why is the Sky Blue? I tend to create maps which overlay each other. The way that I work is quite nonlinear...exposing different truths, speaking to different timelines, different histories and different places. It creates a rounder picture of a whole story.” While her films layer drone vistas, snippets of vlogs and livestreams over interviews and scenes of everyday life, she employs POV smart glasses or VR set-ups to immerse audiences into her stories. A third layer to this immersive experience is the tactility of her installations. Through the use of cardboard shipping boxes, containers and textiles, Comilang attempts to represent collective memories, held in the material and the films on view. In conversation, Comilang observes, “Architecture is not something you would think of first when you think of my work, but I do think about space a lot. I'm interested in how people use space; especially in creative ways when they're not supposed to be using that space.” This sense of embodiment also allows audiences to engage with her work materially.

The idea of migration, which is prevalent in all three works on display at CARA, is perhaps most poignantly explored in Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to me, Paradise). Bringing up questions of how we make space for ourselves in a foreign land, the project depicts migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong and how they occupy public spaces in the financial district on their day off. There is a certain sense of isolation that comes with this, but also a resilience, a will to fit in, demonstrated by the women's use of space. The installation, first conceived for the Ghost:2561 Triennial, is a three-channel video work. A make-shift cardboard structure surrounds the viewer, referencing the temporary architectures these workers create to unwind in.

In a similar way, juxtaposing indigenous practices with modern digital technology,  Piña, Why is the Sky Blue? focuses on pre-colonial shamans from the Philippines called babaylans (who are predominantly women, with men having to gender swap in order to practice). The film draws a thread between the babaylan’s practice of divination and a contemporary activist group from Ecuador, Ciber Amazonas, who share information through different channels such as podcasts or livestreams. “We thought of them as collectors and preservers of information, which tied into this idea of mediums or shamans,” Comilang notes. “I was interested because, with all colonial histories, erasure is inevitable. I was interested in what survives and how it survives in relation to our sibling countries in Central and South America, namely Ecuador, where my collaborator for this work has family and where we shot.” With woven piña textiles, Comilang highlights a correlation between matrilineal exchanges of knowledge in Ecuador and the Philippines alike. Further, she also uses the figure of Piña as a central character in the documentary. Envisioned as an all-knowing collective spirit, the babaylans and viewers alike are meant to engage with Piña through a VR headset.

Comilang’s Search for Life II, which is also on view at CARA, considers the implications of labour and displacement on native populations. Premiered at the 16th Sharjah Biennale earlier this year, the project dwells on the histories of pearling, revealing interconnections between the migrant workers in the UAE, 25 per cent of whom are Filipino, and the majority Muslim population of Mindanao. The work elicits conversations on the destruction of natural habitats by extractivist industries. Comilang says to STIR, “The work is about embodying the pearl, which is the object that everything is based around. It’s a grounding point in the story that is also a character. But also, the pearl has historically symbolised power, currency and value, which is what I wanted to look at, since the work premiered in Sharjah. I wanted to talk about migration stories in the UAE, because you can't talk about the UAE without talking about migrants.”

Comilang’s work is a poignant reflection on the idea of belonging and transformation. By revealing the linkages between the displacement of resources and labour under colonialism and global capitalist industries, she asks her viewers to acknowledge the entanglements of our particular conditions, and what it means to inhabit a ‘globalised’ world today. Her work offers a reclamation of the future through collective memory, celebrating kinships across species, geographies and timelines.

'An Apparition, A Song' is on view at CARA New York from May 31 - August 10, 2025./